The Ballad of Halo Jones

The Ballad of Halo Jones was a 1980s science fiction comic strip written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson.

Halo Jones first appeared in five-page instalments in the pages of the weekly British comic 2000 AD An overt attempt to bring a female perspective to that notoriously testosterone-fuelled publication, it was embraced by readers of both genders and is regarded as one of 2000 AD's high points. The eponymous heroine is a highly sympathetic 50th-century everywoman, and the tone of the strip runs from the comic to the poignant.

The three "books" span several years of her life, and also serve as a tour of the well-realised futuristic universe which Moore and Gibson created. Originally, Halo Jones was to run to nine books, but the series stopped after three because of a dispute between Moore and Fleetway, the magazine's publishers, over the intellectual property rights of the characters he and Gibson co-created.

The three books are available in a single collection from Titan Books: The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones, ISBN 1840233427.

The boy band Halo James was named after the eponymous character, while the 1980s pop band Transvision Vamp released a single entitled, as a homage, "Hanging out with Halo".

Synopsis

In Book One we are introduced to the 18-year-old Halo Jones, who lives in a hellish housing estate called "The Hoop". The story takes place over one day, and follows Halo's violent, though also partly comical misadventures on a shopping trip. Halo returns to her apartment to find her flatmate and best friend Brinna murdered, and decides to leave Earth, never to return.

Book Two depicts Halo's life as a stewardess on a year-long space voyage. She discovers that it was her robotic dog Toby who was responsible for her flatmate's death, and is forced to destroy him. It is also revealed, in a framing sequence, that Halo becomes a legendary historical figure in years to come.

In Book Three Halo, ten years older, has become a soldier serving in a Vietnam-style guerilla interstellar war which has appeared as backstory in the previous two books, and is courted by a famous, fearsome-looking general. The series ends with the end of the war, Halo comandeering a spaceship and deserting, determined to take charge of her own fate.