Halo Jones - a strong beginning that ends too soon

books:

	• The Ballad of Halo Jones Alan Moore Humanoids - Rebellion, 2005 - 200 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Between living in an America where whole neighborhoods are now sealed off from the outside world, simple tasks like supermarket runs becoming ordeals fraught with tension & peril, as well as the mysterious (and brutal) murder of one of her closest friends... you can't really blame the young Miss Jones for desperately wanting to get away from the 'it all' that the 50th century provides for the folks of Earth. But will a new life in the reaches of outer space prove to be any easier? Maybe, maybe not. Still, for Halo-- and the course of the universe's history-- (to say nothing of the reader), there is no turning back.

An underrated gem from Moore (at least on our side of the pond, from what I've heard).

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Hello Halo!

B&W comics still have a lot going for them, and this reprint shows why.

It starts with Halo and her room mates in a dystopic future. Poverty has been "solved" by rounding up the impoverished and barricading them out of sight - a poignant reminder that this comic dates back to Reagan's America. After one of her friends is killed and another lost to the trance of brain implants, Halo escapes that man-made purgatory into space ...

From then, Moore gives us the ongoing saga of Halo's life: stewardess, drifter, soldier, and the promise of more in the future. Her life cycles through adventure, loss of the people that have become important, and departures for new worlds. Somehow, though, the adventure looks grittier from up close, and the departures are more desperation or wandering away than bold excursions.

I remember the Halo character from way back when, and was happy to see these reprints living up to my memory of her. This collection ends on a departure - a step into a new episode. I don't know Halo's original story, but I hope that episode is still available and comes back into print.

//wiredweird

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Graphic SF Reader

The Ballad of Halo Jones didn't thrill me a lot, maybe I had read too many books that this was reminiscent of that were quite frankly, a lot better.

Halo is a poor girl on a planet that likes to use the American style move the poor somewhere else manoeuvre to claim they have no poverty. That sort of thing. So, a bit of Reagan era commentary.

Anyway, she escapes into space, and has to try and stay alive, especially when ending up in the military.

Halo Jones - a strong beginning that ends too soon

A unique and intriguing serialized vision of the future - and very feminist, to boot. This is the story of Halo Jones, common woman of the far future, from late adolescence to...well...about thirty. What starts off quirky but slightly irritating (the "hoop slang" of the first storyline is as bad as any Mad Max-style futuristic film) actually becomes really fascinating in the third and final storyline, roughly halfway through the book, as Halo finds herself a soldier in wartime. It's the most direct science fiction Alan Moore's ever done, and possibly the most disappointingly unfinished project, too; what should have (and probably would have) been an epic "ballad" of nine storylines and Halo's full adulthood was cut short at three, so it does leave the reader with a real "Now what?" feeling. Oh well. At least what was published turned out this good.

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Good, old Alan Moore...

I am a fan of Alan Moore's work. Or, perhaps, it is better for me to say that I am a fan of his work up to the 1990's or so. Sorry, but I have yet to hit upon a title under "America's Best Comics" done by Moore which is near the quality of work he did in the '80's. So, instead, I've been going back to his '80's work and finding gems like "The Ballad of Halo Jones" to keep me company. Although the stories begin slow and you'll likely be saying to yourself "what the hell is going on here," I assure you that it picks up and the book gets great by halfway through. Without giving much away, I will leave it like that and let you enjoy it on your own. Peace.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Where did she go? Out. What did she do? Everything. 2000 AD and DC Comics are proud to present Alan Moore and Ian Gibsons all-time classic feminist space opera, THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES. When Halo Jones grows bored with her life in The Hoop, a futuristic world where jobs are scarce and excitement is nonexistent, she sets out to see the galaxy any way she can. But can she survive the highs and lows that lie in her path, including an extended period of shipboard servitude and a tour of duty in a terrifying war that defies the physics of space and time?

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