http://www.2000adonline.com/news/10-01-2013/lauren_on_halo/
I'm so glad this is getting a re-release and with a shiny new endorsement from a female novelist, who herself has produced some cutting edge ideas on the female role in fiction.
I recently gave my copy to my daughter on her 15th birthday and she review it in satisfied tones. We don't meet up as much as I'd like so it's a joy when she likes something well enough to restore some of her memories of it with me. We talked about Glyph of course but she mainly enthused about the bomb that is used on the Hoop. And the shopping mall, heh. Kids eh?
A budding author herself I hope she will see the importance of the story of Halo not only the character and story but its event in comics, as Lauren pointedly remarks upon.
Wonder how it's going to be presented? The Case File style size has its place, but I'd love to see this done along the lines of the ABC Warrior/Slaine hardbacks (even better if it could include the colour cover artwork from the old Titan and other previous collections.)
Lauren Beukes? Nice one Green Bonce1
Stevie's a huge fan* so that'll make this... let's see... the sixth format that he'll own this in.
*& her books aren't too shabby either**
**for a girl
Wow Stevie! Is that all of them? I had a lovely hardback edition with a dust-cover. Black with rounded rectangular picture on it. Silver typeface too. Tre cool.
No not all.
Just
1) The individual progs
2) The Best of 2000ad reprints to save digging out the progs
3) Titan's The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones paperback to sit on the shelf
4) Titan's lovely The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones hardback with that dust jacket
5) The Simon & Shuster edition with a couple of script pages from Book III
So, off the top of Stevie's head, that's missing
1) The individual Titan paperbacks of each book
2) The US Quality Comics reprints with the art distorted to fit the American format
3) The DC/Rebellion trade
4) The Rebellion trade
He's not strange or anything.
Quote from: Hoagy on 11 January, 2013, 12:41:33 AM
Wow Stevie! Is that all of them? I had a lovely hardback edition with a dust-cover. Black with rounded rectangular picture on it. Silver typeface too. Tre cool.
Selling for just a tad now...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Complete-Ballad-of-Halo-Jones-2000-AD-Collectors-Edition-Alan-Moore-Acc-/330846338213?pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item4d07fa7ca5
Just informed my dad to tell her to take very good care of it from now on! Wow. What a surprise!
Certainly pick up a new edition of this classic GN. Really hope Rebellion's got something special planned! :-)
I'll be all over this like flies on shit bees on honey if its a bit special. I already have a few copies but HJ is by far and away the wifes favourite comic, she just read it again a month ago.
I quite like it as well.
I never really felt that Halo Jones was not finished at the end of Book 3. It just seemed like a good place to end for me.
Quote from: strontium71 on 11 January, 2013, 07:10:32 PM
Quote from: Hoagy on 11 January, 2013, 12:41:33 AM
Wow Stevie! Is that all of them? I had a lovely hardback edition with a dust-cover. Black with rounded rectangular picture on it. Silver typeface too. Tre cool.
Selling for just a tad now...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Complete-Ballad-of-Halo-Jones-2000-AD-Collectors-Edition-Alan-Moore-Acc-/330846338213?pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item4d07fa7ca5
And picking jaw up from floor! To think I picked this up to replace the TPB three in one edition for less than a tenner!
Am I right in thinking that this was originally supposed to go on for much longer but Mr Moore was somehow offended and all future development got scuppered?
Quote from: Tjm86 on 15 February, 2013, 04:54:39 PM
Am I right in thinking that this was originally supposed to go on for much longer but Mr Moore was somehow offended and all future development got scuppered?
I think you're right in thinking that about quite a lot of Alan Moore series
Though not about this one - Halo Jones was a flop with readers and it was cancelled.
It really only found its audience away from 2000ad and by then Moore commanded higher fees, then later was too invested in his stance on creator's rights to do work-for-hire. He offered various Thargs a follow-up, but in exchange for the rights to the character.
Quote from: Quack Addict on 15 February, 2013, 07:18:47 PM
Though not about this one - Halo Jones was a flop with readers and it was cancelled.
Don't think that's true. Halo had gained huge popularity with fans by the time of Book III, the only reason we got no more was because Alan Moore fucked off to America and got paid more, and it's not really Halo without him or Gibson so it never continued.
Well, not "cancelled" in the sense that nothing in the prog is cancelled, it just goes on an indeterminate hiatus.
Before my time. Thrillpower Overload opines that the first series didn't go down too well, but Moore was told to cut out the future lingo and cut to the chase for the second book and things took off from there. The strip was a reader favourite by the time of the final installment, according to Dark Days.
I read it all in one go in the 2000ad Monthly reprints, and that first series felt to me like an individual episode of a soapy returning serial, the other two feel markedly more novelistic in terms of tone, pacing and the nature of the drama.
Quote from: Quack Addict on 15 February, 2013, 07:44:07 PM
Well, not "cancelled" in the sense that nothing in the prog is cancelled, it just goes on an indeterminate hiatus.
I get that, but it didn't stop because it was a flop with readers. Moore had pretty much proven that a female story of some depth was possible in 2000AD and could be popular.
Lauren Beukes has posted the cover over on her Facebook
(http://i1.cdnds.net/13/03/618x824/comics-balad-halo-jones.png)
Glorious!
* not final cover
I should hope not, however lovely it is.
Unless it's going to be a fiction book rewrite and not a gn :P
Very nice nonetheless. :)
So it's a new edition. Better to pick this one and not the other complete Halo Jones trade, ¿Am i wrong?.
Quote from: Quack Addict on 15 February, 2013, 07:44:07 PM
Well, not "cancelled" in the sense that nothing in the prog is cancelled, it just goes on an indeterminate hiatus.
Like Dan Dare. I'm still on tenterhooks with that cliffhanger.
As Moore ever expresed interest in continuing tha saga? Although I like Book III's conclusion I feel there's still limitless potential. Oh, i'll also be having me a copy btw, Tharg.
I actually rather like where Halo Jones ends and I never really saw it as a cliffhanger. It felt like, [spoiler]after years of being hemmed in, she finally got her wish of freedom[/spoiler]. I'm not sure any more was needed, and too much time has passed for Moore/Gibson in their respective styles for a new series to make any sense. (Not that they'd do anything for 2000 AD these days anyway.)
Quote from: opaque on 18 February, 2013, 06:41:38 PM
I should hope not, however lovely it is.
Unless it's going to be a fiction book rewrite and not a gn :P
It's a rough version of what it will be like, we're going for a design-led cover for this one rather than the usual art one.
I really like it. Suitably classy treatment for the classiest of strips.
That is an interesting departure.
Of course I'll still buy it!
That is a lovely cover. If the finished article is much like that then I may even buy it despite having bought the trade only a year or so back.
You wouldn't know it was a comic, but that's obviously exactly what they're going for with this edition - trying to catch a market who wouldn't neccessarily buy a GN in normal circumstances. If ever a comic deserved as wide an audience as possible its Halo.
I hope it does well but I'll be sticking with my pink-spine Rebellion TPB - I want gorgeous Ian Gibson artwork on the cover or there doesn't seem much point!
I guess this is unlikely to happen but . .. .
if the more mature graphic novel approach is adopted then I would suggest removing the Title and Next Prog boxes every episode, as well as removing thargnotes and recaps.
How would readers feel about this altering of the source material?
Personally I would welcome it, if done well. . .
Would they not need the original art for that?
So according to previews the cover will look more like this
(http://i.imgur.com/hSqcpkQ.png)
Maybe I'm being a bit dim but I can't see much difference between that version and the one one page two of this thread.
Halo's breasts are smaller in the new one ;)
Yeah, that looks much better! A minor tweak with a major impact.
Very, very nice. If the repro and extras are as nice, I think I might have to upgrade.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 01 March, 2013, 02:13:34 PM
Would they not need the original art for that?
This would also lose the chapter titles.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 01 March, 2013, 02:13:34 PM
Would they not need the original art for that?
No they could do all that on computer.
Today in my local Oxfam I had volumes 1-3 of the Titan reprints of Halo Jones in my hands then put them back on the shelf. Figured I would be better off waiting for this collected version. Was very tempting but had to resist.
I was going to start a new thread on this one but found that there already was one. I'm a massive fan of Halo Jones and I have the stories in the original progs and in the most recent Rebellion edition, issued in 2009 I think.
I've been looking for info on this new version but I've been unable to find anything helpful. I noticed that some reviews of the most recent edition complain that the size of the pages is too small and that lessens the impact of Ian Gibson's artwork. I haven't looked into it that closely, but I've never been entirely happy with the way the artwork looks in the graphic novel I have. In parts it looks kind of faded, like something went wrong with the reproduction.
I'm highly likely to buy the new one because I like the cover design (even though it's not the usual sumptuous Ian Gibson stuff, but I understand the reason for having a more generic sci-fi design), but I was wondering if anyone knows whether the quality of the reproduction will be any different to what we had before.