Let's bring Ian Gibson back in the from the cold.

[Frank]

Gibson's stated clearly (including in this month's Megazine interview) that he stopped drawing the final Samantha Slade story because he thought it was poor. Other parties, who have a dim opinion of Gibson and his actions, confirm this version of events.

Given the personal problems that mean Gibson can no longer take on commercial work*, it's possible to imagine other factors may have been in play, but those are the established facts. Some discussion, from 2007, here.


* See this lengthy audio interview 59m:30s

[Funt Solo]

...we're talking about someone who once drew a pair of tits ... Won't someone think of the children, etc?

I hadn't heard about the topless Halo episode, but found an article in the Guardian about it.

I do think it's unfair to downgrade a strong female role model to the level of cheap titillation.  Link Prime: your rather hysterical reaction suggests you're not much of a feminist?

[IndigoPrime]

Just like Carlos was when he recently drew topless Durham Red? Don't see anyone throwing shade at Carlos...

I'd not heard of that one. Frankly, I'd say that's also a crappy thing to do, despite his original design for Red was cheesecake (vs Halo's rather more standard appearance). But really Gibson's OMG SJW-style response to the anger about what was done speaks volumes.

[Art]

AFAIK the only reason anyone has seen that Carlos peice is because the fan who commissioned it put it in their Facebook and Frank reposted it here. I’m not a fan of it but that seems pretty different from selling prints of it.

[JOE SOAP]

Link Prime: your rather hysterical reaction suggests you're not much of a feminist?

Disengage your sarcasm filter.

[TordelBack]

Love to see Gibson back in the prog,  one of the all-time greats, later books of Halo and Robohunter standing as some of the best art to ever grace the comic. As he has always been a cheesecakey artist (Maze Dumoir a well-established fave of my adolesence), Tharg has paid him to draw a fair few boobs in his time, and artists have to make a living,  it's hard to hold the Halo business against him. However much I personally disapprove of that treatment of a unique and special character.

[CalHab]

I hope Alan Grant has gotten an apology.

[Dark Jimbo]

AFAIK the only reason anyone has seen that Carlos peice is because the fan who commissioned it put it in their Facebook and Frank reposted it here.

Carlos put it on his own Facebook page.

[IndigoPrime]

As he has always been a cheesecakey artist (Maze Dumoir a well-established fave of my adolesence), Tharg has paid him to draw a fair few boobs in his time, and artists have to make a living,  it's hard to hold the Halo business against him.

If it had been 'Gibson does topless print', then fine. The second he knowingly aligned it with Halo Jones (and it's pretty clear he's very media-savvy, not least with his sound-bites and slogans), it becomes something else entirely – riffing off of a property he doesn't have ownership of, and repositioning one of 2000 AD's very few prominent female characters in a manner no-one would ever have done under normal circumstances.

Occam's razor suggests his hand-waving dismissal of the people who were pissed off about this means he either doesn't understand that element of the importance of Halo Hones or, more than likely, he just doesn't give a shit.

[TordelBack]

The second he knowingly aligned it with Halo Jones (and it's pretty clear he's very media-savvy, not least with his sound-bites and slogans), it becomes something else entirely – riffing off of a property he doesn't have ownership of, and repositioning one of 2000 AD's very few prominent female characters in a manner no-one would ever have done under normal circumstances.

Like I say,  I don't approve at all, for largely the same reasons as you, but at the same time I'm not going to let it outweigh Gibson's body of work or how I'd be happy to see more from him in 2000AD.

I personally don't think that print had anything to do with Halo Jones,  it looked nothing like her and everything like a standard Gibson cheesecake poster, so the real misdemeanour was labelling it as such to shift some extra units - wrong of course,  but this is Gibson's art and artists have to eat, so after a decade I cant really sustain my indignation.

Far less rationally: Halo Jones is special, and seeing the character re-purposed in an inappropriate way irritates me in the same way Before Watchmen does.

[IndigoPrime]

Well, like I've said elsewhere, I've nothing against his body of work, nor the prospect of more Gibson art in 2000 AD if his health allowed. I just take umbrage at the nature of responses along those lines in interviews. It feels very much of a certain kind of way of thinking these days, arguing that people are somehow being 'PC', despite someone's actions being knowingly provocative and crapping on a legacy for the sake of some press attention. (And 2000 AD _itself_ has form here – remember that Anderson centrefold in some special or other, or that DeMarco cover? So I'm not singling Gibson out. But I am rather hoping this kind of crap becomes history, and also that people who partake in it understand why perhaps they shouldn't have done so.)

EDIT: And having now seen that Durham Red image, I kind of wish I hadn't. The comments thread beneath it is a fucking sewer as well (where the one person who says he's disappointed in the picture is naturally ridiculed).

[Funt Solo]

You can't even write racial abuse in excrement on someone's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat.

[BPP]

I love Ian Gibson’s work. I love it when he draws humour, I love it when he draws tech, I love it when he draws Dredd and I love it when he draws cheesecake.

Whatever happens with Gibson i’ll always buy what he’s involved with (unless it all turns mike reed Brexit fascist racist shit). None of these ‘controversies’ matter. Ian did a sexy halo jones, Carlos did a sexy Durham red.... big whoop.

[IndigoPrime]

Sexy is one thing. Exploitative pseudo-porn bollocks (Red) or 'glamour' model Page-3 poses (Halo) is another. Not least in an industry that still has massive problems with representation, and from a publication that has historically been very male.

[TordelBack]

Sexy is one thing. Exploitative pseudo-porn bollocks (Red) or 'glamour' model Page-3 poses (Halo) is another. Not least in an industry that still has massive problems with representation, and from a publication that has historically been very male.

Please pretend I also said all those words in that exact order.