4 crampons out of 5

A classic for good reason.  Who’da thunk.

‘Ballad’ is another collection of 2000 AD strips from Moore, centering around our titular character Halo Jones.  While the series starts in recognizable semi-dystopic future sci-fi 2000 territory, after a few chapters the story loosens up a bit and we get some scope on what Moore and artist Ian Gibson might be up to.  Part of the pitch was to create an against-type female lead, then put her into against-genre situations… ending up with an uncommon comic series that garnered much praise at the time.

So.  Halo Jones.  We’re split into three books that cover three different points in Halo’s life.  Some of this is communicated through journal entries, some through a framing story of a class learning about Halo years after the character has lived, but on the whole we’re presented with scenes first hand, able to turn the page with our own fingers as opposed to a writer over-wording their characters in an attempt to tell us things we were already able to intuit.

Book 1 covers Halo’s life on The Hoop – a self-contained poverty-row spaceship tethered to and floating above Earth.  Book 2 tells us of life post Hoop, jumping from ship to ship and meeting new faces, and Book 3 is when Halo has lost hope and joins the army.  Each book increases in length, complexity, and maturity, with our creators purposefully (so we’re told) layering elements so that a reader can slowly slip into the full world that’s being presented.

And it is mostly a riveting and impressive tale, but despite its expansiveness, it does show its roots as a serialized story, with a ‘conclusion’ required every 3 or 4 pages, and the layering element only really pays off from book to book (book 2 adds to book 1, and book 3 to book 2) as opposed to over the whole series.  Still, the majority of writers wouldn’t attempt something so individual and massive and pull it off as successfully as was managed, so Halo Jones stands as a unique experience.  The major plus/minus, though, is the learning curve.  Despite how far in advance Moore and Gibson may have planned out Halo’s story, it is apparent that they designed her world almost wholely from the start, with vocabulary and societal elements that make no sense whatsoever for the first few chapters.  Sci-fi readers might be used to this, but it’s still a heavy dose, and requires the dedication of knowing it’ll payoff to get through.

If you’re a Moore fan, you’ve already read and sung the praises of Halo Jones.  If you’re new to comics or just getting into Moore, I would suggest this as a valid addition to your collection – it’s a good taste of overseas sci-fi and still, however many years on, a pretty bold and original approach to the genre.

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