“The Ballad of Halo Jones, Volume 1” by Alan Moore, Ian Gibson

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

The first book that collects the initial stories in the Ballad of Halo Jones. It starts off by throwing readers straight into the world inhabited by Halo Jones with little introduction, which may confuse readers at first until they get their heads around the slang and mannerisms and way of dressing of the people of The Hoop, the place where the story takes place.

Into this world steps Halo Jones, a down-and-out inhabitant of The Hoop who lives with her friends and a robot dog that belongs to a friend. Halo lives out her life, yearning to get away from the Hoop and hoping that one of her friends, who is a member of a band, may also have a chance to live a life away from The Hoop.

Then, disaster strikes when they run out of food and have to make a ‘terrible’ shopping trip to get new supplies. Their best plans go awry, and they have to brave a journey outside The Hoop (one of Halo’s friends has severe agoraphobia, or fear of open places). But they survive the shopping expedition.

But they return to discover that tragedy struck while they were away. Now, with their lives turned upside down, Halo decides that enough is enough and leaves The Hoop by joining a space liner that is leaving.

Unlike many other comics and graphic novels, Halo Jones is ‘just’ an ordinary person without special abilities or superpowers, trying to live the life she wants while surviving in a world that does not really care for people like her. An interesting start to the Halo Jones stories.

Book read from 2020/08/01 to 2020/08/03