The Ballad of Halo Jones, Volume One

If you're a fan of Alan Moore then you won't need me to tell you to whether to buy this or not, but what I will say is that this 'oversized' version is only oversized compared to US comics; it's actually the original size 2000AD was printed at, and therefore the actual size the artwork was meant to be viewed. The print quality in these old B/W Titan collections (if you can still find them they did collections of loads of other titles as well such as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and Nemesis the Warlock) is superb. For 2 dollars you'd be nuts not to buy one!

The ballad of Halo Jones You have to get the whole series, books 1 through 3 to have the series make any sense, while each book stands alone well, the story is one of those that I remember reading, and has stayed with me for a very long time. Finding these books is something you want to do, and reading them is something you want to do even more. Alan Moore was hugely prolific in the mid 80's writing a very large number of graphic novels for 2000 AD which was a weekly comic book in England. You could follow a number of stories through this venue, so when the graphic novels came out, they were well worth picking up. The story of Halo Jones though is a standard semi-dystopian story of girl meets world, from sheltered existence with mind numbing boredom, all the way through to what she does to escape that boredom, from bartender to soldier to kept woman, the entire story is sad, marvelous, depressing, and fulfilling. This is not an easy story to read, but worth it in the end, something you do when you just want to read something that will touch you in unexpected ways. Depending on how you associate with the character, you want to pick up the entire series, the artwork is exceptional, the story line is compelling, the books are very hard to find now, making the story of Halo Jones that much more interesting to find, read, and see where it takes you. Five of Five stars, this is one series you want to pick up.