Ian Gibson on Moore and Halo Jones

Excerpt from an interview with artist Ian Gibson, co-creator of Halo Jones, about his long career in comics, published on Tripwire Magazine and conducted by contributing writer Paul N Neal.

The complete interview is available HERE.

Paul N Neal: [...] how did Halo Jones first originate? Did you have much story input into it?

Ian Gibson: After a signing session at Forbidden Planet, Steve MacManus came up to me and said: “You’ve just done a long stint on Dredd and an even longer stint on Robohunter. Is there anything you’d like to do next?” [...] I told Steve: “I want to work with Alan on a girl’s story.” So, he introduced me to the hairy one and I told Alan: “I want a story without thought bubbles or explanatory captions, as I never see signposts proclaiming ‘Little did he know’ or shit like that. I wanted the story to be experienced by the reader the way we go through our daily lives – we figure it out as we go. Alan said fine and he went away, coming back six months later saying: ‘We have a winner! Girls, Rockets and Monsters!” Sadly, I had to put him right on a few things, but I’m sure you’ll ask what those were.

Paul:  Ian, you dangled a carrot there. What were the things you managed to correct Alan Moore on?

Ian: His first plotline had Halo out in space on some asteroid discovering a mysterious ship. I asked him what her motivation was, and he said “Escape”. So, I said “Well then, we have to show what she’s escaping from, and the best way to show what a world is like is to go shopping in it. If Tesco has been firebombed, Sainsburys has a hostage situation etc, then you have to plan your shopping expedition like a military campaign.” Then he suggested the story was set on a floating island called the hoop which was powered by Manhattan. I said, “Don’t be silly. If this is an island out in the ocean it would be used as a wave/energy producer that supplies Manhattan. Not the other way around.” I sent him sketches of how the Hoop would look and the fact that it would need to open to allow mega waves to pass through without it busting apart, which he managed to incorporate into the story. It was just simple stuff like that. 

Paul: Would it be fair to say your career has been marked by working mostly with the incredible John Wagner and Alan Moore? I’m told their scripts vary in detail and style a lot. Is that true and can you compare them at all? As an artist, which of the two approaches do you find more rewarding?

Ian: My preference has always been John. He’s a great writer with a wonderful sense of humour. He doesn’t waste pages of picture descriptions that he knows I’m going to ignore, whereas Alan runs off at the typewriter.

The complete interview is available HERE.