oh, and one more thing... (warning! may contain spoilers)

so a while ago, i re-read Halo Jones, in a batch of old 2000AD monthlies i ebayed. i know i've got them all in my dad's basement, but it didn't seem worth getting them down (but i will, when i get my own place {HAH!}) and upon finishing it, realised i had a completely different emotional reaction to the one i was used to.

i used to find the ending crushing. the ultimate joke, as i saw it, was that she finally escaped from the world she knew, of shit, repression, poverty and futility; and what did she find? vaccuum. she was out, and there weas nothing. that was how i read it.

but since then, i've read the history of 2000AD, and interviews with Alan Moore, and have become aware that they had about nine books planned, and only got round to doing three.

and when i saw that final frame this time, Halo blasting into space, i felt great. she had escaped. there was stuff to do out there. knowing she would go on to have the fantastic adventures described in the intro to book two, and become a galactic legend (something that i hadn't taken into account at first), gave the escape a completely different emphasis. it was a victory. do i miss my original interpretation? no. not because the new one is better, but you just have to let go of these things don't you? of course, the new meaning is even better, becuase it overcomes the original failure that i felt. but i think they're both valid.



what do you mean you haven't read it?

reader:

get with the times, dude! that strip is twenty years old!

erm, yes. ok.