I bought this at Thought Bubble 2023 in Harrogate. It was Ian Gibson's last work, funded through a Kickstarter that pleasingly smashed its target, reaching £10,000 in just over 24 hours. Gibson needed the money because he was terminally ill with leukaemia and died less than a month later. He'd actually planned out books 2 and 3 of this series, but if those happen it'll be under another artist.

It was sold to me by the publisher (The77) as basically Gibson's fourth book of Halo Jones, except never saying the name 'Halo Jones' and with no one being brave enough to ask Alan Moore to write a foreword because he's famously unpredictable.

This is... not wrong, but misleading. It's set in a similar spacefaring universe, but no one's going to leap out of their seats shouting "IT'S HALO JONES!!!" I wouldn't have guessed if I hadn't been told and the book has, shall we say, maximum deniability. Also, all-importantly, its scripts aren't on a par with Alan Moore's. Nowhere near. I quite enjoying the book, but mostly as a holistic experience as I wallowed in Gibson's art... but towards the end I was startled out of somnolence when something interesting happened. An old bigoted junta general stabs someone to death.

"I am Ambassador Lukin of the Jomados mining complex!"

"Ambassador to nothing! Our Tribunate mooncrushers moved in and removed your lice-ridden tribe for good - along with the rocks you were squatting on! When will you creatures understand that you can't get in our way!"

Shortly afterwards, there's a space collision. "Let's get to that lifeboat!"

To be continued, perhaps. Fingers crossed. That's the first mention of the eponymous lifeboat, by the way, so I'm mildly curious to see what Gibson had in mind. He clearly had a story planned. This is only 26 pages (three eight-page episodes and a two-page introduction), so it seems clear that his ideas were bigger than this book's available story space.

The art's lovely. His draughtsmanship and gift for character are as eye-catching as ever, while in addition it's fully painted. It must have taken him ages. The main surprise is that it's a bit Dirty Old Man. The girls' outfits get increasingly sexy, then leap into toplessness and nudity. (I'm reminded of the topless illustration he drew for 2013 Bristol Comic Expo that got him in trouble.) It more or less works in context, though. This is an exotic interplanetary SF setting. One could argue that the sexy outfits are characterisation (either of the women or the society itself), while there's a bit in the commentary section afterwards where Gibson explains the characterisation reason for Dini's topless slave girl moment.

As a complete story, this book isn't up to much. As the start of something more epic (maybe, possibly), it's rather interesting. I love Gibson's worldbuilding. He has a knack for creating an universe you want to explore. The wild costumes, the alien cultures, the spaceships that look as if they're about to eat each other... he's doing George Lucas's thing of making everything in his SF universe pop with its own attention-grabbing identity. (But better.) This is the kind of art you could reread, dig into and see more every time. The book also has analysis and discussion from John Wagner, David Roach, Steve Parkhouse and Steve McManus.

Ultimately, though, it's pleasing that so many people donated to help Ian Gibson at a time when he needed it.