Ian Gibson (comics)

Ian Gibson (20 February 1946 – 11 December 2023) was a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.

Biography
Gibson's imaginative cartoonish, and intricately detailed style (especially in black and white strips) lent itself well to humorous strips, such as Robo-Hunter, although his work on the Alan Moore-penned The Ballad of Halo Jones showed that he was capable of telling a serious story.

In the United States, Gibson made a good name for himself drawing Mister Miracle for DC Comics in the 1980s. Subsequently he started work on Meta 4, an innovative science fiction/superhero comic written by Stefan Petrucha. This series was cut short when publisher First Comics went out of business. He also worked on several Star Wars titles for Dark Horse Comics, and Green Lantern Corps for DC Comics.

Gibson's later work in the comic 2000AD consisted of drawing Judge Dredd, Anderson, Psi-Division, I Was a Teenage Tax Consultant, and the revived Robo-Hunter series starring Sam Slade's granddaughter, Samantha. His last published original material for that comic appeared in prog 1576 (March 2008).

In 2023, he finally published the first issue of Lifeboat, which he wrote and illustrated himself, through a crowd-funded project.

In the past, he contributed articles and rants to the Den of Geek website about the state of the comics industry.

Gibson died from cancer on 11 December 2023, at the age of 77.

Controversy
In 2013, Gibson offered a selection of his artwork to Bristol Comic Expo. They were to choose a single piece to be made into a limited edition print of only 50 copies, which were intended to raise money for charity. In the collection was a topless illustration of a character that bore a resemblance to feminist character Halo Jones, one of Gibson's more notable characters. Gibson says it was drawn "as a joke for a friend" and that he only named the piece after Halo Jones to give it some appeal to potential buyers, saying "it doesn't even really look very much like Halo" and "I just called it 'topless Halo' as otherwise it was just a nameless pinup". The print in question shows the character that is meant to be Halo Jones topless with the moonlight shining down on her posing next to a single tree in the background. It was reported by The Guardian that the Expo website described the piece as "a special, very limited run of Halo in all her 'glory'!", for "the discerning adult. This is an opportunity not to be missed!"

It was reported by The Guardian to have "provoked a wave of protests", with complaints from comic fans and industry professionals. Rebellion Developments Ltd. The publisher of the 2000AD comic series, was said to have expressed concerns about the portrayal of their intellectual property, Halo Jones. The image was taken down from the Expo's website soon after.

Gibson said he found it "ironic that Halo would be known as a 'feminist' character", and that he had been "attacked in the past for 'using' her and thus all women for my own nefarious ends", and how the bare-breasted image of the female heroine was keeping in line with "the ideas I had for any continuation of the saga". He went on to say "I had plans for her being pregnant – hence the bigger boobs. Also as a slave, hence the token chains and nakedness." Gibson described the controversy as "a storm in a D-cup", a pun based on the idiom "storm in a teacup" and referring to a woman's bra size.