Art For Art’s Special: Ian Gibson RIP – “It’s Night Out There And There Are So Many Stars”

Another great lost to us. Another brilliant comic artist gone. This week we lost Ian Gibson, best known as the artist on 2000 AD’s The Ballad of Halo Jones and Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter.

 

Ian Gibson, co-creator of The Ballad of Halo Jones with Alan Moore and Robo-Hunter with John Wagner, a truly incredible talent, died on 11 December 2023, losing a long battle with cancer.

Gibson was born in 1946, with his first comics work appearing in fanzines until his first commercial work in Pocket Chiller Library, the Bionic Woman Annual, and in House of Hammer titles from around 1973 onwards. He’d also work at Battle and Valiant and it was his work on Death Wish at Valiant in 1975 that introduced Gibson to editor and writer John Wagner, beginning a collaboration that would last decades at 2000 AD and beyond.

And once 2000 AD began, Gibson was a mainstay at the comic, becoming a prolific Judge Dredd artist, including providing art for the first real Dredd epic, ‘Robot Wars’. And it’s always reported that it was Gibson’s work with robots in Dredd that inspired Wagner to create Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter for Gibson. And although there was a small blip of the powers that be ignoring Wagner’s wishes and giving Spanish artist José Ferrer the strip, only to immediately regret the decision and have Gibson rework it, hence the joint credit on early Robo-Hunter strips.

Another long-standing collaboration for Gibson began in 1981, as the artist was paired with a newish writer, one Alan Moore, on the Future Shock story ‘Grawks Bearing Gifts’ and, of course, they’d work together again on one of the greatest 2000 AD tales, The Ballad of Halo Jones. One of the most powerful and forward-thinking of 2000 AD strips from those early days, Gibson and Moore’s heroine is beloved for damn good reason, a feminist sci-fi tale full of magnificent art, not the least in Gibson’s portrayal of Halo’s transformation from young, innocent explorer to world-weary more mature traveller.

 

In addition to Halo and Sam Slade, Gibson’s plentiful work at 2000 AD included long runs on Judge Dredd, including work on the Judge Dredd newspaper strip. In the late 80s, Gibson found success further afield, with work on Green Lantern Corps, Mister Miracle, and Millennium at DC Comics. He reunited with Dredd’s Wagner and Grant for the Marvel UK series The Chronicles of Genghis Grimtoad in 1990, followed by an acclaimed reworking of The Avengers’ Steed and Mrs Peel in a three-issue series written by Grant Morrison. He’d go on to produce Meta-4‘s first three issues at First Comics in 1991 and even went on to work on various Star Wars titles at Dark Horse and the Annie Droid strip for The Times. His final work, very recently successfully funded on Kickstarter was the space opera Lifeboat, published by The 77.

Thanks to his frequent updates on social media, we knew he was ill, dying even, but it’s still a shock to see that another great artist has gone.

 

Back in July, he told his many fans he following:

“This is difficult – I barely have the energy to type. So I feel the need to apologise to all who have enjoyed my work over the years that I’m not well enough to fulfil their desires for commissions or even simple sketches. I hope my recent revelations concerning my health haven’t been taken as ‘trawling’ for sympathy. Rather I have been trying to explain why the old man who was known for five pages of pencils in a day and five or more finished pages in a week can no longer hold a pencil. It has been very heartwarming to see all your beautiful responses. Bless you.”

Social media updates through to October gave us all the comings and goings of Gibson on frequent trips for chemo, where it always seemed that he’d have a pen in hand and it was rare to not see at least a couple of sketches resulting from any time at hospital.

And then, in early December, his friends and family posted this, telling us that the end was near…

*Update from the Vigil of Ian’s bedside** It looks that Ian is in the last hours before he starts his new adventure. Luke and I have been reading all your messages and memories on all of the groups, private messages to luke and I, and on lans goodbye post. You have given us strength and made us smile. We have found it very comforting. We have taken turns reading out as many as we can to Ian. Ian has previously expressed many times how amazing you all are and how much he loves you all. He is comfortable and has settled to have a rest. He is saving up the energy for his new adventure amongst the stars and to join Halo starting a new chapter in their story. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will find that they live forever as true legends never die. Love to you all, we are eternally greatful.

 

 

Ian’s son Luke has set up a Go Fund Me campaign which, as you might expect, has broken past the initial target to help towards the cost of the funeral and a special headstone – this is just the sort of thing that comics fans are so damn good at and their generosity is a wonderful thing.

Luke Gibson had this to say…

“My father Ian Gibson passed away as of the 11th of December 2023, losing his battle with cancer. He fought valiantly, and I was with him holding his hand right until his very last moments. The pain that swells inside me is immeasurable, but I know that he rests now his pain is over.

He was a legend of the art world and dearly loved by his fans, but he loved his fans equally. The moment he decided to give up his fight was the moment he could no longer draw. He was an amazing father and I will always be proud of him. I will always consider myself blessed to have been his little boy, he really was one of a kind, his generosity knew no bounds and he often gave so selflessly to others. Today the world shines a little less bright, not just for me, but for everyone his beautiful story has touched.”

 

Ian Gibson – February 20, 1946 – December 11, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pat Mills had this to say about Ian, Dredd, and the Lawgiver… Ian was as excited by the way Dredd was working out as the readers. He designed the earliest version of the lawgiver gun as a special feature. He’d always had that techno ability, going back to first issue of Battle when he drew the krummlauf German gun that fired around corners.