Halo Graphic Novel

The Halo Graphic Novel was announced on March 17th, 2006 on Bungie.net, and became available by July 19, 2006. The HGN is a 128 page, hardcover, full color graphic novel containing one large story, three smaller side stories, and a gallery of stand-alone images. It was developed by Bungie who consider it as canon and published by Marvel Comics.

Artist Credits

Story Artists

• Andrew Robinson - Pencils for Armor Testing
• Ed Lee - Colors for Armor Testing
• Jay Faerber - Story for Armor Testing
• Lee Hammock - Story for The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor
• Jean "Moebious" Giraud - Art for Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa
• Phil Hale
• Simon Bisley Art for The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor
• Tsutomo Nihei - Art and story for Breaking Quarantine

Gallery

In the Halo Graphic Novel, there is a section after the stories called "Gallery" which shows off a selection of visions of the Halo universe from Bungie, Marvel and Other Artists, created solely for this book. Below is a full list of who they are and what they drew in the HGN:

Marvel and Other Artists

• Doug Alexander - Master Chief with a shotgun in hand and SPARTAN-062 (without her armor) surrounded by Flood
• Rick Berry - An unknown Covenant soldier in a cloudy environment
• Geoff Darrow - Master Chief standing over one destroyed Flood infection form, while behind him a group of a hundred infection forms gather
• Scott Fischer - Master Chief with a shotgun, with a realistic looking Cortana in front of him
• Sterling Hundley - The Master Chief wading through a swamp of dead Flood, with a shotgun
• Craig Mullins - Blood stained Master Chief holding a battle rifle
• Tsutomu Nihei - A Elite combat form roaring
• George Pratt - Master Chief holding a beam rifle with a few grenades to his feet, getting cover from a destroyed pillar of a building
• Juan Ramirez - Marines are attacked by a Brute and a Grunt
• Greg Staples - Shooting with the MA5B Assault Rifle, the Master Chief is surrounded from everywhere by the Covenant
• Justin Sweet - Tartarus sitting on a stone chair, with the Fist of Rukt beside him.
• John Van Fleet - Master Chief with dual SMG's firing on Flood in a UNSC background
• Kent Willams - The Master Chief firing SMG’s above and below him into a plant like creature (Possibly Gravemind)

Bungie Artists

For the HGN Frankie did this take on Dutch Artist M. C. Escher's famous drawing

• Chris Barrett - A Covenant Elite holding a plasma rifle.
• Frank Capezutto III - A plasma grenade nearly missing a trio of UNSC Marines.
• Tom Doyle - Master Chief holding a crying child with a dead Elite on the floor, staring at the invading fleet above New Mombasa.
• Issac Hannaford - Pg 107, a UNSC ODST meets a roaring Brute.
• Shi Kai Wang - A Prophet holding his head, exasperated.
• Lorraine McLees - Master Chief with a full assortment of every human weapon available with ammo clips (including mounted machine guns, flamethrower and an energy sword handle) with a Pelican, two different Warthogs, two Longswords and an ODST Helljumper team of eight in the background.
• Robert McLees - Battle and conversation reports.
• Frank O'Connor - A hand holding a reflective sphere, the picture is the Mister Chief in his room. Bungie recently released the picture on bungie.net, Mister Chief .
• Eddie Smith - Master Chief appearing in a the light through a doorway surrounded by rubble.
• Craig Mullins - Master Chief pausing to observe a raging battle.
• George Pratt - Master Chief aiming a Particle Beam Rifle.
• Juan Ramirez - A heavily stylized image of three marines fighting a Brute and a Grunt.
• Greg Staples - Another heavily stylized image, this time of Master Chief firing an assault rifle at several Covenant on a slanted ground (implying he is on Halo) with several Banshees, Covenant cruisers, and a planet in the background.
• Tsutomu Nihei - A roaring Flood Elite combat form.
• Scott Fischer - Master Chief standing behind a realistic depiction of Cortana.
• Geof Darrow - A two page spread of Master Chief standing over a destroyed Flood infection form holding two SMGs, with dozens more infection forms coming up behind him.
• Paul Russel - He drew a small comic at the end of the book.

Stories

A page from The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor.

The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor

Main article: The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor

When communications from a Covenant agricultural support ship, the Infinite Succor, are mysteriously terminated, Rtas 'Vadumee, also known as Half-Jaw, and his squad of Special Forces are sent to investigate. What they find is a peril more deadly and terrifying than any Human threat.

Characters

• SpecOps Commander Rtas 'Vadumee
• SpecOps Sub-Commander 'Kusovai
• Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice
• Legate, Minister of Etoligy, Infinite Succor
• Numerous Special Operations Grunts and Elites.

Breaking Quarantine

Main article: Breaking Quarantine

One of the untold tales from Halo is Sergeant Johnson's escape from the clutches of the Flood menace. It reveals how one of the UNSC's toughest Marines got out of an inescapable trap. It also resembles Japanese comics as the Artist who drew it was Tsutomu Nikei, even as he tried to avoid it being to 'Manga-ish'

Characters

• Staff Sergeant A.J. Johnson
• Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins
• Flood Infection Forms
• Flood Combat Forms
• Flood Carrier Forms

Armor Testing

A page from Armor Testing.

Main article: Armor Testing

The only way to test Spartan armor, is to send a Spartan. But the question is, what's really being tested? The power of the Mjolnir Mark VI battle armor, or the mettle of the ODSTs trying to find its weaknesses?

Characters

• UNSC Marine ODST's from the 340th ODST Combat Training Unit
• Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN Maria-062
• ONI Personnel
• Unnamed UNSC Naval Captain

Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa

Fighting a war isn't just shipping men and machines to distant worlds. There are subtler, more dangerous fights taking place on the streets of New Mombasa, and in the hearts and minds of men.

Characters

• ONI
• ONI "Photographer"
• Unnamed UNSC Marine Corps Officer
• UNSC Marines from the 77th Marine Regiment
• Civilians
• Covenant

File:Page 122.jpg

Pg 122, an intriguing piece of gallery art.

Page 122

Main article: Halo Graphic Novel Pg122

A puzzle of valuable information about the Spartan program and Sergeant Avery Johnson. In the Gallery Art in the Halo Graphic Novel, Pg122, there is a page with two main boxes of text along with pictures and maps of Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE. The text boxes contain one chat log between two people and the other appears to be a log of a data query.

The identities of persons mentioned by the two users (identified as 'mike44236' and 'echo23023') can be determined by translating their military format designations (which appear to be based upon the current NATO phonetic alphabet). For example, when mike44236 refers to an "interest spike on alpha juliett juliett 20114," he is obviously referring to Johnson. If one examines the 'Project: ORION\RESTRICTED ACCESS' emblem in the upper left-hand corner, Johnson's name is listed below the skull symbol as 'CRPL Johnson, Avery Junior.' Below that is his service number (48789-20114-AJ). The numeric string '20114' is present in both the chat box and operative summary. Thus, 'alpha juliett juliett 20114' can be translated as 'Avery Johnson Junior 20114.' The matter of Johnson's name being listed in two different formats (sometimes as Avery J. Johnson) with two service numbers ending in different numeric sequences, has yet to be explained.

Subsequently, in the following lines of dialogue, 'charlie hotel 4695' can be translated as 'Catherine Halsey 4695' (her Civilian Identification Number is 10141-026-SRB4695). Also, 'juliett alpha 20101' likely refers to Colonel James Ackerson.

Surrounding the boxes are pictures and maps of above mentioned operation and other related smaller text areas. The information provided by the combination of these logs seem to imply that Sergeant Avery Johnson is a Spartan from the Spartan I program. The image itself looks like a shot of someone's desk. Someone who is investigating whether or not Johnson is a Spartan.

External Links

• Halo Graphic Novel Preview