It is our unhappy duty to report that comic book writer and historian Gerrard Jones has been sentenced to 72 months in federal prison on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography. Jones was arrested December 29, 2017 on reported suspicion of possessing more than 600 files related to child pornography, and of uploading some of the videos to YouTube. What they found was tens of thousands of images, and hundreds of videos of children having sex.

He was sentenced by United States District judge Vince Chhabria on Tuesday. Assistant United States attorney Meredith Osborn prosecuted the case, assisted by Lance Libatique.

At his January 5 arraignment, Jones had initially pleaded “not guilty”. A federal grand jury indicted Jones on February 7 on charges of distributing and possession of child pornography. Jones pleaded guilty to both charges on April 2.

Jones is well known for his work on Green Lantern in the 1990’s, which saw the return of Hal Jordan, as well as creating the UltraVerse character Prime.  He eventually turned to writing about the history of comics in a series of books, including the 2005 Eisner Award-winning Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, and Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make Believe Violence.

Jones, 60, starts serving his sentence on November 30. After his release, he’ll be given a probationary period of another five years, so he’ll be 70 by the time he’s paid his debt to society. The writer has been court-ordered to pay an assessment of $10,200, as well as unspecified restitution to his victims to be determined at an October 4 hearing.