2000ad's BUTTON MAN volume 1 review

BUTTON MAN volume 1: THE KILLING GAME graphic novel

Collects 2000ad progs 780-791

Writer: John Wagner

Art: Arthur Ranson

Published by Rebellion

Review by Stewart Loud

Violence and/or murder for cash reward is the name of the game in John Wagner's (Judge Dredd, History Of Violence) tale of how ex British soldier and mercenary, Harry Exton gets drawn into his role as a “button man”, the name given to the participants of a well organized, highly secret and brutal blood sport played for the amusement of a group of shadowy upper class elite types known to their button men as only “the voices”. Good money if you're a survivor but they don't have much of a retirement package for those who decide they want out of the game.

Actually I lied. The name of the game is just “The Game” but what I said sounded much better as a hook to grab people's attention.

Harry Exton first learns of the game from his old mercenary buddy Carl who he meets up with after some time apart and discovers he's doing pretty well for himself now as a button man.

“Like the wheels! What'd you do mate-rob a bank?”

As a hardened fighter with plenty of military experience, Harry takes to the game like a well armed duck to water. Periodically receiving anonymous instructions about his next match and payment over the phone from his handler also known as his voice. Sometimes he fights in deserted farm buildings, sometimes the Welsh hills and sometimes on the streets of London. Some matches are one on one, some are pairs v pairs, some are kill or be killed and some are simply mass free for alls with multiple button men where players are eliminated by wounding. The one thing that remains constant throughout the games though, is they're all very violent.

John Wagner, is a veteran writer of 2000ad and I learned to my surprise by reading the inside cover that he wrote the History Of Violence comic that the film of the same name starring Vigo Mortensen was based on (I didn't even know it was based on a comic) so as you'd expect this is a very well crafted story. Set entirely in the UK, this book is full of really solid English sounding dialogue with plenty of quotes like “Wotcher 'Arry” and “Lotta dosh to be made 'Arry”. Being English myself, this kind of made the whole story seem a bit more believable and closer to home. Wagner, certainly has done a good job of keeping things interesting throughout with good characters and action and just the right amount of intrigue even if it is a little predictable in places.

The plot is complimented perfectly by the talented Arthur Ransun's (Judge Anderson, Maze World) moody, true to life art with his brilliant sketch work suiting the style of story down to the ground. The atmosphere that he and Wagner create made it feel to me like something from an old film like West World or Get Carter.

So to sum up: a bit on the predictable side if you've ever read another story or watched a film along the same lines as this but still a well written, interesting, atmospheric and incredibly well illustrated comic. If you like seeing cockneys murder each other then this is definitely the book for you. Another great example of 2000ad's pedigree for varied story telling. I luv it mate!

SCORE 8/10

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