Button Man: Get Harry Ex - Softcover

Wagner, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781081387 ISBN 13: 9781781081389

Publisher: 2000 AD, 2013

Synopsis

The world didn't seem to need a man like Harry Exton anymore. An ex-soldier and mercenary, Harry was a human-killing machine without a vocation, until an old colleague told him about 'The Game'. The players, known as 'Button Men' are paid to fight to the death in a modern-day gladiatorial contest. Organised by mysterious backers known as 'Voices', the killing game offers bountiful financial rewards... if you live. Harry decides to participate, but soon discovers that death offers the only way out! The world didn't seem to need a man like Harry Exton anymore. An ex-soldier and mercenary, Harry was a human-killing machine without a vocation, until an old colleague told him about 'The Game'. The players, known as 'Button Men' are paid to fight to the death in a modern-day gladiatorial contest. Organised by mysterious backers known as 'Voices', the killing game offers bountiful financial rewards... if you live. Harry decides to participate, but soon discovers that death offers the only way out! Written by John Wagner (Judge Dredd, A History of Violence) with art by Arthur Ranson (Anderson: Psi Division, Mazeworld) Button Man is an action-packed thriller, deservedly regarded as one of the greatest strips ever to be published in 2000 AD.

About this title

About the Author

John Wagner co-created Judge Dredd, as well as a host of other series, including the critically-acclaimed Button Man. Wagner has worked extensively beyond 2000 AD, writing many American standards, including Batman, The Punisher, Lobo and Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett. Both Dredd and his graphic novel A History of Violence were made into a hit films.

Reviews

British comics writer Wagner is most famous for the futuristic Dirty Harry knockoff Judge Dredd and the graphic novel A History of Violence (1997), about an ex–hit man burying his past. Created before History, the similar Button Man is about a hit man trying to escape his present predicament as a gladiator for the amusement of high-stakes bettors. This book collects the three chronological adventures of Harry Exton that Wagner and Ranson published in the comics weekly 2000 AD in 1992, 1994, and 2001. The three span Harry’s entire career in “the Game” and feature lots and lots of slaughter. Cleverly enough constructed by Wagner (whose cleverness deserts him when writing the clichéd dialogue, however), it would soon wear out its welcome—and, arguably, still does in the final round—were it not for Ranson’s fine-line, realist artwork. The constant perspective changes, which imbue the art with the quality of a film composed of nonsequential photographs, and uniformly restrained coloring make this visually enthralling. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: 2000 AD
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781081387
• ISBN 13: 9781781081389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304