Button Man


 * For other uses, see Button man (disambiguation).

Button Man is a comic strip created for the British comic 2000 AD, written by John Wagner and illustrated by Arthur Ranson.

Premise
Harry Exton, a mercenary, is a "Button Man", a hired killer pitted against other killers in an underground sport. Each works for a mysterious "Voice", a rich man of unknown identity. The object of the game is to kill one's opponent, or capture him and take his marker - the first two joints of a finger. Button Men who lose three fingers are shot anyway. The "Voices" profit from the game by gambling on the outcome, and a ruthless killer like Harry Exton can make a modestly wealthy man extremely rich. Exton decides to quit, only to discover that leaving the Button Man game is not so easy.

Publication
Button Man ran for four series. The series outings, all written by John Wagner, are:
 * Button Man:
 * "Book I: The Killing Game" (with Arthur Ranson, in 2000 AD #780-791, 1992)
 * "Book II: The Confession of Harry Exton" (with Arthur Ranson, in 2000 AD #904-919, 1994)
 * "Book III: Killer Killer" (with Arthur Ranson, in 2000 AD prog 2001 & #1223-1233, 2001)
 * "Book IV: The Hitman's Daughter" (with Frazer Irving, in 2000 AD #1551-1566, 2007)

Collected editions
The stories are being collected into trade paperbacks:


 * The Killing Game (88 pages, Kitchen Sink Press, May 1994, ISBN 0-87816-276-3, Rebellion, hardcover, August 2003, ISBN 1-904265-05-7, softcover, January 2007, ISBN 1-905437-19-6)
 * The Confession of Harry Exton (112 pages, Rebellion, August 2003, ISBN 1-905437-70-6)
 * Killer Killer (96 pages, Rebellion, June 2009, ISBN 1-906735-09-3)
 * The Hitman's Daughter (96 pages, Rebellion, forthcoming, ISBN 978-1-906735-42-5)

Awards

 * 2000: Nominated for the Eagle Award for "Character Most Worthy of Own Ongoing Title"

Film
Movie rights are owned by Dreamworks, which has co-opted the producers of Wagner's A History of Violence. The film was initially rumoured to be planned for release in 2008. In late May 2012, Deadline.com revealed that Nicolas Winding Refn was in talks with DreamWorks about directing.