Wotcher 'Arry

Button Man (2000ad #s 780-791 - 1992)

Chosen by me from my shelf, in collected form.

I touched on a lot of books from the period in the early 2000s when I first started getting into American comics in a big way. But there were things I read before then. Bit of Alan Moore and Gaiman. Most especially 2000ad (and as a very young child Action Force/G.I. Joe). My first issue as a regular buyer (I had bought one previously a couple of years before and it seemed an exciting, barely understandable look into cool things adults probably wouldnt let me know about) contained the second part of this story. 

I was not to know that it was an unusual fit for the more sci-fi bent anthology.

But it's immediate brutality (a man gets a pitchfork thrown into him) and beautiful artwork made it a clear favourite of mine.

Arthur Ranson's art is even now astonishing. A Terrance Malick movie in seven page episodes with it's focus on the landscapes and nature just as important as the well defined action and clear story telling.

The story itself is a slight Most Dangerous Game knock-off but well told with short bursts of interesting characters at the sides (and even the main character, pretty much the dullest of the lot, has a skewed amoral notion of self control that was revelatory to me at the time) with a conclusion that is obvious but still packs a punch.