Ball Peen Hammer - Softcover

"Not for gentle readers, Rapp's fatalistic urban future is never scarier than when its child and adult players' motivations and emotions are the most realistic." -- Booklist "Eerie . . . Rapp reflects on the ways we cling to art and passion in the face of destruction and the horror we feel as those things slip away." -- Publisher's Weekly Full Review From Booklist Playwright Rapp writes movies and gritty YA novels (e.g., "Little Chicago," 1998), too, and his first graphic novel attests his flair for dramatic staging and well-developed characters and plotting. Set in a hovel in which a young man dying of an AIDS-like infection lives, loving his guitar and hating his "job" of disposing of the bodies of murdered children. He doesn't realize that the love of his life, a beautiful actress, has taken sanctuary in another part of the building. Moral turpitude in these characters' world has been stood virtually on end, and the story probes suc "Not for gentle readers, Rapp's fatalistic urban future is never scarier than when its child and adult players' motivations and emotions are the most realistic." -- Booklist "Eerie . . . Rapp reflects on the ways we cling to art and passion in the face of destruction and the horror we feel as those things slip away." -- Publisher's Weekly Full Review From Booklist Playwright Rapp writes movies and gritty YA novels (e.g., "Little Chicago," 1998), too, and his first graphic novel attests his flair for dramatic staging and well-developed characters and plotting. Set in a hovel in which a young man dying of an AIDS-like infection lives, loving his guitar and hating his "job" of disposing of the bodies of murdered children. He doesn't realize that the love of his life, a beautiful actress, has taken sanctuary in another part of the building. Moral turpitude in these characters' world has been stood virtually on end, and the story probes such issues as what ingrained in us makes us human, lovable, frightening, and evil. Eminently suited to Rapp's grim and demanding vision, O'Connor's full-color art meshes with the spare text and conveys portions of the tale all by itself; it embraces just the right cartooniness to keep the flow of grim events emotionally bearable. Not for gentle readers, Rapp's fatalistic urban future is never scarier than when its child and adult players' motivations and emotions are the most realistic. --"Francisca Goldsmith""" Review in 8/10 Publishers Weekly In an eerie postapocalyptic urban world, humanity is turning on itself. This graphic novel revolves around a trio who were likely downtown hipsters before the crisis began. Welton, a musician, and Aaron, an author, still have the energy to discuss the purpose of art, but find themselves committing unpardonable acts to save themselves. Exley, an actress, unexpectedly ends up caring for Horlick, a young boy who is teetering between playing childish pranks and becoming a menacing criminal l

Adam Rapp is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has written several young adult novels, including "Punkzilla," "The Buffalo Tree," and "33 Snowfish," and the adult novel, "The Year of Endless Sorrows." His plays include "Nocturne," the Pulitzer Prize finalist "Red Light Winter," and The "Metal Children." In 2005 he directed his first film, Winter Passing, starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell. George O'Connor is an author, illustrator and cartoonist. His graphic novel work includes "Journey Into Mohawk Country," in which he illustrated the journal of the seventeenth-century Dutch trader Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, and his Olympians series, which retells the classic Greek myths in comics form. He has also published several children's picture books, including the "New York Times" best-selling "Kapow," "Sally and the Some-Thing," and "Uncle Bigfoot." He lives in Brooklyn, NY.