Rapp, Adam, O'Connor, George & Sycamore, Hilary. Ball peen hammer, New York : First Second, 2009.Set in a post-apocalyptic urban nightmare, three adults are manipulated by a distant, yet all-pervasive government to carry out its ghoulish designs to stay in power. As they struggle with the moral implications of their involvement in this plan, each expresses a desire to renew their human decency - through an attachment to art, companionship, nurturing the sick, or pursuing a long-lost affair.
Sycamore's dark illustrations take up where O'Connor's narrative subtly leaves off, producing a dark work of graphic fiction that will appeal to fans of post-apocalyptic fiction of all stripes.
