Adam Rapp wins a Printz Honor!

Adam Rapp, the man who wrote the wonderful words (alliterative!) for Ball Peen Hammer won a Printz Honor yesterday! Not for Ball Peen, but rather for his young adult novel Punkzilla. Congrats Adam!

Blush-worthy article on Comic Book Resources

Didn't I just say I normally don't link to reviews? Maybe I should give that practice up for the new year. Regardless, this article at Comic Book Resources, while it does say some very nice things about Ball-Peen Hammer is not really a review, per se, but a rather cool little piece about Adam and my thoughts on Ball-Peen, before veering off into Olympians territory. I humbly suggest you give it a read.

Ball-Peen Review in the Comics Journal

I normally don't link to all that many reviews on my blog, but I had to make this exception. The Comics Journal (bold and italics! It's that important!) has a brand new website and right up there, on day one, a big, two-paged review of Ball-Peen Hammer. The reviewer says some very nice things about Adam Rapp's and my cheerful little tale. Check it out here.

Stumptown reviews Ball-Peen Hammer

I haven't really made it a point to link to too many reviews of my books on this site, but this latest one, a podcast from Stumptown Trade Review, bears some special notice. If you find yourself with an extra half hour or so and want to hear an extremely thorough (not to mention flattering) examination of my and Adam Rapp's Ball-Peen Hammer, please go give a listen.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Book Court tonight. Great turnout, and a great time had by all ( at least me). Watch this space for more appearances.

Ball-Peen Release Party!

When: Tuesday, October 13th, at 7 pm

Where: Book Court, in Brooklyn
163 Court Street (between Pacific & Dean)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 875.3677

What: Q and A, refreshments, general debauchery

How: The benevolence of First Second and the good folks at Book Court

Why: Because I said so.


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Come one, come all. The most fun that can be had, period.

Ball-Peen Hammer is released today!!!

Get your copy now! Also available in all finer book and comic shops.

Getting closer...

One more day!

Almost there...

Turns out Cartoonists are Authors, after all.

It might be obvious if you're reading this post via the rss feed on my Amazon Author page, but Amazon has reversed their previous decision that I was not a prominent enough contributor to several titles that they had recently pulled from my page. Amongst the pulled-but-now-reinstated titles are the upcoming graphic novel Ball-Peen Hammer, written by the amazingly talented Adam Rapp, but with artwork by yours truly. Comics are truly a collaborative effort (a comic without pictures is something entirely different) and I am heartened to see that my letter has played some part in having Amazon reexamine this practice of theirs.

Full text of Amazon's reply below:

Dear Mr. O'Connor,

My name is Sarah Beaudette of Author Central. I've reviewed previous correspondence with you, and would like to apologize for the misunderstanding. Normally illustrators are not allowed to add books to their bibliography, but we've researched these titles and have concluded that you are a primary contributor to them. Your example has driven us to re-consider our policy, and we appreciate your feedback as we continue to look for ways to make our service more useful to authors.

Your bibliography now includes "Alien Feast" and "Ball Peen Hammer," as well as "The Glass Cat of Oz." These changes will appear online within 3 days.

I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,

Sarah B

Nice Adam Rapp Interview at Graphic Novel Reporter

An entertaining and illuminating interview with Ball-Peen Hammer writer Adam Rapp at the Graphic Novel Reporter. Check it out!

More Ball-Peen sketches- Underjohn

Here's some early sketches of Underjohn, the character from Ball-Peen Hammer who is possibly the most idealistic. He has willingly subjected himself to the horrors of Ball-Peen's world in order to write about it, in the hopes to help prevent anything like it from happening again.

Of all the principle characters, he's the one who underwent the most changes from these early drawings. Here he's a lot more handsome than he ended up being-- I wish, though, that I had kept his broken glasses look intact.

More Ball-Peen sketches

My favorite character to draw in Ball-Peen Hammer was definitely Exley, the love interest of Welton and the most genuinely "good" character in the whole story. She arrived in my sketchbooks much as she would eventually appear in the final book. These are some of the first sketches I did of her, around January of 2007, believe it or not. She's a bit slighter here than she ended up, but mostly she's completely recognizable as the same character,

New Years resolution-- Love my blog

It's been an age and a day since I last updated this blog-- let's rectify that!

Ball-Peen Hammer, my new graphic novel written by Adam Rapp, goes to press this week-- to celebrate, here's some preparatory sketches I made way back in 2007 when I first became attached to this project. These are among the sketches I submitted to the publisher fro inclusion as back-matter, so they may or may not have made the cut for the final book. These are some of my early sketches for Welton, one of the main characters. More to follow in days to come...