The Motherless Oven

In Scarper Lee's world, parents don't make children--children make parents. Scarper's father is his pride and joy, a wind-powered brass construction with a billowing sail. His mother is a Bakelite hairdryer. In this world it rains knives, and household appliances have souls. There are also no birthdays--only deathdays. Scarper's deathday is just three weeks away, and he clings to the mundane repetition of his life at home and high school for comfort. Rob Davis's dark graphic novel is an odyssey through a bizarre, distorted teenage landscape. When Scarper's father mysteriously disappears, he sets off with Vera Pike (the new girl at school) and Castro Smith (the weirdest kid in town) to find him. Facing home truths and knife storms at every turn, will Scarper even survive until his deathday?

Rob Davis is best known for reinventing Roy of the Rovers and for drawing Judge Dredd. He has written and illustrated Doctor Who and adapted H. P. Lovecraft’s ＂The Dunwich Horror＂ for The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1 (SelfMadeHero, Spring 2012). The first volume of his graphic-novel adaptation of Don Quixote was shortlisted in the Best Book category at the British Comic Awards. He lives in Blandford Forum, UK.