Big F#@k Off Worms #1 - Matt Garvey Comics

BIG F#@K OFF WORMS No. 1, May 2020

Entertainingly mixing science fiction with science fact, courtesy of the storyline being based upon the true story of thousands of worms being sent up to “the international space station so they could see how a worm’s muscles would react in zero gravity”, this twenty-four-page periodical’s plot is arguably as enjoyably insane as its title is eye-catchingly explicit. In fact, the sheer sense of zany fun which emanates from Issue One of “Big F#@k Off Worms” is so palpable that its readers will doubtless be able to easily imagine its creative team of Matt Garvey and J. Francis Totti guffawing away to themselves whilst they were producing the post-apocalyptic publication; “I say people because when the worms returned, the radiation they brought with them mutated every human being on the planet into an… antha… anthro-promo… it mutated them into human/animal hybrids.”

Possibly this comic’s principal ‘hook’ is the sheer grandeur of Petey’s task at hand, and the way the narrative quickly allows it to spiral ‘out of control’ to involve the entire planet. Initially, it appears that the prototype battle suit-wearing hero is simply defending a small, rag-tag settlement of mutant children from just the eighth enormous invertebrate which he has faced. However, events should transpire which indicate that “the only human left” is not only desperately trying to whittle down the worms to ensure that the world’s radiation levels subside back down to a ‘safe’ level. But that he is unknowingly locked in a battle of wits with an unseen villainous mastermind who is ‘controlling’ Frank Herbert’s inspirations for his own devilish ends.

Similarly as successful though is the sense of endearing incompetence Garvey imbues “the last thing standing” with. This idiocy starts straight from the get-go, with Totti prodigiously pencilling Petey blazing away at the supposedly small(ish) worm he’s currently facing, only to discover that he’s so far away from the gigantic monstrosity that his bullets impotently land on the sun-scorched ground long before they reach their target. Such a laugh-out-loud moment is delightfully rather typical of the protagonist’s persistent attempts to fell his foe, and even when he does eventually succeed in killing the small-brained crawler the buffoon forgets that the enormous lifeless corpse will now fall slap down on top of him as a result of gravity.

Written by: Matt Garvey, and Art by: J Francis Totti