When he was a kid, Burger took on a disgusting dare that gave him his nickname. It also forever changed him, and as an adult he’s very much alone, aside from whatever it is inside his head.

Creators of Burger, writer Ben Canny and artist Gorkloum, have crafted a seriously disturbing tale of body horror, which goes to some incredibly surreal and downright grim places by the end of this first issue.

Burger’s tale is told from his viewpoint; given his erratic state of mind (to say the least), we go on quite the varied journey, in terms of the different styles that Gorkloum employs. It’s really impressive stuff if you have the stomach for it, with depictions of kids with faces dominated by leering, gaping smiles, page borders constructed of intestines and extreme close ups of intimate acts, to name just a few examples; there’s great use of shadows and distortion throughout, to reflect Burger’s increasingly troubled (and troubling) mental state.

It’s certainly not a tale for the faint hearted; the Junji Ito influence is clear from the cover onwards, but there’s many more that the creators have named, including David Cronenberg, David Lynch and William S. Burroughs. Certainly, the vividly nightmarish, dream-logic surrealism and grim body horror is something that’ll be familiar to fans of any of those artists, but Burger still feels like a uniquely nightmarish descent into the altered mind and body of a seriously disturbed individual.

Fans of Ito, or the work of Cronenberg, Lynch and Burrows will certainly find a lot of compelling imagery and events within these pages; enjoy is perhaps not the right word, but I was impressed by the bold twists and turns in the narrative, the darkest of black humour and just how startlingly well, and genuinely disgustingly, it’s all presented visually.

The story is planned to be told over six issues, and the second is currently crowdfunding via Kickstarter. Catch up bundles are available if you haven’t jumped on board this grisly, nightmarish train just yet; if you’re a fan of particularly graphic body horror with substance, given its underlying themes around toxic masculinity and the rising danger of the alt-right, Burger is almost certainly up your blood drenched street.

Many thanks to Running Ground Studios for providing me with a copy of Burger #1 for review purposes. No thanks to them, pre-emptively, for the nightmares that’ll no doubt ensue from me reading it.