Imagine that, without any substantial change of a sedentary, junk food-stuffed lifestyle, your body suddenly emitted a substance so toxic that it destroyed everything it touched. That’s the story of Dave Smith, an unassuming and underachieving call center employee, who discovers on a Friday night at the pub that his urine has suddenly turned so caustic that it boils water and demolishes masonry, steel, porcelain, and any other natural or man-made material.

When he awakes with a hangover on Saturday morning, he hopes it was all a bad dream. However, further mayhem ensues, and he flees to a friend’s flat, hoping to find solace. What he encounters, however, is more chaos, including unintended harm to others, and eventually winds up in police custody, where various medical and security agencies are tasked with finding out just what has happened inside Dave Smith’s body and how it will affect society and the rest of his life. And Dave, as the self-professed yob he is, doesn’t quite understand the choices placed before him …

Oliver Franks has written an entirely original comic novel, the first of a trilogy, that brings to life the theories that junk food and environmental pollution are poisoning humankind. Dave Smith, with his common name and lazy nature, is the perfect anti-hero for this antic tale.