Earthworm Jim Creator Makes New Webcomic, Ratfist

Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood creator, Doug TenNapel, recently released a new webcomic entitled Ratfist. Though Ratfist’s power hasn’t yet been described, the two panels above, coupled with the hero’s name, pretty much let us all know where the comic is headed, barring some kind of rat-based twist. Funnily enough, Ratfist also has a pet rat that I’m hoping spars with his probable future fist-rat. Why should anyone care about Ratfist? Because it’s by the creator of Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood, man!

Earthworm Jim, first released for the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis in 1994, is the more popular of the two games, eventually sprouting into a cartoon and getting various sequels and remakes. The game featured an earthworm in a robotic suit who set out to save Princess What’s-Her-Name from the evil clutches of Psy-Crow and Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. Not only was the game mostly comedy-based and featured ridiculous characters with ridiculous names, but some of the comedy was very meta; one level featured a fairly difficult submarine romp through the ocean, with a degree of difficulty that made most players dread what would obviously be an even more difficult boss battle, except the boss battle turned out to be Bob the Killer Goldfish, a goldfish in a fishbowl, and the player simply has to knock the bowl over to win the battle.

If Earthworm Jim’s wackiness or The Neverhood’s claymation surreality is any indication, Ratfist is going to be pretty interesting. On top of this, in the post along with each comic, TenNapel offers both funny comments and interesting insight into his comic, revealing his reasoning for certain panels and events and documenting his process along the way, allowing us to dive into the thought process responsible for Evil the Cat–something everyone should do once in a while.

Also, Ratfist is updated every weekday, something popular webcomics don’t generally accomplish, so fans of the series can look forward to TenNapel’s absurdist hero humor nearly every day of the week–absurdist hero humor featuring, presumably, a hero with the power of having a rat for a fist.

(h/t i09)