Rapture Burgers Volume 1 Review

Almost a year ago I featured the first chapter of the webcomic Rapture Burgers on “You Missed That Webcomic?!” It was a webcomic that I thought deserved more attention because of its characters and humor. Now, writers Chris Hill and Adam Douglas and artist Mimi Alves have collected the first six chapters of their webcomic into a graphic novel.   Camille is your average high-schooler who is dumped by his girlfriend Rose and decides to take over the world… wait, what was that last part? Yes, with some assistance from a mysterious voice from his dreams, Camille decides to rule the world and comes up with several diabolic plans. But will his former girlfriend and new arch enemy stop him?   This is a quirky comic with a lot of heart and humor. The story is an enjoyable mixture of reality with big doses of comedic fiction. When you come down to it, it’s about a guy upset about getting dumped by his girlfriend. It has a lot of humor, but spots of drama that I hope increase in the next volume. Humor is subjective but if you like somewhat corny humor that can be high school level at times (with drama included) you should enjoy Rapture Burgers wit. What really makes the comedy work is the characters, who you grow to love more with each passing chapter. The story and humor feel very reminiscent of Scott Pilgrim to me with references to popular movies and video games replaced with more adolescent humor. Yet they keep the unnecessary cursing that keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending it to younger kids who I think would enjoy it.   Camille is a funny character that you want to root for despite the whole “taking over the world” thing. Then there’s his friend Sydney, who doesn’t shine too often but  allows Camille to interact with another person… when he isn’t interacting with his ex-girlfriend Rose. Rose is the perfect foil to Camille and I always enjoy their interactions together. It feels like a very awkward romance that is not meant to be… or is it?   The first six chapters of Rapture Bugers can be found online at their official website, but not in a colored version or with the extra goodies Hill and the gang throw into the webcomic. There are full page biographies of the main characters and the side stories. Mimi Alves’s art in color reminds me even more of anime than the black-and-white webcomic did thanks to Camille’s outrageous blue hair. It’s not fantastic artwork but it was high caliber in webcomic standards and there are several good things about it. For one, Alves gives every character unique and memorable features. Camille has his winged hair and his best-friend Sydney looks like a sheep-dog with his main of hair. Don’t expect overly detailed character designs or flashy backgrounds (the backgounds are barebones at best with the color sometimes forgotten). However, Alves simplistic style serves the tone of this comic very well. The expressions drawn on the characters faces really adds to the humor of the comic in many instances. Almost all the physical comedy in these chapters comes from those funny faces.   Who knew high school melodrama could be so much fun! Rapture Burgers is a quirky comic brewing with diabolical exploits and lovable characters that will tickle your funny bone and touch your heart. Rapture Burgers Volume 1 offers enough extra material to be worth buying versus just reading the webcomic online. I’d especially recommend it to people in high school, possibly even middle school, and definitely if you’ve had a relationship that didn’t work out - so now, instead of taking over the world, you can watch someone else fail epicly and hilariously at doing so.