Review by Frank Plowright
Dirtbag Rapture starts with the immediately compelling idea of a person who can transport ghosts of the dead from the place they die to their preferred location for spending eternity. The concept is then ramped up via Kat Garcia being able to communicate with the dead as she works, learning from them and using what she learns to enrich herself. She spends a fair amount of the opening chapter revealing her trade, and that she’s a selfish, rude and inconsiderate individual. Other novel ideas are filtered in, but we shouldn’t give everything away, just take our word that Christopher Sebela has them, and that he’s done his research about where people are likely to die.
The narrative form book would be that something happens to force Kat out of her narcissistic indulgences, and so it does, except on an unimaginable scale: it’s down to Kat to save the world as demons are planning to end it. They don’t think humanity’s working fast enough on that project.
Everything about Dirtbag Rapture shines imaginatively. The solid concept is enlivened by Kat’s personality, Kendall Goode’s art is attractive, and Sebela constantly delivers amusing little throwaway ideas. Someone from another world remarks that where they come from religion is a strange hobby; angels resemble demons; the basic concept of good versus evil is given a thorough wipe down and polish, and Sebela has some thoughts about humanity and Kat being a fair representative sample. There’s even a nod to the Replacements. How cool is that?
Those ideas come thick, fast and funny and at such a rate you’ll worry they’re just disguising a runaway train that doesn’t know where it’s heading, but Sebela has that under control. Kat’s been operating on what she’s been able to figure out, but there’s a whole lot about celestial and demonic regulation she doesn’t know, and the circumstances eventually require her to learn and pretty damn fast.
Dirtbag Rapture needs a big finish, and there’s no letdown on that score either. You want a great horror comedy drama? This is it.
