Home Sick Pilots #10 // Review
Those who have weaponized the supernatural are on a collision course with a girl who belongs in a haunted house. So why is there so much talk about punk rock selling out? It only makes sense because it’s the tenth issue of Home Sick Pilots. Writer Dan Watters wraps up the second five-issue arc of the weird 1990s pop horror mash-up with artist Caspar Wijngaard. Watters’ unique mix of moody drama and action-based supernatural horror pulls some pretty impressive visuals out of Wijngaard, who vividly paints aggression and conversation in beautiful color while beautifully modulating between the two.
The Home Sick Pilots are well aware of an assault that’s coming their way. A powerful authority has weaponized the supernatural. There’s something menacing called the Nuclear Bastard, and it’s coming to get them. There’s going to be a showdown, and the only way that things are going to get resolved is if a certain girl plagued by ghosts makes her peace with a haunted house that waits beneath the ocean for her to take her rightful place in and within it. Portland is about to experience one hell of a paranormal occurrence. There’s no telling what might happen.
Watters manages a really tight modulation in juxtaposition. Casual talk of Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer rests between the same covers as a major clash between Japanese monster-size supernatural forces. The weird thing is that Watters makes certain that it actually all kind of connects up thematically. There’s really no reason why it should all fit together. Still, Watters connects it all up in a way that feels totally natural even though...there’s really no rational reason why a story of a struggling garage band in Seattle in the 1990s would be so perfectly at home in a major action-horror fantasy.
Wijngaard’s work in this issue is particularly gorgeous. He’s done a really good job with the color over the course of the series thus far. The richly vibrant pastels don’t exactly fit a ’90s Seattle grunge rock motif, but they bring an appealing visual world to the page that has a visual voice all its own. From big, epic clashes to eerie ghost appearances to moody motionless moments, Wijngaard’s got it all covered this issue with smooth pacing and easy transitions. Much like the strangely patchwork nature of Watters’ scripting, Wijngaard’s art somehow fits it all together in a way that makes the right kind of sense in a satisfying close to the second arc of the series.
In ten issues, Watters and Wijngaard have found a style and pacing that works. The first ten issues as a whole might feel a bit unpleasantly staccato as elements pile events and elements together in a way that can feel slightly skewed and out of focus. Still, the overall feel of the series is so appealing that weird little fuzzinesses and rough edges feel perfectly at home in the larger picture. As strange as it all is, Watters and Wijngaard have found a way to make it work.
Grade: B
