The Old James House is beneath the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington. It's in a precarious position, but the aquatic real estate is the least of its problems in Home Sick Pilots #9. Writer Dan Watters does a brilliant job of crystallizing the distinct mix of horror, drama, and manga-style action in an issue leading towards the next major showdown. Artist Caspar Wijngaard delivers some stunning visuals to the page in an installment that spends most of its time simply building tension. The ninth issue climbs out of its covers with stylish delivery of a big moment for the series.

Meg has been working for an organization that's been weaponizing ghosts. She knows that the Old James house is a significant threat, and she's absolutely positive that she can take it down in a massive tank of a machine they're calling The Nuclear Bastard. It needs to be powered by ghosts, though. She needs to make sure that she's bringing along the right ones if she's going to take down an entire haunted house entirely on her own. No one else thinks it's a good idea. A spectral event of that scale could be just the kind of thing spark that could make the ghost/human dynamic really ugly really quickly. 

Weaponized ghosts. It's a really, really clever idea that Watters manages to mix together in just the right way. The series had been darting really, really quickly in various different directions for its first six or seven issues. With Meg joining the organization, Home Sick Pilots really feels like it has finally found a very creative path that's distinctly unlike much of what's made it into pop fiction. It's a brilliant evolution of the ghost extermination concept pioneered by Aykroyd and Ramis back in 1984...if every extermination of a ghost is a battle, what happens when someone decides to prepare for war? It's clever stuff with interpersonal drama thrown in as Meg seems to have lost control of the situation. This is really, really fascinating stuff.

The neon radiance of Wijngaard's work gains an electrifying buzz moving into a major showdown. The color is spectacular in the ninth issue as it comes to haunt the areas around line and form. It's intensely moody stuff, and the mood is beautiful. The actual action that hits the panel in the ninth chapter of the series doesn't quite have the same impact as the overall mood, but the interpersonal drama definitely leaves its mark on the page. Wijngaard also has a really solid lock on the issue's momentum as build-up leads to blow-up and then the eerie aftershocks.

The overall pacing of the series has been a little bit hard to gauge. Watters and Wijngaard have had a scattered amount of success in bringing together a coherent rhythm to the series, which has served it quite well in retrospect. The crazy scratchings of the story have helped to amplify its beautifully glowing weirdness. The ninth issue makes it feel like there are much bigger plans at work beyond the surface of the series.

Grade: A