Home Sick Pilots #11 // Review
The concerns of a few people caught up in the paranormal at the end of the last millennium return after a two-month hiatus. The old James house is missing something. Maybe Ami’s got it. Maybe she can find it. Maybe everything will hold together in an increasingly unstable world as writer Dan Watters opens a new story arc in Home Sick Pilots #11. Watters’ ongoing tale of the dead, the power of afterlife, and weaponized ghosts. Artist Caspar Wijngaard continues beautiful work on the strange fusion between sci-fi, the paranormal, and a strange neon dream from the other side of consciousness.
The old James House is up against something with the unfortunate name of The Nuclear Bastard. The old James House is a poltergeist-powered dwelling that looks and moves like a weird-looking Kaiju. It gets its energy from six ghosts. The Nuclear Bastard is a sleek, weaponized mecha-looking piece of weaponized military-grade paranormal energy. The thing is energized by all the ghosts of an entire Nevada testing site. The two massive amalgamations of spectral energy clash somewhere in the 1990s. New choppers are getting a look at the two huge combatants. The James House has a great deal of autonomous ghost power, but will it be enough?
Watters manages to outline the specifics of the conflict in a way that feels strikingly coherent. In previous issues, the exact parameters of what’s going on and precisely what hangs in the balance have often felt hazy in definition. This installment, Watters gives a satisfyingly vivid description of what it is that’s going on. As the two massive amalgamations of ghost energy clash on the page. It makes for one of the single most satisfying issues in the series thus far. Eleven issues into the series, it finally seems to be living up to some of its potential.
Wijngaard has been tasked with putting together the conflict between two forces that are both massive in scope and intimate in impact. The scope of the battle between the two forces feels profound, while the emotional strain on individual characters is felt with heartbreaking intensity. The sweeping force of the massive attacks is given a fairly overwhelming sense of power on the page. Through it all, Wijngaard maintains a stylish form with clever panel layouts that amplify the impact and appealing colors that resonate out of some delicious nightmare.
In the course of its run, Home Sick Pilots has occasionally toyed with some fascinating ideas. With some appealingly weird moods that come together at odd angles and tend to fade out into a strange semi-coherent blur before shooting into striking clarity for just long enough to keep the whole thing really, really interesting. With issue eleven, Watters and Wijngaard manage to hold everything together in a strange state of grace from beginning to end. Much like the old James House itself, it’s difficult to predict how it will all hold together in the course of the following few issues, but it’ll be a lot of fun watching it attempt to do so.
