Review: Home Sick Pilots Volume 1

Sometimes you read a description of a comic as “thing X meets thing Y” and think, “what the hell does that mean?” This is one of those times. Home Sick Pilots is supposedly “Power Rangers meets The Shining”, but it’s a surprisingly accurate pitch. To get a more complete picture, I’d have thrown in the movie Green Room as a third ingredient on the list; a horror thriller centred on a young punk band.

In this comic, the Home Sick Pilots are the punk band in question. They are a trio of troubled teens in grunge-era California, locked in a battle of edginess with a rival group. The story kicks off when lead singer Ami ends up in a haunted house; an actual haunted house with actual ghosts. From then on, things get progressively more strange.

This book is a collaboration between writer Dan Watters and artist Caspar Wijngaard. It’s their second comic for Image after the acclaimed Limbo. In fact, Wijngaard has said that Home Sick Pilots is Limbo’s “spiritual successor” and “shares the same DNA”. They do however seem to be planning it as a longer series than their first project.

Wijngaard’s art is the star of the show. It’s clean and incredibly detailed, from facial expressions to locations to reality-defying action scenes. Limbo hinted at what he was capable of, but he’s taken it to another level here. Layouts are fun, varied, and occasionally experimental. The colors, also by Wijngaard, are highly stylised, with lots of pinks, purples, and blues. It’s an interesting approach, at times feeling like a black-and-white comic with a handful of extra colors.

The story is also fun, though somewhat muddier. After an intriguing setup in the first chapter, the plot becomes a little hard to follow. You might have to read this more than once to fully appreciate what’s going on. Some readers get annoyed by comics like that, others can’t get enough; it’s what makes Grant Morrison so polarising. After a second read, the plot clicked better for me, although some elements still felt lacking in detail. Nevertheless, this volume’s cliffhangers left me intrigued. Ami’s black-page narrator interludes are a great device. Characterisation is strong, although your attachment to the Pilots themselves may depend on how annoying you found the kids who formed rock bands at your high school.

Watters and Wijngaard could definitely have something special here and I’m keen to see where they take it.

Writing – 3.5 Stars
Art – 5 Stars
Colors – 4.5 Stars

Overall: 4 Stars

Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
Publisher: Image Comics

Author Profile

Yavi Mohan

Yavi Mohan is a comic writer (and more frequently, comic reader) based in London. He is frequently overwhelmed by the number of comics in his reading list, to the extent that it sometimes delays his reading. This list includes every issue ever published with Spider-Man as the main character.