Home Sick Pilots #12: Black Sails and Sunsets

Writing

Dan Watters is hitting his stride with Home Sick Pilots #12. This issue hits on a story element I have been curious about for a while and that is the relationship between Rip and Buzz. Rip has been separated from his bandmates and been at odds with them, it was nice to see him reconnect the previous issues with Kate and now that Rip and Buzz are off to find the final ghosts it a good point for the two friends to reconnect. Watters does some fantastic little story telling notes between their dialogue and conversation showing two close friends that have something come in-between them. They are still friends but there is a nice awkwardness to their interactions despite being so close once.

Watters also continues to detail this world of Home Sick Pilots. He has done a ton of world building these last few issues and it has paid dividends in the story being told. Home Sick Pilots toes that line of being extremely goofy yet serious perfectly well. We get a backstory of how the whole ghost/mech/weapon came about. It is all extremely silly, yet still superbly creepy all at the same time, fantastic story balance.

Watters imagination runs wild in this issue of Home Sick Pilots. I mean the whole idea and concept of the story is a weird one, but here Watters turns it up to 11 with its weirdness and I absolutely love it. Again he balances the drama, action, horror and absolute absurdness of it spectacularly well and it all comes together in Home Sick Pilots #12.

Art

Caspar Wijngaard goes all out on the creepiness factor in Home Sick Pilots #12. My gosh, tons of spooky, grotesques, nightmare inducing images throughout the issue. Winjgaard brings the horror elements to life in this issue with some wonderful designs.

Anytime Buzz is in his ghost armor outfit I am all for it, what a delightful design that is! The slim yet bulkiness of it, it is creepy yet cool all at the same time, reminds me a lot of  the live action Guyver movie (come on guys you know the Guyver right?)

Wijngaard switches up his style a little for the flashback sequences in this issue. It is a fantastic very minimal approach, while also switching up his colors with some faded whites and greens for a splendid effect. Talking about colors if you do not like the coloring in this series then just see yourself out. Every time I open up an issue of Home Sick Pilots I am immediately struck by the colors displayed in it. The bright pinks and greens and purples should not work so well, but it creates this story element in and of itself that makes this series so unique.