Home Sick Pilots #8: Check Your Head

Writing

The first half of Home Sick Pilots #8 is excellent and exactly what the series needed. Ami talks about the ghost in the Old James House, how they got attached to their respective objects and what is going on in her head. Dan Watters gives the stories this delightful Macabre feel to them. They are short and to the point, but add a tremendous amount to the overall story of Ami and the Home Sick Pilots series as a whole. It starts to help patch things together, just from a world building aspect. We start to learn what exactly is happening.

It also, helps us connect with Ami more and more. As she details these stories and people that now live in her head we start to grow closer to her. I also loved the short intersection with Meg and Trip; there is a fantastic little piece of dialogue between the two that I myself have been wondering about. A slight spoiler but with Tripp basically running out on his friends and bandmates. It is a plot point I am eagerly awaiting to continued to be addressed.

The second half of Home Sick Pilots #8 was a little “iffy” on my part. The whole punk rock show felt like it could have been used for a better story continuation. I mean, yes we all hat nazi racist and if you are looking for un-sympathetic bad guy fodder then it is the way to go. But, the two pages of dialogue felt like “okay we get it”. I do like where the ending of the issue brings us though as it sets up a coming climatic battle.

Art

The art for Home Sick Pilots continues to be a strong point, if at times the story does not fully engulf me. Caspar Winjgaard continues a wonderful visual display with some truly mesmerizing coloring work throughout the series and this issue.

Winjgaard changes up art style a little for the punk rock how scenes. The lines feel a little rougher and a little “dirtier” than what the series normally looks like. There is a little edge and it changes up the tone fantastically well. Winjgaard also changes up the coloring style in those scenes as well. It is still that same color scheme , but again the colors are less bright, a little dingy putting you right in the shows atmosphere.

I was a little let down by the “creature” design in Home Sick Pilots #8. Wijngaard has knocked it out of the park with these ghost and other monster designs. This one just felt very un-imaginative. Especially compared to how cool Meg looks in her “blood/ghost” mech controlling System Disrupt suit.