REVIEW: 'Home Sick Pilots' #1 by Dan Watters and Caspar Wijngaard

 The team behind LIMBO, DAN WATTERS (Lucifer, COFFIN BOUND) and CASPAR WIJNGAARD (Star Wars, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt), launch a brand-new ONGOING SERIES.

In the summer of 1994, a haunted house walks across California. Inside is Ami, lead singer of a high school punk band-who's been missing for weeks. How did she get there, and what do these ghosts want? Expect three-chord songs and big bloody action that's Power Rangers meets The Shining (yes, really).

HOME SICK PILOTS #1

Writer: Dan Watters

Artist: Caspar Wijngaard

Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Designed by Tom Muller

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: December 9, 2020

Cover Price: $3.99

Score: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

This new series is billed as 'The Haunting of Hill House' meets 'Paper Girls' and it's not far off. Here, the kids are older, teens in rival punk bands, who battle each other and not just on stage. The setting and vibe are very 1990's complete with rockers wearing flannel, beanies, and leather jackets. The tone is that of a dark comedy with bigger horror ambitions. 

When Ami goes missing the kids suspect she's in the infamous haunted house in town and the issue really kicks up another gear or two when they enter the property. By that time, as a reader, you're hooked and craving for more after the final page. Dan Watters has an ear for dialogue and while the set-up is a little janky with the feuding band members the overall mission of getting them in that house so the fun can begin is worth the time to get there. 

Caspar Wijngaard does some inventive and terrifying things here that make the pages worth lingering to look at a while longer. What Cliff Chiang does with the aforementioned 'Paper Girls' in limiting the color scheme to a certain set of colors is what Wijngaard does here and it pops. Magenta, purple, and blue all carry the story here with varying degrees of effectiveness. It really glues the eyeballs to the page even when the page goes black. The story hinges on letterer Aditya Bidikar's ability to diversify the dialogue and narration from situation to situation. The art is sharp, creative, and eye-popping. 

'Home Sick Pilots' is the 90's teen horror movie we never got but deserve here in 2020. One of the bright spots in a mostly dreary year. Watters and Wijngaard have created a fun and scary haunted house tale that simply rocks.