Go Back to Where It All Began in Home Sick Pilots #12

The history of the ghosts is laid bare as Rip and Buzz’s hunt for the final missing ghost of the Old James House takes them deep into the past sins of America in Home Sick Pilots #12, written by Dan Watters, drawn by Caspar Wijngaard, lettered by Aditya Bidikar and designed by Tom Muller for Image.

Dan: Y’know those episodes of The X-Files where once in a while they’d actually explain some of the conspiracy stuff that was the main underpinning of the show? That’s what this issue felt like, and it was a refreshing change of pace from last issue’s exposition expo. What say you, friend Forrest?

Forrest: Black Oil, Colonists, Syndicate and the Well-Manicured Man. I remember, Dan. I remember for both better and worse, which is a little how I’m feeling about this arc, too. Should we get into it?

Dan: Let’s go find us a toilet ghost.

To Feel It or Not to Feel It

Dan: OK, so for me, part of the difference is what happens when the focus is off Ami and Meg. Suddenly there are fewer exposition dumps, less opining on “the sins of America” and the scenes are driven by dialogue and action (which is crazy because the Ami and Meg scenes are one giant ghost-robot fight). Even the flashback scene doesn’t feel like an expo dump, it feels revelatory.

Forrest: I agree with you on principle, but not necessarily on execution. The things I love here are the bits that actually embody the characters for us. Rip and Buzz’s conversation about their little love triangle comes to mind, as does the really haunting story of the last guard left standing eternal watch over the artifact.

The things I don’t, though, are variations on the same issue we took with the “sins of America” stuff. See that scene in the flashback where the lead “Necropolis” scientist says the Toilet Ghost is “weaponizing her grief.” So? Sorry to this woman, but I don’t know her. She could pass me on the street and I wouldn’t say a damn thing to her. Without a genuine, articulated emotional connection to the characters, it’s all just kind of abstract lore. This is the same issue X-Files had. It’s good when it makes sense to Mulder and Scully, but when it’s about the fate of the world as a whole it just comes across as cheap sci-fi pageantry.

Dan: Hmm. You’re right there. I was always more of a “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” kinda guy.

Forrest: I’m very mixed on the whole thing, and more than a little vexed by it too because I thought the preceding arcs did a really good job of that character-driven narrative embodiment without flattening down their dimensionality or overexplaining them.

Dan: Well, hopefully this is the beginning of a steer out of the skid.

Hey, speaking of the toilet ghost, we learn how she works this issue, much the same way as we came to understand the other ghosts last issue. One thing that did bug me: There appears to be a similarity between the way the toilet ghost warps the underground tunnels and how the wardrobe ghost creates endless liminal space. Did you pick up on that?

Forrest: There does seem to be a suggestion of the “other,” right? Some sort of parallel or overlapping realm that is at least somewhat malleable. Contextualized right, a whole flashback arc or spin-off about the discovery and measure of it could be really interesting. Like the expeditions into Stranger Things’ Upside-Down.

Dan: I could see that. The Home Sick Pilots are kinda like the Hawkins kids with a couple extra years and some shitty guitars on them. Maybe they graduate past the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and get into the hard stuff? Eleven gets really into Richard Hell and the Voidoids? Yes, yes, I like this plan.

This issue also gives us the origin of the ghosts vs. nuclear testing thread. It’s like ghosts are Zoolander and nuclear testing is Hansel, so hot right now.

Forrest: I thought that was genuinely hilarious. Nice toilet seat, champ, but does it explode?

Casp from the Past

Dan: Wijngaard changes up his style for the 1941 flashback scene, to the point where I had to scroll back to the beginning and check to see whether they’d brought in a guest artist. It’s scratchier, inkier, with gray lettering and a subtle sickly green patina, like playing Tetris on the first Game Boy. What did you think of the presentation on this scene?

Forrest: I liked it! That washed out Army green is perfect tone setting for the narrative, both because it alludes to the military-funded scrappiness of everything, and because that same mossy green lends itself to black mold and overgrowth, something we’ll see later in the dilapidated remnants of what’s left.

Wijngaard consistently and articulately does things like this, accentuating the narrative with the visuals in such a considered, sometimes subliminally evocative way. Oftentimes if I find the words a little groan-inducing, I can still appreciate the sheer depth and breadth of artistry on display.

Dan: Issue in and issue out, Caspar is the reason for the season. Talking about the stuff happening in the present (which is still our past, considering the book is set in 1994), I also got big Sienkiewicz vibes from the ¾-page panel of Rip alone in the darkness.

Forrest: That page is my favorite in the entire issue! The idea of the maze of mold and darkness reaching out and growing around you, an organic labyrinth where all paths lead to your worst moments? Really good, immediately scary stuff, and a nice visual riff on the all-black textured pages that split up scenes in the previous arcs.

Sad Rip Is sad

Dan: Since the beginning of this series, Rip has spent the most time feeling either confused, lost, angry or sad. The band’s adventures always seem to be happening next to him rather than to him. Even Buzz has gotten accustomed to occasionally donning horseshoe armor, and he’s starting to get sick of Rip’s shit (although that could also be indicative of the effect the Old James ghosts are having on Buzz the longer he hangs around them, but that’s a plot development for another issue).

At this point, what do you think a Big Damn Hero moment looks like for Rip, or is he just too much of a mopey sad sack to be redeemed?

Forrest: The one thing Rip hasn’t done is shut up, right? While I’m wary of the narrative’s predilections in this regard, I think we need a big speech. Gimme that good, articulate emotional resolution. Maybe he’ll even recognize the similarities in his own experience and the toilet ghost’s … maybe he’ll end up getting possessed by her and becoming a major antagonist. But hey, either way he should try.

I believe in you Rip.

Cool Miscellany, Bro

Hey, they brought back General RZOR, the guy who looks too much like Rip! I was looking forward to no longer being confused when they were both on panel. But at least he’s a Jurassic Park logo ghost now.
Interesting that the Ami-vs-Meg fight suddenly became a casualty-free affair, when Meg explicitly bragged about absorbing the ghosts of cops and System Disrupt into herself in the previous issue.
Always happy to see a dog carry narrative weight.
You know I JUST noticed the back cover amasses new stickers and doodles on it with each issue?

Dan Grote

Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom.