Hell on Earth will rise if the final ghost cannot be quieted, which is rather a lot for the Pilots to be managing as a band that struggles with three-chord songs. And yet they persevere in Home Sick Pilots #13, written by Dan Watters, drawn by Caspar Wijngaard, lettered by Aditya Bidikar and designed by Tom Muller for Image.
Dan Grote: So I’ve noticed you haven’t been having as much fun with this series of late, Forrest. I don’t know if this issue is going to be the one that turns this around — arc three still feels like the weakest, Wijngaard art or no — but I think I’ve got at least a fun little diversion planned for this chat, if you’re up for it.
Forrest Hollingsworth: Dan, you’re right to say that I was nearly fed up with this arc, but I actually liked this issue a lot! Just when you think I’m going left, I’m going right; just when you think I’m zigging, I’m actually zagging; just when you think my stock is falling, it’s rising. I’m a punk genius, a counterculture connoisseur!
I — sorry, you had a bit? Let’s do your bit now.
Leave the Drummers out of This
Dan: “The drummer’s always the one who gets replaced and no one even fucking notices,” says Rip.
Now listen, Rip has been a mopey boy nearly since jump, since the other characters started having this grand adventure and he got left behind and assaulted by that cop in issue #2. So he’s not in the right headspace, which is part of the point of this whole issue. Even so, I feel the need to point out: That’s bullshit.
Keith Moon’s overdose death was global news, so people noticed when he was replaced in The Who TWO MONTHS LATER by Kenney Jones.
Chad Channing’s replacement by Dave Grohl in Nirvana gave the band the lineup that exists in everyone’s mind, and the same can be said of William Goldsmith’s replacement with Taylor Hawkins in Grohl’s Foo Fighters.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer had to change their name when they replaced Carl Palmer with Cozy Powell in 1986 because Palmer was too busy being in Asia (the band, not the continent; although Asia likely toured Asia at some point).
When Eric Carr replaced Peter Criss, the guy who wrote “Beth,” in KISS, people noticed. It’s a different guy in different makeup! Who didn’t write “Beth”! You can’t replace a cat-man with a fox-man and expect people not to notice.
When Phil Collins left Genesis in 1996 and had to be replaced both as drummer and lead singer, you bet your ass my mom noticed.
And, of course, two words: Pete Best.
Forrest, who is your favorite replaced or replacement drummer?
Forrest: The Roland TR-808 Drum Machine.
By his own admission, Kanye West’s drumming and drum samplings were always the weakest element of his production. So, on the advent of recording 808s and Heartbreak, an album he already intended to be sonically different from his previous work, he centralized the drums as something to perfect and did so by using the 808. It also accidentally (or purposefully, depending on whom you ask) changed the industry forever in a way that both benefits a specific view of hip-hop production but also dramatically changes the presence of trained and capable musicians from other fields.
Maybe that’s a bit how Rip is feeling, that his imperfectness, the messiness of his downfalls and need for attention and such, would be better replaced by a machine perfectly tailored to everyone else’s needs, for better or worse.
A toilet machine … which would be a bidet I guess, but we don’t have time to get into that here.
Dan: Au contraire, friend. We’re headed to toilet town anyway; might as well get a jump on things. Rip is coming to the Toilet Ghost at just the right time. While she may be augmenting his self-pity as an effect of her powers, he’s already got plenty of woe-is-me to spare, so giving in to that leaves him open to bonding with her — to becoming the Toilet Machine — which could be just what everyone needs heading into the final battle. We’ll talk about that a little more later, but let’s focus on the other half of the machine for a minute.
Toilet Ghost, or How Much World-Building Is Too Much World-Building?
Dan: How do you feel about the reveal that Toilet Ghost — Juliette — is Old James’ daughter?
Forrest: So I actually came around on loving Juliette’s characterization — the inverse construction of the house, the tunnels, but if you’re getting at this particular plot development being a bit out of nowhere, then I have to agree.
It’s kind of like Star Wars, where everything keeps boiling down to issues between the Skywalkers. At some point, everyone is going to independently recognize that and either distance themselves from it or go about limiting the scope, right? Just leave James and Juliette down there to duke it out!
This is all to say that I think the reveal might’ve worked better if we had more tangibly known about the toilet seat prior to this arc. I’m not suggesting Watters should’ve completely spoiled the reveal per se, but there are ways to at least hint at it, y’know? Eyes in the darkness, toilet-like stenches, narrative cutaways to Juliette’s view from behind the glass.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I’m actively disappointed that this is the direction and that something like Ami’s relationship with her parents — which was central to the first arc — is not.
Wijngaard recently tweeted that he and Watters conceptualized Home Sick Pilots as a three-arc series since the beginning, but here at the end it feels like the priorities are just a bit … off, like too much is reliant on the periphery (fitting for ghosts, but maybe not for storytelling). They might circle around to getting it totally, unequivocally right in the spin-off they’ve hinted at, which I’m assuming we’ll be around to cover as well.
Dan: Like ghosts, we shall linger here till our earthly business is finished. And then? … Um …
But getting back to the sad sacks at the heart of things, Rip and Toilet Ghost appear to be the most symbiotic of the three Pilot/ghost combinations. Buzz wears Old James like armor he can just take on and off. Ami is a mech pilot, controlling a house-shaped suit powered by multiple weaponized ghosts. Rip and Toilet Ghost are sharing pain in a way the other characters haven’t. Dare I say, Forrest, they … are … Venom?
Forrest: Ah! My brand!
In all seriousness though, you’re right about the synchronicity, and I want to say here that that’s mostly attributable to Wijngaard. Some of the most effective imagery of the entire series is conjured up here: Juliette shackled by the seat, the burden around her neck even in a void, her presence behind Rip, the evaporation of the sentinel. It’s all so shockingly grounded and proportionally weighted — the visual cause and effect so trackable — for something that could easily be a bunch of meaningless or fantastical poses and battles.
Not to mention Rip’s sentai design — which I would’ve expected to be a little more gross or spooky given Juliette’s moss powers — looks sick as hell.
Dan: It’s a good design, that’s for true. Now, here’s a thing I thought of a little late in my reading and by turns this conversation: Should we have expected Old James and Toilet Ghost to be related because toilet seats are the same shape as horseshoes. Isn’t that … lucky?
Forrest: Oh, fuck me.
A letter to the letterer
Dan: Old James, Toilet Ghost and the General RZOR/RZOR’s Grandpa/RZOR’s Grandpa’s Dog ghost turducken each have their own distinct word balloons/narration boxes, often jockeying for position on the same page. Now, I’ve been groomed to be used to this since the 1990s, when Deadpool showed up with white balloons in red outlines and later yellow balloons, and Aditya Bidikar is factually one of the best letterers in the biz. But how much is too much when it comes to bespoke word balloons?
Forrest: I’m typically anti prose pages, so anything approaching that is about my limit, but it seems reasonable enough here, still within the context of the story.
At the very least, it helps me keep RZOR and Rip separate.
Dan: Ah yes, our favorite thing to harp on from the second arc. Now, all these characters with specialty balloons, how do their respective voices sound in your head?
Forrest: Rip: Something like Keanu Reeves in Point Break.
Rzor: Trent Reznor (c’mon). I’m imagining the dinosaur/grandpa as something like Dafoe Green Goblin.
Juliette: Started all whispery and far away but became full-on “Dark Queen” Galadriel once she and Rip were melded.
Old James: I think it’s just like … garbage disposal sounds but people perceive the intention.
Dan: Same, except for me, Rip’s Keanu is Ted “Theodore” Logan from the Bill & Ted movies. Santa Manos High School football rules!
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief 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 Winston Wisdom.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
