“An emotional ending and one that clearly shows how the Home Sick Pilots and the ghosts they’ve gotten tangled up with have changed the world, and really, is there anything else that a young punk band could hope for?”
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
Lettered: Aditya Bidikar
Designer: Tom Muller
Production Artist: Erika Schnatz
It was last November that I learnt that there would only be fifteen issues of Home Sick Pilots. It came as a surprise at the time and with each passing issue I’ve been looking forward to seeing how everything was going to be resolved by this point. Even with a fairly contained cast of characters and locations the series has spanned a great deal of the United States and some of the events that have taken place have had world altering ramifications. So the challenge of making this a fifteen issue series seemed like a sizable one.
Last issue we saw all the ghosts finally returned to the Old James House, the defeat of Meg and the Nuclear Bastard she was piloting, and with it seemingly Old James getting what he’d always wanted: his whole ‘family’ back together in the house he’d built.
In Home Sick Pilots #15, we get to see how our protagonists are getting on now that the Old James House is back where it started with its owner in charge of things once again. As this is the final issue, I feel it would be a dick move to give too much away about what happens here.
As ever, Caspar Wijngaard’s artwork is great throughout this issue, it conveys genuine emotion in the interactions between the characters, builds gloriously complicated supernatural settings and shows the true terror that Old James is capable of, and the creepiness of his house. Wijngaard’s colouring, as ever, adds an amazing extra level to the art, pastel pinks, greens and purples are an aesthetic that I’ll forever have a soft spot for.
Aditya Bidikar’s lettering is on point here as it has been for every issue of the series, he’s one of my favourite letterers right now and he never fails to give humans and ghosts different voices, accentuated by changes in the speech bubbles used as well as the fonts.
I’ve loved Home Sick Pilots since the very first issue, every month there’s been an instalment it’s been right at the top of my list of books to read, and I’ll be honest I am sad to see the series come to an end, but I’d rather this than a great that outstays its welcome. I was unsure about what kind of conclusion we would get in this issue but, as someone who’s been seriously invested in the series, I’ll tell you this: it’s a satisfying ending. It might not be the one you want, but it’s one that makes sense. It’s an emotional ending and one that clearly shows how the Home Sick Pilots and the ghosts they’ve gotten tangled up with have changed the world, and really, is there anything else that a young punk band could hope for?
Bigger Than Capes 