Home Sick Pilots by Dan Watters and Casper Wijngaard (Vol 1: Teenage Haunts)

How did this YA horror comic get into my hands? Well, it was sold to me by an enterprising comic shop employee who took my: “I like Wicked + Devine, Paper Girls, and Saga” and said, “Then you’ll like that one in your hands.” I didn’t remember picking it up. So I bought it.

So, this comic is definitely haunted, which is apropos, since it’s about the guitarist in a punk band (Home Sick Pilots) who goes to scope out the local haunted house on the hill and bonds with it. Ami decides to stay and help the house find all of its stolen ghosts because they are both lonely and empty inside, but the house is lying to her. Her bandmates try to find her, help her, but the house kills people around them and creates rooms and hallways forever separating them.

The art in this is very Paper Girls-esque, but on the more gory side. Lots LOTS more blood and very creepy ghosts.

I also really liked the commentary on the 90’s punk scene and issues around youth unhousedness.

I keep thinking that this book wasn’t my “usual fare”. Yes, it’s not a romance like Saga, nor high fantasy like W+D, or sci-fi like Paper Girls, I don’t know that I yet have a typical comic genre. Though I can say with some confidence that if you illustrate it in neon blues, pinks, and purples, I will buy it. -Ford