Image Comics 2020
Written by Dan Watters
Illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar
The Old James House has lost its ghosts. With her new powers, it’s up to Ami to bring them back…whether they want to come home or not. Even when they’re really big ghosts wrapped in metal, with lots of sharp edges and things.
Sometimes when a first issue comes in hot the second one has a lot to live up to and the last thing you want is the good ole sophomore slump. Thankfully with this creative team there is absolutely nothing to worry about in that occurring. So this issue starts us off with a flashback to how the Home Sick Pilots met and formed their band. The way that Dan manages to really let us into their world before and now is great because it’s just an easy way to understand is brilliantly handled.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well done. The character development that we see is utterly phenomenal to see. If you see how the boys act and react to the house and Ami tells you everything you really need to know about the dynamic between these three. I am so incredibly impressed with how we see them all act and react to the situations and circumstances really showcase who these kids are. The pacing we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way it’s wonderful to really get a closer look at all aspects of the story.
The way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow and emerge keep adding new and stronger dimensions to the story. I like how we see the way that we see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow. Dan has some impressive writing skills and they are on full display here and just the way he presents something is outside the box and makes it appear as normal as can be or kind of like Marilyn fit into the Munsters either way you slice it it works better than you think it would on paper.
The interiors here is great. Caspar is able to utilise the linework and its varying weights that are able to showcase the detail work we see is pretty amazing. I am going to say we need to see more backgrounds, i love seeing them and they enhance the moments and bring this amazing depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a superb eye for storytelling. The colour work is incredibly rendered. I think my favourite is when we see the red and black moments, they have this whole way about them of conveying a lot of emotion and feeling through the way see this. The various hues and tones that we see within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really rather impressive.
I am having fun with this so far and things are never going to be what you think they are and that’s pretty amazing in and of itself. You can never think you know what’s going to happen or know how characters are going to react so it is really one of those really tension building stories that you can’t get enough of. It engages the reader beautifully and it will keep you coming back time and time again because now you have to know what we’ll see next.