I’ll admit it: I’m already mostly obsessed with Golgotha Motor Mountain.
To a rather noticeable extent, some of that’s been my own unique relationship with the book. I’ve had more time than usual to really sit with it — heck, I’m reviewing issue #2 just days before issue #1 even hits stands. Plus, I spent quite a bit of time talking to co-writers Matthew Erman and Lonnie Nadler, and that clearly impacted my ongoing dissection and general processing. A lot of this is the nature of comics journalism, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s created this very specific relationship to the book.
Yet as I found out with issue #1, Golgotha delivers beyond any of the “hype.” It’s a title that takes the high and low brow, mashes it all together, and gives us this really thoughtful perspective about American history, race and class, family, the nature of suffering, and even our place in this universe. And it’s no fluke either, as issue #2 further cements my opinion that Golgotha Motor Mountain is an increasingly important book.
I was going to say “previously on Golgotha Motor Mountain,” but issue #1’s not out yet and that’d be dumb. Regardless, the debut saw brothers Elwood and Vernon Damnage switch up their meth-cooking business model after they’re “gifted” an alien meteor. It was this intro that laid the groundwork for what I’d call a Lynchian spin on Beavis and Butthead, as the brothers found themselves stumbling head first into quagmire of celestial body horror, socio-economic warfare, and the stratification of history in their singular pursuit to make it to the big city (Cincinnati, Ohio).
In some essential ways, issue #2 builds on that dynamic of the stupid and the transcendent getting all mixed up in a wholly glorious manner. I mean, the issue opens with a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem for crying out loud, and that kind of framework is really effective in throwing off your equilibrium.
It’s also reflected in the visuals from artist Robbi Rodriguez and colorist Marissa Louise. Nothing I ever can say will do a bit of justice to Rodriguez and Louise’s efforts — it’s a psychedelic mind-bomb across every single page, and it blurs the real and the alien in such a way that none of it and everything makes sense. (The intro third or so, especially, is the love-child of R. Crumb and Jack Kirby on ayahuasca drawing some of the most twisted and yet grounded pieces that give us a foundation for the singular makeup of this place, its people, and how that’s evolving in peculiar directions). But one thing is especially clear: everything is a glorious contextual mess, and through that we are being pummeled into traipsing down this rabbit hole of big ideas and thematic end goals.
Golgotha Motor Mountain #2 cover from Robbi Rodriguez. Courtesy of IDW.
At the same time, though, the creative team use this issue not just to blast away our perceptions but give the story some proper structure and direction. Without revealing too much, we get a a solid antagonist/big bad in Sheriff Carter, Jr., a cruel, overly confident lawman who has set his sights on the brothers (who’ve made their way to their first customers with their new “product”). And it’s a decidedly familiar storyline — police chasing drug dealers — but obviously this story is anything but that. I think how this chapter actually breaks down — with that solid emphasis on Carter — speaks volumes about the larger power of this book.
Nadler and Erman use the sheriff to explore tropes of power and masculinity, doing so in a really inventive way by pairing his love with a specific film to suss out these ideas and criticism and grounding him in a way that’s sort of relatable even as it’s generally upsetting. It’s an effort to pull in different bits of culture, and use comics’ inherently unique structures and pacing, to explore characters in a novel light and also intertwine them with all these narrative and thematic goals in a way that’s more compelling without ever “overburdening” that nougat of humanity. It’s a way in which the writers want to give us something we’ve seen before, but remix it with new skins and ideas and approaches to make it hum with fresh insights. Ultimately, having this unique POV on Carter makes him a more multifaceted “villain,” and someone who extends and contrasts the brothers.
And the duo of Rodriguez and Louise have their own set of tools for handling Carter. Whereas a lot of the visuals with the brothers feel overtly trippy — a way to explain their more endearing, slightly bumbling nature — Carter’s “immersion” into this story (and the alien malarkey in general) feels all the more dark and imposing. He’s also more “aligned” with some of this “technology” from a visual perspective, and that seems to speak volumes about his outlook, effectiveness, morality, and role as an antagonistic force for our dumb but good-natured siblings.
Golgotha Motor Mountain #2 variant cover from Nikola Čižmešija. Courtesy of IDW.
It’s a powerful visual contrast that gives us a short-hand for the values and violence at this man’s heart, and how that might bump up against Vern and Elwood (who operate more like a messed up buddy comedy). It’s another way the art team engages with the same kinds of story elements and ideas as their collaborators, but find new ideas to extend that and even somehow move our thinking and perception in new directions. It’s the mark of a truly great book when everything clicks like this cohesively and yet on vastly different levels.
This issue isn’t all about Carter, though. The brothers get plenty of screen time here, and we see more of their dynamic (Vern’s more directness and headstrong qualities leading Eldwood’s naivety every step of the way), and even some important personal insights (Elwood, especially, feels more vital after this issue). And when you think about the brothers amid all of this issue’s happenings — the more directly sinister nature taking over, the way we’re cementing and breaking apart story tropes — the Damnages feel even more important. They’re a big human core in a book that’s anything but, and their interactions/presence help ease us into Golgotha‘s efforts to remix culture, storytelling, emotions, art, etc. into a brain-altering alien rock of its own.
I love the arc that the brothers are on leading out of issue #2, and it’s going to be a rush to see the new ways this series extends this core narrative into some utterly bonkers but highly affective territory. Maybe I have been “pushed” into having a different relationship with this book, but then this ain’t your grampy’s noir-esque caper/family drama/alien drug-running adventure. It’s the kind of book that sneaks its way into your eyes and mouth (and heart), and it’s better if you just breathe it in real deep.
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