Comic Review: Mountainhead Vol.1 (IDW Publishing)

IDW Publishing releases a graphic novel about a pack of series of creatures that are crawling through the mountains in Mountainhead on its first volume.

So, what happens if the monsters from the underworld get to wander around the depths of the earth to hide somewhere, and then they found a quiet eerie town with some of the most freezing environment in Canada, near Alaska, then here is this comic in a nutshell. Basically, this is what humans experience themselves to have their ghost of the past, but this time we take you to some different people who saw those demons hiding in the mountains. The story is written by John Lees and illustrated by Ryan Lee. John is a comic book writer based in Glasgow, Scotland who wrote his first published comic of “The Standard” in January 2013, and collaborated with some other artists to help them write stories.

The front cover shows one of the menacing cover arts that any illustrator could have drawn. Here’s the main character who is surrounded by monsters and being grabbed by some tentacles, and from the look of him, he’s really scared. There’s no knowledge that there are so many monsters that resides through the mountains. But this isn’t Undertale, in fact, the monsters are scouring over town looking for him. In the background, it seems that the artist has drawn something that came out by using a blue drafting pencil. Then again, it almost seems that it was used by white chalk on a chalkboard, and it almost resembles a face on the background. Alright, imagine if everyone went back to school and they see this sick drawing of the background where the tentacles are going over the background and Donald Trump was being strangled, it’s sick but it would be amazing.

So the story can be really disturbing, if you rather want to get this comic for yourself, then be my guest, but I’m gonna throw you the short version of it. So the story starts where the main character and his father are robbing some people’s houses for a living by taking something valuable to sell them for money. Later on, the father seemed to be troubled, which would mean that someone is after them. The police? FBI? The Government? I don’t know, but he has seen a ghost, and it’s something that is messing with his mind, and then made a promise to his son if whatever happens to him if he gets caught, his son would kill him. That night, some old man called the police, and once they got the burglars around, his dad shot himself, leaving his son to cause such trauma and surrounded by demons in his head. It’s no surprise that this comic can be so disturbing. After that, some woman from the child protective services took him home to Braeriach, British Columbia where the town is like the scenery from Grimsvig town from the Klaus comics. Everyone is overjoyed to his return, but there are some of the strangest things that this town can hold. But I wonder, what darkest secret that this town holds with these demons around the mountains.

No matter how I look at this comic, the story is like if the Batman who laughs wasn’t enough, the story just brings you one of the creepiest sides of the series that is taken place in a town with some of the freakiest people around. Apparently, this is the beginning of 2021 so I just wonder what lies up ahead. Not to mention that this story can be that eerie, but this is almost turning into Image Comic material. The art is flawless, not only the character designs but the details too. First of all, after coming across this story, the art is almost reminded me of Farmhand on Image, except where the weird human mutation between man and plant, there are some monsters that are growing with tentacles and stuff. The anatomy is turning to another level, way much more beyond than Attack of Titan. No matter how much art did he create, he created a world where man and beast are taking over the town. I can’t tell the difference between 2020 and this comic, but this is enough for me. If you rather want to read a comic where a part of town in Canada is in apocalypse then this is for you.