Original title: Locke & Key
Writer: Joe Hill
Illustrator: Gabriel
Rodríguez
Year of Publication: 2008
Number of pages: per comic.
Available in: English, Spanish
I read it in: English (a few numbers in Spanish)
“Death isn't the end of you life, you know. Your body is a lock. Death
is the key. The key turns... and you're free. To be anywhere. Everywhere. Two
places at once. Nowhere. Part of the background hum of the universe.”
After the
tragic murder of their father, the Locke brothers and their mother move to a
house called Keyhouse in Massachussets, a place that holds many secrets, some of them dangerous waiting to be freed, behind many doors, and you only have to find the
right key.
Locke
& Key is a thriller comic book series that ended around 2013 comprised of six
volumes: Welcome to Lovecraft, Head Games, Crown of Shadows, Keys to the
Kingdom, Clockworks and Alpha & Omega. It was written by Joe Hill, more
prominently known as Stephen King’s son and writer of books like NOS4A2 and Horns, now a
movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, and it was illustrated by Gabriel
Rodriguez, a Chilean illustrator who previously worked on the set of game cards
known as Myths and Leyends. This
introduction to both their works is important because, boy, they are good, and
I expect to see them soon with more comics.
In this
story we follow the Locke brothers, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode, who are trying
really hard to cope with their father’s death. We go with them through the
funeral to the move to the new house, far away from California, where their
mother plan son them to find a new life. In this house the youngest, Bode,
finds a strange key that opens a strange door, one of the many in the house,
and he goes through it to find something amazing. This plot by itself is really
intriguing as we find out that there are more and more keys with different
powers and worlds behind them, but we also have the issue of Sam, one of the
kids that killed Mr. Locke, who is locked in juvenile detention and talks with
a mysterious lady in the water that promises to set him free. As the story goes
on, and more terrible and violent things keep on happening, we discover that
this story has been repeating itself from many years ago.
So
far, Locke & Key is my favorite comic book series. The story is scary,
misterious, thrilling and witty and the illustrations are colorful, sinister
and some of my favorites in any comic book I’ve read, and I find that I like better Joe Hill's style of writing and story-telling than the few things I've read of his father, mucho more realistic regarding terror.
- Where to buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository.
- There was a tv show pilot made, but it never aired: trailer.
- Gabriel Rodriguez' twitter.
- Joe Hill's twitter.
- Myths and Legends: Illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez.
