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Locke and Key #1
Posted 05 Mar 2008
Writer: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Colors: Jay Fotos
Publisher: IDW Publishing
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
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Four green-backs for a monthly book is steep whichever way you
shine the light on it, but Joe Hill’s horrific look into tragedy
and the fateful consequence of choice is worth the financial hit.
I’m sure there was hype leading up to the release of Locke
&n Key #1, given Mr. Hill’s critical success and
literary lineage (he’s Stephen King’s son, for those of
you who missed the memo) but I didn’t learn about his excursion
into the realm of comics, Spider-Man notwithstanding, until it
was mentioned on Neil Gaiman’s blog. I had read both Joe
Hill’s debut novel Heart-Shaped Box, and his short story
collection 20th Century Ghosts, previous to this news and
enjoyed them immensely, so I was rather happy, if a bit reticent.
“Pure and original and scary as
hell.”
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Oftentimes we will see a novelist, TV writer, or some other
purveyor of wonders come into our little nook of Faerie with pomp and
hype only to find that they couldn’t pace a comic, or deal with
subtleties that make a good monthly work, to save their very lives.
Exhibit A: In Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, was anyone else
disappointed that the whole twenty-four odd pages of the first issue
contained about enough action to squeeze into a before-the-title
sequence of Lost? What a waste of potential story-telling space. Not
so in Locke & Key #1, where we are not only introduced to the
characters we will accompany throughout the story, but also to the
inner workings that make them more than their two-dimensional
renditions, and the events that lay the foundation for all that is to
come. In addition, this first issue contains just enough off-camera,
bloody horror to tweak the interest of those just interested in a good
scare.
Going into the book, I was a bit turned-off by Gabriel
Rodriguez’s art in regards to the subject matter, because, at
first glance, his style just didn’t capture what I thought of as
horrific. That was before I read the book, however. With each
sequence, Mr. Rodriguez’s artwork grew on me like a shiver up my
spine. He displays here a definite sensitivity toward what needs to be
shown and what is better suited to be left just around the corner,
just outside the light. A well laid shadow, after all, can be more
frightening than a room full of blood. Horror filmmakers on the whole
seem to have forgotten this, so thank God we can still get it in our
comics.
My only complaint of the book is in its rather ham-fisted evocation
of H.P. Lovecraft. The titular Keyhouse is located in the fictional
Lovecraft, Massachusetts somewhere in the region, I can only guess, of
Lovecraft’s own Miskatonic River Valley. This, however, is
nothing more than a veteran horror buff’s tiredness of the
cliché of summoning up the name of the Bard of Horror, enacted
too often because no one else’s name is so synonymous with
fright and madness, and that it’s an easy way to set the tone.
Maybe Mr. Hill, whom I credit with no less than full capability,
has gone the full yard and used the name Lovecraft in such a blatant
way as an attempt, in a counterintuitive manner, to wipe clean any
chances of having some half-wit critic (ahem) dredge up any derogatory
Lovecraftian comparatives. Or maybe he just wanted to slice in a
little homage to a master. What about calling it King, Massachusetts
and giving the old man a wink and a nod? But, to keep our geography
straight, a town named after Stephen King would probably have to be a
bit further north.
Regardless of these nitpickings, the most important thing remains
pure and original and scary as hell: the story. Beyond the first issue
trial, I usually wait for a miniseries or story arc to be completed
before I read it, but I believe Locke & Key will be different.
I now wait with bated breath to find out what Joe Hill and Gabriel
Rodriguez will have lurking each month behind the many doors of
Keyhouse and what will happen to the people who dare to unlock them.
In the meantime I’ll be adjusting my budget to afford those IDW
prices.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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