LOCKE & KEY #2 by Joe Hill with Gabriel Rodriguiz

Joe Hill kicked off his comic-writing career with IDW Publishing with an imaginative and compelling story. Locke & Key flew off the shelves in comics stories, required another printing, and was snapped up almost immediately by movie production companies.

For those who don’t know yet, Joe Hill is one of Stephen King’s sons. Joe wanted to become known as a horror writer in his own right rather than hanging onto his famous dad’s coattails, and Joe has succeeded in a lot of ways. His first novel, Heart-Shaped Box garnered a lot of literary attention as well as readers. His collection, 20th Century Ghosts, became well-known in short order.

Locke & Key is going to be at least a six-issue comic series, though Joe promises he’s got plots that would take the series out to nearly 70 issues if he gets to write them. The story’s focus is on the Locke family, which went through the horrible tragedy of losing there father, Rendell Locke, to psychotic students he once taught.

Issue #2 picks up the family’s story after they’ve moved to Lovecraft, Massachusetts. And doesn’t that name summon all kinds of wicked demons immediately to mind? As it turns out, Keyhouse, where the family moved, has got all kinds of dangerous secrets lurking within it.

I love Joe’s easy storytelling ability. He makes everything look simple as he tells the story through dialogue between the characters as well as Bode’s first-person narration. Bode Locke is in grade school and Joe portrays his voice convincingly throughout. Joe maintains the eye and focus of a child almost effortlessly, filled with excitement, the need to be the center of attention, and the disappointment and irritability that he displays when that doesn’t happen.

Joe also writes Bode intelligently, showing how he’s smarter than the monster he discovers in the wellhouse. But he also has fun with Bode, showing how Bode carries on while he’s bored, such as putting the mop bucket on his head while talking to the woman in the bottom of the well. Of course, the inherent danger of walking on the edge of the well that seems to miss Bode screams in the face of the reader. I found myself tensing up, waiting for Bode to inevitably fall into the well and meet his doom.

Gabriel Rodriguiz’s artwork is stupendous this time around again. His energy and understanding of the characters is on every page, and he works hard to play with different angles so readers aren’t looking at the same kind of picture or view each time. The environment is interesting, spooky, and foreboding all at once, and I love it. You can actually see how the movie should look in these pages.

Joe’s first page of the new comic is a riot. It’s a page taken from Bode’s homework, and it retells everything the family has been through up to this point. His mom believes the part about him becoming a ghost when he goes through one of the house’s doors is just a fabrication. We know better because we saw this happen to Bode in the last issue. In case you forgot, we see Bode in ghost-form watching his mom and his uncle talking about him while they’re sitting out on the veranda.

I love how Joe is slowly parsing out the information and background of the house. I don’t want to know everything all at once, and he’s not a storyteller that dumps everything on you and doesn’t keep surprises or twists to himself. Things are wild and weird in this series, and I’ve gotten totally wrapped up in the world and the characters.

The monster at the bottom of the wellhouse is going to mean a lot of trouble. I really enjoyed the subtle way Joe and Gabriel revealed her evil nature to the reader through the mirror sequence. That was a grabber once I saw it, and it doesn’t hit you between the eyes. If you’re not paying attention you’ll miss it.

I also like the way that Sam Lesser, one of the teens that killed Rendell, remains a threat to the family. Especially when the monstrous lady at the bottom of the well speaks to him and offers him a key to get out of the sanitarium where he’s being held.

With everything going on, I can’t wait till the next issue. I’m just glad it’s only a month away. If you haven’t picked up this great series, you’re missing out on some groundbreaking horror.