Locke & Key

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Locke & Key
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Cover of Locke & Key: Welcome To Lovecraft 1 (February 2008). Art by Gabriel Rodriguez.
Created by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Publication information
Publisher IDW Publishing
Schedule Monthly
Title(s) Welcome to Lovecraft
Head Games
Crown of Shadows
Keys to the Kingdom
Clockworks
Formats Original material for the series has been published as a set of limited series.
Genre Horror
Publication date Welcome to Lovecraft
February–July 2008
Head Games
January–June 2009
Crown of Shadows
November 2009 - April 2010
Keys to the Kingdom
August 2010 - March 2011
Clockworks
June 2011 - April 2012
Omega
November 2012 - present
Number of issues 6 per miniseries (but 7 in Omega), plus two one-shots "The Guide to Known Keys" and Grindhouse
Creative team
Writer(s) Joe Hill
Artist(s) Gabriel Rodriguez
Letterer(s) Robbie Robbins
Colorist(s) Jay Fotos
Creator(s) Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Editor(s) Chris Ryall
Reprints
Collected editions
Welcome to Lovecraft ISBN 978-1-60010-237-0
Head Games ISBN 9781600104831
Crown of Shadows ISBN 9781600106958

Locke & Key is a comic book series written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez and published by IDW Publishing.

Plot summary[edit | edit source]

After the gruesome murder of their father, the Locke kids, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode move with their mother Nina to the ancestral family home, Keyhouse. They soon discover that the house is full of secrets when they start finding magical keys which hold impossible powers such as turning people into ghosts, or being able to erase someone's memories. They are not the only ones who know of the keys; a demonic creature known as Dodge is also after the keys, with the goal of opening the Black Door, which will allow the demons of hell to enter our world.

Publication history[edit | edit source]

The narrative of Locke & Key is structured in three acts, with each act consisting of two six-issue storylines. Act One's first story arc, Welcome to Lovecraft, was a six-issue limited series published by IDW Publishing. The first issue of Welcome to Lovecraft was released on February 20, 2008 and sold out in a single day, requiring a second printing to be done immediately.[1] The second arc of Act One, entitled Head Games, commenced with the release of the first issue on January 22, 2009.[2] The actual Head Games story was printed in four issues, with a standalone prologue ("Intermission" or "The Joe Ridgeway Story") and a standalone conclusion ("Army Of One").[3]

Act Two of the Locke & Key story consists of two limited, six-issue miniseries; the first storyline of Act Two, Crown of Shadows, began in the fall of 2009.[4] The second storyline, Keys to the Kingdom, began in August 2010.

The first storyline of Act Three was initially announced as Time & Tide,[5] but is now titled Clockworks.[6]

The original publication plan for the issues comprising the second, third, fourth, and fifth story arcs to be released monthly, with the final storyline being produced as an original graphic novel, but these plans have been altered.[7][8][9]

Story arcs[edit | edit source]

Welcome to Lovecraft[edit | edit source]

Issue Release Summary
#1 February 20, 2008 After the murder of their father, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke relocate with their mother to the family estate of Keyhouse, located in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. Sam Lesser, one of the teens who murdered Mr. Locke, is in a juvenile detention center and, by gazing in water, communicates with a supernatural force that promises to free him. Bode Locke, the youngest of the family, uncovers The Ghost Door, which separates his spirit from his body.
#2 March 26, 2008 Bode continues to experiment with The Ghost Door and, in his incorporeal form, spies on his brother, sister, and mother. During his journeys, Bode discovers a well that houses a creature who appears as a girl, the supernatural force previously communicating with Sam Lesser.
#3 April 30, 2008 Sam Lesser uses the tools the girl gave him to escape from the detention center.
#4 May 28, 2008 Sam Lesser travels across America, making his way towards Keyhouse. His cross-country journey is mirrored by a series of flashbacks into his memories.
#5 June 25, 2008 The Locke family is taken hostage by Sam Lesser who is seeking the Anywhere Key for his Master, the girl in the well.
#6 July 30, 2008 Bode uncovers the Anywhere Key and trades it with the girl in the well for a promise that she'll stop Sam Lesser. Freed from her prison, she keeps her promise by throwing Sam through the Ghost Door with no chance to return.

Head Games[edit | edit source]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
#1 January 28, 2009 Intermission [3] Professor Joe Ridgeway recognizes Zack Wells as Lucas Caravaggio, a teenager who disappeared over twenty years before, along with several other students, and who has long been presumed dead. Joe soon sets out to dig up the truth on Wells, but Zack proves ruthless in his desire for secrecy.
#2 February 25, 2009 Chapter One A shocking death throws Kinsey and Tyler Locke into choppy emotional waters. They turn to Zack Wells for support, not knowing him to be the murderer. Meanwhile, six-year-old Bode Locke tries to puzzle out the secret of the head key, and Uncle Duncan is jarred into the past by a disturbingly familiar face.
#3 March 4, 2009 Chapter Two Kinsey, Tyler, and Bode discover the head key allows them to open up people's minds and play with their memories.
#4 April 8, 2009 Chapter Three Duncan Locke finds himself faced with a dizzying, impossible revelation; Tyler makes the ill-considered decision to share with others the unlikely powers of the head key; and Kinsey opts to remove troubling emotions from her mind.
#5 May 20, 2009 Chapter Four Dodge uses the head key on Duncan Locke, sparing his life but inadvertently leading to the injury of Locke's live-in-boyfriend.
#6 July 1, 2009 Army of One [3] We learn how Dodge maintains control of Ellie even without the use of a head key in a flashback sequence.

Crown of Shadows[edit | edit source]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
#1 November 11, 2009 The Haunting of Keyhouse [10] Sam Lesser may be dead and gone, but Dodge still has uses for him, and in the first chill days of October, will make contact with him again. The dead know things the living may not, and Sam's restless spirit has had time to discover the thing Dodge wants to know most of all... where to find the key to the black door.
#2 December 16, 2009 In the Cave Far below Keyhouse lies the Drowning Cave, a place where shadows obscure ancient secrets, and the stones are stained with ancient blood. Kinsey Locke descends into the cavern, looking for answers to her family's troubled past, only to discover that it's easier to get in than it is to get out...
#3 February 17, 2010 Last Light [11] Dodge takes possession of the crown of shadows, and darkness falls upon Keyhouse... with a vengeance.
#4 March 17, 2010 Shadow Play [12] Kinsey and Bode find themselves in a desperate, seemingly unwinnable battle against a rising army of living shadows, while Tyler faces down Dodge in a terrifying duel of wits and wills.
#5 April 28, 2010 Light of Day [13] Four words: "Giants hitting each other." Don't miss the most smash-tastic fight issue of the year!
#6 July 14, 2010 Beyond Repair [14] In a terrible night of grief and rage, Nina Locke discovers a new key, one which opens a cabinet capable of mending smashed objects; but some things, she will learn, are beyond repair...

Keys to the Kingdom[edit | edit source]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
#1 August 11, 2010 Sparrow [15] As the new arc begins, Bode Locke discovers a key that unlocks the world of tooth, fang, claw, and feather, in a story that leaves hundreds dead! Hundreds of birds, that is.
#2 October 20, 2010 [16] White [17] On a bitter winter day, Kinsey Locke encounters a madwoman who just might be able to unlock the darkest secrets of Keyhouse. But forcing the truth out of her won't be easy, and besides... Dodge has no intention of ever giving Erin Voss a chance to tell what she knows.
#3 November 24, 2010 February 28 spell-binding and skin-crawling issues of Locke & Key — crammed into one.
#4 January 26, 2011 [18] Casualties When Squadron Strange accept a mission from a ghost, they find themselves on their most perilous raid ever... straight into the heart of a haunted mansion. Sgt. Rufus Whedon and Corporal Bode Locke have a terrifying lesson to learn: if you're dealing with a dead man, you better think fast and fight hard, if you don't want to wind up one yourself.
#5 March 2, 2011 [19] Detectives, Part 1 Tyler Locke begins, finally, to consider what he knows about the terrifying but mysterious enemy that has harrowed the Locke family for months—only to find that all the evidence points to a single suspect: Zack Wells.
#6 April 27, 2011 Detectives, Part 2 'Keys to the Kingdom' comes to a close as Dodge and Tyler Locke confront one another at last. Tyler came armed with the truth; Dodge prefers sharper instruments, and shows his willingness to use them.

Clockworks[edit | edit source]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
#1 July 20, 2011[20] The Locksmith's Son Colonel Adam Crais's minutemen are literally trapped between a rock and a hard place; in the first days of the Revolutionary War, they find themselves hiding beneath 120 feet of New England stone, with a full regiment of redcoats waiting for them in the daylight... and a door into hell in the cavern below.

The black door is open, and it's up to a 16-year-old smith named Ben Locke to find a way to close it. The biggest mysteries of the Locke & Key series are resolved as Clockworks opens, not with a bang, but with the thunderous crash of English cannons.

#2 August 31, 2011[21] SMASH! Terror runs wild, and the Locke family comes to grief in the smash-ingest story of the series yet!
#3 December 14, 2011[22] The Tamers of the Tempest The Omega Key to The Black Door has been found by the one, who calls himself The Legion.
#4 February 1, 2012[23] The Whispering Iron The tamers of The Tempest—Rendell Locke, Dodge Caravaggio, and their friends—descend into the Drowning Cave to open the Black Door, hoping to get their hands on some of the fabled whispering iron, the material from which all of the keys are forged. And everything goes according to plan! Not.
#5 March 14, 2012[24] Grown-Ups Lucas "Dodge" Caravaggio returns from the Drowning Cave, infected by a parasite of the soul; the good and loving friend has been left behind, and replaced by something free of all human feeling. Searching for a way to control him, the Keepers of the Keys make a dreadful choice... and set off a chain of events that will end in an unimaginable slaughter.
#6 May 16, 2012[25] Curtain As a storm thunders up the coast to Lovecraft, Massachusetts, the Keepers of the Keys face Dodge a final time, under three hundred feet of stone, in the darkness before the Black Door. Here, water will mix with blood and The Drowning Cave will become a colossal grave, in the final issue of the CLOCKWORKS storyline.

Alpha & Omega[26][edit | edit source]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
Omega #1 November 14, 2012 Our Regrets The beginning of the end starts here. Dodge has the Omega key, and nothing can stop him from using it...
Omega #2 December 19, 2012 The Soldier A ghost haunts the long halls of Keyhouse—the spirit of Bode Locke, cast out of his body by the Demon named Dodge—and only one person can hear his voice: Bode's old playmate, Rufus Whedon.[27]
Omega #3 February 20, 2013 Last Dance As Kinsey Locke and the other students head to a dance at Lovecraft Academy, the demonic Dodge gathers shadowy forces of his own and enacts his evil endgame. The “Last Dance” begins here.[28]
Omega #4 April 3, 2013 Human Sacrifices The bottomless pit of the Drowning Cave threatens to become a mass grave, as Dodge springs a fatal trap on the senior class of Lovecraft Academy. Hope is as fragile as a candle-flame wavering in the night. . . and as easy to extinguish.
Omega #5 June 5, 2013 The Fall In the Drowning Cave, the black door is open at last, and for the kids trapped down there, the choice is simple: resist and die, or pass through the door and be lost forever. In the hole beneath Keyhouse the stones run with blood, the living shadows run riot, and time runs out... as Locke & Key enters its final chapters.
Alpha #1[29] September 11, 2013[30] In the second-to-the-last issue of Locke & Key, the damned and the saved alike will make their final stand in the Drowning Cave, in a clash of blood and fire. The shadows have never been darker and the end has never been closer. Turn the key and open the last door; it's time to say goodbye.[31]
Alpha #2 November 27, 2013[32] "The End." A door claps softly shut. A key scrapes in a last rusted lock. It ends here: the story of the Locke children and their desperate, tragic battle with the monster set on destroying them... the past. Join Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill for the final chapter of Locke & Key.[32]

The Golden Age[edit | edit source]

A collection of six one-shots.[33]

Issue Release Chapter Title Summary
#1 November 23, 2011 Open the Moon (Guide to the Known Keys) This special standalone issue features an expanded Guide to the Known Keys, an all-new Guide to Failed Keys, and a story of summer-night magic titled "Open the Moon", set in Keyhouse's unlikely past.
#2 August 29, 2012 Grindhouse This is the blood-splashed, bare-knuckled Locke & Key standalone story you've been waiting for! In the glare of a Depression-era summer, three Canuck gangsters pull the heist of their dreams and take off for the perfect hiding spot - an isolated mansion on the tip of Lovecraft Island known locally as Keyhouse. Locke & Key: Grindhouse includes an expanded 'Guide to Keyhouse,' revealing every dark corner and secret room in America's most frightening mansion!

Collected editions[edit | edit source]

Standard Editions[edit | edit source]

Hardcover Release Title Summary ISBN
Vol. 1 October 8, 2008 Welcome to Lovecraft Collects Welcome to Lovecraft #1-6 978-1600102370 (Hardcover)
978-1600103841 (Paperback)
Vol. 2 September 30, 2009 Head Games Collects Head Games #1-6 978-1600048311 (Hardcover)
978-1600107610 (Paperback)
Vol. 3 July 29, 2010 Crown of Shadows Collects Crown of Shadows #1-6 978-1600106958 (Hardcover)
978-1600109539 (Paperback)
Vol. 4 July 19, 2011 Keys to the Kingdom Collects Keys to the Kingdom #1-6 978-1600108860 (Hardcover)
978-1613772072 (Paperback)
Vol. 5 July 24, 2012 Clockworks Collects Clockworks #1-6 978-1613772270 (Hardcover)
978-1613776995 (Paperback)
Vol. 6 February 4, 2014 Alpha & Omega Will collect Omega #1-5 and Alpha #1-2 978-1613778531 (Hardcover)

Signed Limited Editions[edit | edit source]

On November 11, 2007, Subterranean Press announced a pre-order for a hand-numbered, signed, limited edition of the six-issue run of Welcome To Lovecraft. This edition consisted of 250 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies, both of which sold out within 24 hours of being announced.[34][35] This edition was a hardcover release in a specially designed and illustrated slipcase, and featured exclusive dust jacket art by Vincent Chong and reprinted all 250 pages of Joe Hill's script in addition to the actual comic work.[36]

This was followed by the publication of Head Games, which was also limited to 250 hand-numbered and signed copies as well as 26 lettered copies.[37] The third volume, Crown of Shadows, is available for preorder, and like the previous editions is signed and numbered with the same limitations and also comes with an illustrated slipcase.[38] Cloth-bound trade editions limited to 1000 copies (unsigned, unnumbered, and without the slipcase) were also released. Trade editions for the first two volumes are sold out.

Awards and nominations[edit | edit source]

At the 2009 Eisner Awards, Locke & Key is nominated for "Best Limited Series" and Joe Hill is nominated for "Best Writer".

It won the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel.

Won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Writer (Joe Hill), and was nominated for Best Single Issue, Best Continuing Series, and Best Penciller.

Won the 2012 British Fantasy Award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel.[39]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. Powers, Kevin (2008-02-21). "Fantasy-Horror Comic Locke & Key Sold Out in One Day". Comics Bulletin. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  2. "Joe Hill talks Locke & Key: Head Games". Comic Book Resources. 2009-01-12. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hill, Joe (2009-06-01). "Be at Peace". Joe Hill Fiction. Retrieved 2009-06-01. Sorta, not quite. HEAD GAMES is actually four-issues long, with a standalone prologue (”Intermission” or “The Joe Ridgeway Story”) and a standalone conclusion (”Army of One”). 
  4. Hill, Joe (2009-06-01). "Be at Peace". Joe Hill Fiction. Retrieved 2009-06-01. I wasn’t asked, but I’ll say at this point the plan is for four more six-issue LOCKE & KEY stories, the next being CROWN OF SHADOWS in the fall/winter of this year. 
  5. "LOCKE & KEY Comics Head to a Close, Door Opens for TV Series". Newsarama. 2010-09-24. Retrieved 2010-11-23. 
  6. "Feast Your Eyes". Joe Hill Fiction. 2010-01-24. Retrieved 2010-01-30. 
  7. Serwin, Andy (March 2009). "Up Close: Joe Hill (interview)". Wizard (Danbury, CT: Wizard Entertainment) 1 (209): 22. ISSN 1065-6499. "In a weird way, Welcome to Lovecraft was really the prologue. It was the two-hour pilot, and now the TV series is beginning for real. There's gonna be 24 issues. We're gonna go for two years, and then there's gonna be a break, and then there'll be a final graphic novel to wrap things up. If you look at it broadly, it has a bit of a three-act structure, so the first 12 issues are one act… something happens at the end of issue #12 which begins to change things. The next 12 issues are Act 2, and then that final graphic novel will be Act 3" 
  8. Rodriguez, Gabriel (2008-07-29). "Re: What happens after #6?". The Joe Hill Message Board. Retrieved December 9, 2008. […]but starting this winter, you'll have 24 L&K issues MONTHLY, two years of uninterrupted series, and then a little pause before the grand finale graphic novel! 
  9. Hill, Joe (2009-06-01). "Be at Peace". Joe Hill Fiction. Retrieved 2009-06-01. I had thought at one point we might go monthly, but now I think it might be wiser to do it in six-issue bites. […] Also, a plan to end the series with a standalone graphic novel has been scrapped. I’d rather go with individual issues: for me, crafting the story in discreet 22-page portions is the great pleasure of the thing, and I don’t want to abandon what’s working. 
  10. "Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #1 - (comic book issue) - Comic Vine". Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  11. "Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #3 - Chapter Three: Last Light (comic book issue) - Comic Vine". Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  12. "Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #4 - Shadow Play (comic book issue) - Comic Vine". Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  13. "Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #5 - Chapter Five: Light of Day (comic book issue) - Comic Vine". Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  14. "Halfway : Joe Hill Fiction". 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  15. "The Keys to the Kingdom: Joe Hill Fiction". 2010-08-10. Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  16. "Locke & Key Keys To The Kingdom #2 (of 6)". 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  17. "Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom #2 cover". 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2010-09-13. 
  18. "Locke & Key Keys To The Kingdom #4 (of 6)". Retrieved 2011-01-05. 
  19. "Locke & Key Keys To The Kingdom #5 (of 6)". Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  20. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #1 (of 6)". 2010-08-10. 
  21. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #2 (of 6)". 2010-08-10. 
  22. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #3 (of 6)". 2011-04-10. 
  23. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #4 (of 6)". 2011-10-17. 
  24. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #5 (of 6)". 2011-11-28. 
  25. "Locke & Key: Clockworks #6 (of 6)". 2011-11-28. 
  26. Hill, Joe. "Twiiter post on the 5th of June, 2013". Retrieved 6th of June, 2013.  Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  27. url = http://www.legionofcomics.co.uk/acatalog/LOCKE___KEY_OMEGA__2.html
  28. url = https://www.inter-comics.com/shop/locke-key-omega-3-of-7
  29. Phegley, Kiel. "C2E2: New Books Make Waves at Diamond Summit". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 27 April 2013. 
  30. https://twitter.com/IDWPublishing/status/372761461451276289
  31. http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/916?stockItemID=JUN130329
  32. 32.0 32.1 http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/916?stockItemID=AUG130400
  33. Truitt, Brian. "Joe Hill hopes to "stick the landing" for "Locke & Key"". USA Today. Retrieved 21 April 2013. 
  34. "Teaser — Locke & Key by Joe Hill". Subterranean Press. 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  35. "Limited and Lettered LOCKE & KEY by Joe Hill Sold Out". Subterranean Press. 2007-11-24. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  36. "Joe Hill — LOCKE & KEY Update". Subterranean Press. 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  37. "Joe Hill — discovered an amazing singer tamia d. holder who will soon be working tour with mindless behavior and more she will be the n.b.t out there for single song writter already has 2 songs of her own.". Subterranean Press. 2009-04-27. Retrieved 2011-02-12. 
  38. http://subterraneanpress.com/store/product_detail/locke_key_crown_of_shadows
  39. "British Fantasy Awards 2012". yes. British Fantasy Society. Retrieved 4 October 2012. 

References[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

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