Author: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Genre: Supernatural / Horror / Fantasy
Year Published: 2008
Year Read: 2012
Series: Locke and Key #1
Publisher: IDW Comics
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 16+ (Strong Language, Murder and Mature Themes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
After reading Neil
Gaiman’s fantastic “Sandman”
series, I never would have thought that there would be another graphic novel
that blends horror and mystery perfectly together. But I was wrong as I soon discovered a new
graphic novel that does just that called “Locke
and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft!” “Locke
and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft” is an Eisner
Award nominated graphic novel superbly written by Joe Hill along with dramatic artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez and it is definitely a horror/mystery story that
is definitely worth checking out!
The story starts off with three siblings named Tyler, the
oldest son, Kinsey, the middle daughter, and Bode, the youngest son and how
when they were spending the summer at their family’s home, their father was
brutally murdered by two strangers right before their very eyes. After their father’s funeral, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode had a hard time coping with life
after their father was killed and they along with their mother who managed to
survive the tragedy, decided to move to the city of Lovecraft to leave their old life
behind. However, it turns out that the
home that Tyler,
Bode and Kinsey all moved into is no ordinary home as Bode soon discovers that
the house has dark secrets that only he knows about and those secrets will soon
change all three siblings’ lives forever!
Words just cannot describe my feelings and my love for this
graphic novel! I have never read a comic
series that really knows how to blend horror, loss and mystery all into one
glorious story that will remain to be an all-time favorite among comic
fans! Joe Hill has certainly done a brilliant job at writing this story
as it is full of suspense and mystery that will keep you wanting more from the
story! I loved the way that Joe Hill focused on how the three
siblings Tyler, Kinsey and Bode all deal with the murder of their father and
how they all reacted differently to the situation such as Tyler blaming himself
for his father’s death, Kinsey not knowing about what to do with her life
without her father and Bode, being extremely young, not quite understanding the
seriousness of the situation. I felt
that knowing what these characters are going through after the tragedy that has
taken place really gave them so much depth in their characters and I actually
felt sad for Tyler, Kinsey, Bode and their mother as they had to deal with the
loss of the person they love so dearly.
I also loved the way that Joe
Hill brought the supernatural themes into the story without really
interrupting the tragedy that the characters were going through as I was
practically on the edge of my seat trying to figure out how the keys provide a
sort of alternative dimension portable for the characters and I want to see how
collecting all the keys to the house would change events for the
characters. Gabriel Rodriguez’s artwork is brilliant as the artwork has dark
coloring that fits the gloomy mood of this story extremely well. I also loved the way that Gabriel Rodriguez drew the images of
the supernatural activities taken place such as the images of characters
turning into ghosts and you can see the blue wisps of the characters themselves
floating towards the reader.
Probably the only issues with this book is that it
surprisingly has some really strong language that you would not find in
mainstream comic books and that makes it more difficult for younger readers to
get to read this story. Also, there are
some disturbing moments in this book that not only involves the brutal murder
of Tyler, Kinsey and Bode’s father, but also has many scenes of innocent people
being killed throughout the book. Also,
the supernatural elements such as the characters becoming ghosts might be a bit
disturbing.
Overall, “Locke and
Key: Welcome to Lovecraft” is a brilliant introduction to the “Locke and Key” series and now that
this volume has ended on a huge cliffhanger, I am now looking forward to
reading more adventures of Tyler, Bode and Kinsey and will soon be picking up
the second volume “Head Games”
pretty soon!
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