Locke & Key Vol. 1 : Welcome To Lovecraft

After tragedy strikes the Locke family, they move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts into Keyhouse, an old creepy looking house their father grew up in. Healing from the fresh wounds both physically & emotionally, the Lockes try to lead a normal family life, but with a house like Keyhouse and its mysterious history, its anything but normal.

The Pros

Move over Amityville, Lovecraft is where it’s at. This is an intense, chilling & often violent horror story about a family and a would be haunted house with magical keys that opens magical doors with fantastic results. Joe Hill is master story teller as his characters are broken & flawed, but you root for them the entire way and that’s what drives this story. The villains are as sad as the protagonists and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them, especially for Sam (well just a little bit). It’s not all loom & gloom, there are a some light & funny moments like Bode just being a kid and trying to explain his “out of body” experiences to his family that are priceless.

The illustrations are by Gabriel Rodriguez (Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show Vol. 2), who’s work I’m unfamiliar with, but got hooked from his style right from the get go. His clever display of angles is right on the money and the panels for the characters in flashback mode are simply brilliant. The illustrations of violence & murder are gruesome and will make you cringe, especially 1 or 2 pages involving an axe. Ouch. Make no mistake this is for mature readers only.

The Cons

The characters have manga-sized eyes for which I don’t care for, but I’m just nitpicking. I eventually looked past it.

The Outcome

I couldn’t put this book down until I finished it, that’s how captivating the story was. One of the best horror tales I’ve read this year. With the multitude of keys & doors in Keyhouse, the possibilities for stories are endless. There are currently 3 more volumes out there and I can’t wait to get my hands on them. Originally published as Locke & Key : Welcome To Lovecraft #1-#6. From IDW.