Complete Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez: The horror comic book that inspired the TV show
Including the crossover with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman!
“Writing comic books,” says Joe Hill, “is the closest I’ll ever come to knowing what it’s like to be in a rock band.” Find out more below!
The dark fantasy comic book series Locke & Key was created by best-selling author Joe Hill and acclaimed artist Gabriel Rodriguez. The comic tells of an unlikely New England mansion with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them—and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all...
Locke & Key accomplished a difficult task in the comic book industry: balancing multiple genres and styles, melding horror and fantasy with a campy coming-of-age tale to appeal to a broader audience. Hill told AV Club:
“Working on the end of Locke & Key…what I believe about both literary fiction and genre fiction: You can have great setpieces and a great concept, but people really want to fall in love with characters. They even want to fall in love with your bad guys. People love that. They even want to think, Oh, I love when the bad guy is going to do this. What this person said is so perfect for that character. That’s what you really want to aim for in a character. You want a character that is so vivid and so real and emotionally satisfying on their own, in their own right, that it’s just a pleasure to watch them in situations.”
Hill, of course, writes about things that are just plain scary. The son of authors Tabitha and Stephen King, and the brother of writer Owen King, Joe Hill’s fiction also includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), NOS4A2 (2013), The Fireman (2016), and Horns (2010), plus the collections Full Throttle: Stories (2019), 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather: Four Short Novels (2017).
Hill has won several awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award. There have so far been at least four adaptations based on his writing that became either movies or TV shows.
Hill talked to Comics Beat about the differences between writing a comic book and writing prose fiction.
“I just love writing comic books. When you’re writing a novel, it’s very lonely and isolated—you go into a little room by yourself for hours every day, day after day, and listen to the voices in your head like a mad person.
“Writing comic books is the closest I’ll ever come to knowing what it’s like to be in a rock band. When it’s all going well, you feel this tremendous energy. I was imagining something awesome, but then Gabe will turn in something that’s three times better.
“You get gratification in a way you so don’t get gratification in the day-to-day work of writing a novel, because there’s no feedback. There’s no help. That’s why I love to get in the studio with my brothers and, you know, make them rock and roll.”
Below, you can watch the whole interview with Hill as well as artist Gabriel Rodriguez and editor Chris Ryall.
Scroll down for more info on each book in the Locke & Key series.
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Complete Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
The Eisner-nominated Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them, and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all! Collects Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #1-6.
Find Welcome To Lovecraft on Amazon
Review: “A fantastical and incredibly grim start to a dark fantasy series I love, Locke and Key (Vol.1): Welcome to Lovecraft will suck you in from the get go.” (The Library Ladies)
Following a shocking death that dredges up memories of their father’s murder, Kinsey and Tyler Locke are thrown into choppy emotional waters, and turn to their new friend, Zack Wells, for support, little suspecting Zack's dark secret. Open your mind—the head games are just getting started! Collects all six issues of Locke & Key: Head Games, plus bonus materials.
Review: “The 21st century has proved somewhat of a golden era for original horror graphic novels, and Locke & Key is among the best.” (The Slings & Arrows Graphic Novel Guide)
The dead plot against the living, the darkness closes in on Keyhouse, and a woman is shattered beyond repair, in the third storyline of the acclaimed series. Dodge continues his relentless quest to find the key to the black door, and raises an army of shadows to wipe out anyone who might get in his way.
Surrounded and outnumbered, the Locke children find themselves fighting a desperate battle, all alone, in a world where the night itself has become their enemy. Collects Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #1-6.
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Review: “I would highly recommend this volume. Another 5 stars! On to Volume 4!” (Erica Robyn Reads)
With more keys making themselves known, and the depths of the Locke’s family’s mysteries ever-expanding, Dodge’s desperation to end his shadowy quest drives the habitants of Keyhouse ever closer to a revealing conclusion. Collects Locke & Key: Keys To the Kingdom #1-6 plus bonus materials.
Find Keys To the Kingdom on Amazon
Review: “It wouldn’t be Locke and Key without its own dire and dark and compelling danger... This series continues to be one of my favorites of all time.” (Diabolical Plots)
The sprawling tale of the Locke family and their mastery of the whispering iron thunders to new heights as the true history of the family is revealed to Tyler and Kinsey. Zack Wells assumes a new form, Tyler and Kinsey travel through time, and surprises beyond imagination will be revealed.
Review: “[Locke and Key] is, according to me, one of the best comic book series of the 21st century.” (King of the Nerds)
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. Omega and Alpha, the final two storylines of the New York Times bestselling series, are collected together to offer a thunderous and compelling conclusion to Locke & Key. An event not to be missed!
Review: “I’ve already read and re-read these volumes at least three times each now. The multiple visits give you an idea about how compelling this series is.” (Pop Mythology)
When Locke & Key crossed over with Sandman
The Locke family made their journey into the world of The Dreaming for a crossover between Locke & Key and Neil Gaiman’s award-winning Sandman comic book fantasy series. (Gaiman served as a consultant for the crossover.)
7 Locke & Key: The Golden Age (Locke & Key/Sandman: Hell & Gone Volume #7)
If you think you can unlock the gates of Hell and just invite yourself in, you must be Dreaming! The Sandman Universe crossover begins here! Unlock moments from Keyhouse’s long history, expanding the saga of the Locke family in this collection of stories, which includes the epic crossover with DC’s The Sandman Universe!
For two hundred years, the Locke family has watched over Keyhouse, a New England mansion where reality has come unhinged and shadows are known to walk on their own. Here they have guarded a collection of impossible keys, instruments capable of unlocking both unparalleled wonder and unimaginable evil.
Take a glimpse into the lives of Chamberlin Locke and his family in the early 20th century as they use the keys to fight battles big and small. From a giant spider inside Keyhouse to the killing fields of Europe during WWI and the depths of Hell, the Lockes are in a constant struggle to keep the dark forces of their world at bay.
Collects three standalone tales, “Small World,” the Eisner-nominated “Open the Moon,” and the never-before-seen “Face the Music,” along with the 3-part “...In Pale Battalions Go…” and the epic 80-page crossover with The Sandman Universe, “Hell & Gone” all from the co-creators of Locke & Key, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez!
This special deluxe release finally collects the oft-requested and long-denied “Open the Moon!” from the GUIDE TO THE KNOWN KEYS one-shot. Plus the other long-sold-out one-shot, “Grindhouse!” PLUS plus: the even more hard-to-find IDW 10th anniversary Locke & Key tale, “In the Can!” And additional covers, behind-the-scenes photos and more, all wrapped up in a beautiful 72-page package.
Find Locke & Key: Heaven & Earth on Amazon
Review: “It has been a pleasure to watch Locke & Key blossom over the years. Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez have consistently astounded me and not once managed to disappoint me with this series.” (Geeks of Doom)
Video interview | Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Chris Ryall | Locke & Key
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Further reading online
‘Locke and Key’ Creator Joe Hill Didn’t Want Anyone to Know His Dad is Stephen King (Yahoo)
Locke & Key: Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez Discuss the Horror Franchise's Future (CBR)
Hit Netflix Show 'Locke & Key' Was Created by Stephen King's Son (94.9 HOM)
Locke & Key Author Reflects On Failed Hulu Adaptation (Screen Rant)
The Untold Truth Of Locke & Key (Looper)
5 lesser-known facts about Locke & Key (Sportskeeda)
Horror Runs in the Family for 'Locke & Key' Author Joe Hill, but How? (Distractify)
Joe Hill on Locke and Key and Writing With His Dad, Stephen King (Men's Health)
Locke and Key Creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez Reveal More Comics on the Way (IGN)
Why Locke & Key's Author Encouraged Netflix to Change the Setting of His Story (POPSUGAR)
7 Movies And TV Shows Based On Joe Hill's Books And How To Watch Them (CinemaBlend)
Read These Joe Hill Books and Comics If You Like Netflix's 'Locke and Key' (Men's Health)
100 of the Best Horror Comics of All Time (Paste Magazine)
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