Over the years I have read a lot of books and more comics then I care to count, some good, some bad, and some not worth the powder it would take to blow them to hell. Nothing beats really getting into a story, sitting in your favorite spot and immersing yourself into it because of the character connection or just a great spot of the story. The one problem I have, maybe enjoying a story too much, so much so that I find myself slowing down and trying to prolong the story that much longer. Put off reading the last few chapters and rethinking the story in my mind to see if I come to the same conclusion as the author. Just so I have something to look forward to later when I pick up the book one last time. (Neil Gaiman Amercian Gods; but that’s a write up for another day)

I have mentioned a few times in the shop, when people would come and ask me what to read, how I envy them when they start a new story. To read it all at once as they pick up all the back issues or the Trade Paper Back to read the whole story for the first time. The great thing about comics is, beside the art, but the ongoing story, sure you have story lines that go a few issues that have an end result but the story never truly ends. You get to see just how the decisions affect the characters as they continue on to the next story line. However, that being said there is something about a story coming to its final end; it’s like watching the final episodes of your favorite show wondering how all the loose ends come together and they don’t mess up the one character you like the most. We are about to get that with Locke & Key with only seven issues left before the end.

Locke & Key just finished its last six issue story arc Clockworks, and the Hard Cover edition is set to be released next Wednesday, July 11. So if you have been waiting for the next installment, you don’t have to wait much longer. If you haven’t been reading it then now is the time; the story is fantastic and you have been missing out. The story is written by Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, who has done the novels Heart-Shaped Box and Horns and has done a great job of getting your attention in the first story are and keeps you wondering where it all will lead. All right let me back up just a moment and explain a few aspects of the story so far. The story begins in welcome to Lovecraft as you meet the Locke family and start to understand the characters a little until the loss of a family member that shakes the family to its very core. This event moves the family away to the Keyhouse mansion in New England, a very unusual place with a lot of secrets locked away. The mansion has been in the family for years and holds
in it many different keys that do wondrous things, if you can figure out what door they unlock. Each key has a name and a power and all are hidden throughout the house, some in plain sight others are a little more abstract as you find out in the later issues.

Joe Hill continues the compelling story into the next chapter, Head Games along with Gabriel Rodriguez who has been doing a secular job as the artist and a style that works so well with the story. Head Games opens you up to the inner workings of the Locke kids and an adversary that is closer then the kids think. The great thing about this story is the relationship between the three kids and the issues they wrestle with along with the weight of keeping the secret of the keys to themselves. As the story moves on in the following chapters you see just how hard it is too keep a secret and what the true potential the keys have as people, and spirits alike, look for the key to the black door in Crown of Shadows and Keys to the Kingdom. Include into the mix a villain that has nothing to lose and has taken steps to ensuring he not only gets the key to the Black Door but wipes out the Locke family as well. Wanting nothing more than to bring what or whoever lurks just beyond the door.

I know it’s a lot to take in and how do you keep track of all the different keys and what they do, well I’m glad you asked. There is a one shot issue, Guide to the Known Keys that covers the keys found so far in the story and has a backup story visiting the Keyhouse in the past. And there have been a few stories about the houses past along the way to give you a peek into what’s going on in Keyhouse and just how the keys got here. The next issue, Locke & Key Grindhouse One Shot, due out in August is a standalone story that takes place in the depression as three gangsters use the isolated location as a hiding spot. While laying low they discover a dark corner and a secret room in the frightening mansion.

All of the Locke & Key trades are available at your local comic shop (Time Warp Comics) and if they are sold out they are easily to reorder. Finding the actual issues could be a bit of a challenge especially for the Welcome to Lovecraft but that’s what trades are for, right. With the success of the Walking Dead in comics and with the TV show there was talk of a Locke & Key show and there even was a trailer made. I hope you enjoy it since Fox said it was too scary for TV, but that doesn’t mean we might not see it someplace else in the future. Till later, the Crypt is closed.