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Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft [Paperback]

Joe Hill , Gabriel Rodriguez
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 18, 2009 Locke & Key (Book 1)
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! Acclaimed suspense novelist and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box) creates an all-new story of dark fantasy and wonder, with astounding artwork from Gabriel Rodriguez.

Frequently Bought Together

Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft + Locke & Key, Vol. 2: Head Games + Locke & Key, Vol. 3: Crown of Shadows
Price for all three: $48.63

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box, crafts a gripping account of the shattered Locke family's attempt to rebuild after the father/husband is murdered by a deranged high school student and the family subsequently moving in with the deceased father's brother at the family homestead in Maine. But as anyone who has read horror fiction in the past 70-odd years will tell you, it's a bad idea to try to leave behind the gruesome goings-on in your life by moving to an island named Lovecraft. What begins as a study in coping with grief soon veers into creepy territory as the youngest Locke discovers a doorway with decidedly spectral qualities, along with a well that houses someone or something that desperately wants out and will use any means available to gain freedom, including summoning the teenage murderer who set events in motion in the first place. To say more would give away many of the surprises the creative team provides, but this first of hopefully several volumes delivers on all counts, boasting a solid story bolstered by exceptional work from Chilean artist Rodriguez (Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show) that resembles a fusion of Rick Geary and Cully Hamner with just a dash of Frank Quitely. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 152 pages
  • Publisher: IDW Publishing; Reprint edition (August 18, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1600103847
  • ISBN-13: 978-1600103841
  • Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.3 x 10.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The author of the critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Box and 20th Century Ghosts, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and Year's Best collections. He calls New England home.

Customer Reviews

It just felt like what it was - the first book to a series. Karrigan Ambrian  |  44 reviewers made a similar statement
If you've never read a graphic novel, I highly recommend this one. E. Phillips  |  32 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars (Not) Coming to a TV Near You March 8, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Hey, here's some trivia for ya....Did you know that Joe Hill's Dad is Stephen King? So no surprise that Hill is pumping out stories of the macabre, right? And he sure is doing it as well as his Dad (especially lately) with Locke & Key.

I was first attracted to Locke & Key when I was reading a February 2011 New York Post article about comics and graphic novels that have been or will be turned into movies or TV series. Locke & Key will be one of the latter with a potential pilot episode airing as soon as the end of this year on FOX. So I thought that I'd get "the real story" from the actual author prior its release as a TV series. And so far, after Book 1, I am not disappointed. (EDIT: 7/2011 - Fox has scratched the Locke & Key pilot - see link in the comment section of this review.)

Like father, like son, Locke & Key is violent at times, bloody at times, scary at times, disturbing at times, but most importantly it is very well written. The Locke's are a seemingly normal young family in California. The father is a principal of a local school. So when the Locke's are rocked by the father's murder by a crazed student, their world turns upside-down, and they are invited to come live out east in a big old spooky mansion in, where else but..."Lovecraft", MA. And you can bet your bottom dollar that in a mansion in a New England town called Lovecraft created by the spawn of Stephen King...thar will be ghosts!

While well written, there are some recycled themes and predictable moments. But mostly Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft is an excellent read for fans of the Fantasy or Horror genres. I'm hooked and looking forward to digging into com/Locke-Key-Vol-Head-Games/dp/1600104835">Locke & Key Volume 2: Head Games and Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows with Locke & Key Volume 4: Keys to the Kingdom due to be released this year.

I'm also really looking forward to the TV series. It seems like it has a promising Supernaturalish chance of succeeding with War of the Worlds/Sarah Connor Chronicles writer Josh Friedman joining on to help Hill get it "out the door" and onto TV.
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69 of 80 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Go Through That Door! September 26, 2008
Format:Hardcover
I'm harder to scare these days than when I was a kid and horror movies were still black and white and filled with trademark Hollywood monsters. Currently, I've been through a plethora of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, and ghost movies and their spawn. It takes a lot to scare me these days.

Then Hollywood introduced me to FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. George C. Scott's THE CHANGELING totally creeped me out, and Steven Spielberg's POLTERGEIST taught me to fear my television. Then I watched adaptations of Thomas Harris's novels, RED DRAGON and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and learned to fear serial killers that were really among us.

However, I have to admit that somewhere in there I became jaded. I started watching horror movies for special effects and the snappy one-liners that became so popular. I ended up laughing through most of them.

Like I said, I'm hard to scare. Of course, I can still scare myself pretty good. Let me curl up at night with a Stephen King book or one of Joseph Delaney's THE LAST APPRENTICE YA novels, and I can give myself a case of the willies. These books, thankfully, still deliver the sheer, enervating atmosphere necessary to amp up my adrenaline gland.

But I found a new fear-inducer in Joe Hill. I discovered him in HEART-SHAPED BOX and got totally weirded out listening to that novel on audiobook. Then I got my hands on the first issue of his comic book series, LOCKE & KEY.

Imagine a family that falls victim to what appears to be a deranged teenager looking for some payback. That's pretty horrific by today's standards because the news is full of lethal teens - and others. This could happen, so I wasn't immediately getting the spook vibe.

The story is harsh and emotional.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Very dark...but very good. September 25, 2010
Format:Hardcover
When I saw the title of this volume, "Welcome to Lovecraft," I had to give it a shot. The fact that it was written by Joe Hill was a bonus, as was the awesome sounding concept of the house with mysterious doors (which sounded--and looked--a lot like the House of Mystery, one of my current favorites). I thought it would be creepy and interesting and fun. And good.

Well, it didn't disappoint. However, it was very dark. Way more dark than I expected (yes, even with the word "Lovecraft" in the title, Sam). It was violent, creepy, shocking, horrifying...and very good.

The story starts with the brutal murder of a high school guidance counselor, which we see in flashbacks throughout the first chapter and the entire volume. After his death, his family moves across the country to the town of Lovecraft, New England, to live in his childhood home Keyhouse, a mysterious mansion where the doors can open to much more than just the next room--if you have the key. Each of the three children deal with their father's death and their new life in a new town differently (Bode, the youngest, finds he enjoys becoming a ghost and chatting with his echo in the old well). Their mother also has some difficulties adjusting. Mixed in with that are flashbacks to their old life and what led up to the murder...and then their past catches up with them.

The opening chapter is incredibly violent, bloody, and intense, and although the violence is turned down a notch after that, it didn't end, even when I thought it was over. It was pretty unrelenting throughout. There just kept being more murder, or more views of the earlier murder, or other violent acts, and then more murder.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars I could not read the typeface at all
I really wanted to like this. I've been a fan of the horror genre for decades and I was prepared to try the comic book style, even though I left comics behind in grammar... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Harriet Buchanan
5.0 out of 5 stars Visually stunning
Wow. Just wow. My first graphic novel and I couldn't have chosen better. Enthralling story and visually stunning art work. Loved it!
Published 5 days ago by Xena23
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
Great story fantastic art work. I judge a story on whether or not after I put it down if it stays with me for awhile. I had dreams about this one. Awesome get it now.
Published 8 days ago by Dave & Lindsey Stanton
5.0 out of 5 stars This story has promise!
Five stars for a well written comic and quite the story thus far. The ground work is just being laid but this is gonna suck you in!
Published 9 days ago by Sebastian A.
4.0 out of 5 stars Already Addicted
I read this in one sitting. It was great start to the series that got me hooked from the get go.
Published 19 days ago by Alaina McNeal
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
I have been hearing about this comic for a couple years now, and I am pleased to say that I am hooked. The story is intriguing and the art is very good.
Published 20 days ago by Sky Morrell
5.0 out of 5 stars holy. crap.
First of all, don't let your kids read this. Secondly don't dare not read this yourself! Unbelievably dark and filled to the brim with tension, this all killer no filler thriller... Read more
Published 22 days ago by Nick Kennedy
1.0 out of 5 stars locke & key
I hate it because I didn't realize it was a graphic novel. I thought I was trying a new author and genre, but Yuck, I won't even bother getting past the 14% I have grimaced my way... Read more
Published 23 days ago by debi sallak
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this. Read this. Love this.
Locke & Key is amazing. The storytelling is tight, the characters believable, and the fantastical horror crisp. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Scott Towers
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun story
I'm not a comic fan, but on a recommend I gave this a try. Reminds me of king 's dark tower series, which I very much enjoyed.
Published 1 month ago by kngofwords
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