Graphic Novel Review – Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (4/5 stars)

Reading level:Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Horror
Paperback: 152 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 24th, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1600102370
Stand Alone or Series: 1st in the Locke and Key series.
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the first full length graphic novel which contains the first six issues of the Welcome to Lovecraft story arc.  It was a really good collection.  The drawings are beautiful and in full color and the story is creepy and intricate.  There are two more full length graphic novels out already; Head Games and Crown of Shadows.  The fourth is being released issue to issue this year and is called Keys to the Kingdom.

After the murder of their father Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke relocate to the Keyhouse with their mother.  Bode finds that certain keys lead through certain doors that do things; the one he finds turns him into corporeal form for as long as he wants.  Meanwhile the kid that murdered the Lockes’ dad is trying to escape from juvenile detention to come back and finish what he started.  Also Bode meets someone mysterious in a well outside the house.

This book is very creepy in a number of ways.  You have a brutal murderer on the loose at one point, a house with doors that lead you to mysterious place and do mysterious things, and a strange creepy person in a well.  It was a great story and the illustrations are just wonderful.  It was very engaging and very hard to put down.  The characters are well done and you are really rooting for them throughout the book.  This is definitely a horror novel.

Overall a great graphic novel.  It is on the borderline of being a bit too creepy for me.  I am super curious about what else the Locke’s will find in the house though, so I will definitely pick up the next compilation “Head Games“.