Moving to a place called Lovecraft, Massachusetts cannot be a good thing, no matter what universe you’re in. But it’s the setting for Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s series Locke & Key. For those that don’t know, Joe Hill is the author of the novels Heart Shaped Box & Horns, as well as an anthology of short stories entitled 20th Century Ghosts. Gabriel Rodriguez  has worked on many things including Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show as well as many CSI comics.

The comic opens with a murder that takes place at the Locke’s summer residence, committed by students of the father of the household Rendell Locke. Sam Lesser and Grubb show up, looking to murder the family. Their children, Ty, Kinsey, and Bode are approaching the house when the murders are taking place. Kinsey and Bode hide up on the roof while Ty draws Sam into the basement where he beats him within an inch of his life. Unfortunately, Grubb doesn’t make out so well and gets an axe in the back of the head. Their father, however, had received a bullet in the eye, never to live again.

After the funeral, the family has no choice but to move to move to their father’s childhood home known as Keyhouse, a chilling looking mansion located on the island of Lovecraft, Massachusetts. Everyone is dealing with the death of Rendell in their own different ways. Ty works his ass to the bone, but dwells on it while he does his work. Kinsey tries to keep it all inside, not trying to stand out at her new school. Bode however, goes exploring through the house and knocks a key off of a door. The key is black and has a skull on it, young Bode inserts the key, turns the door handle and his body falls to the ground, but he becomes a ghost.

All the while, Sam Lesser is rotting in prison, a face full of stitches. In prison you see him communicating with a toilet. Strange, I know, but this being that he is communicating with is going to get him out. In the meantime, young Bode makes a new friend around the property. An older woman, who lives at the bottom of the well on the property. She talks to him about his father and can see him when he is in “ghost mode.” Bode accepts her because he has tried to explain this whole ghost thing to everybody, but nobody will believe him and think it is just his way of dealing with Rendell’s death. You don’t really have a clue as to what this woman is, though she asks Bode to get her a mirror and scissors.

You get a glimpse of this woman in the mirror, and though you still don’t quite know exactly what she is, you get that she is some evil creature. She gets the mirror and scissors to Sam through the toilet, and he subsequently breaks out. Destination, LOVECRAFT. Through a long series of events, Sam makes it to Lovecraft and attempts to murder the family. The woman in the well, who calls herself Bode’s echo, tells Bode that the only way to save them is to help her get out. He gets the key required to get her out, known as the anywhere key, and she holds true to her promise.

This graphic novel is stunning. The writing is supreme and the art work is evoking and tragically beautiful. Underneath this plot of keys and evil beings, there is this running theme about how a family deals with death. Nobody deals with it the same way, and Lockey & Key runs the gambit in that way. Locke & Key serves as a stunning aside, to those whom death has left behind to deal with the emotion that it evokes. I implore you to pick this series up, and I hope it gets picked up as a TV series on some network soon. Well done Mr. Hill and Mr. Rodriguez, well done.