Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got two new comics plus a soft cover collection:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”Locke and Key – Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft” by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

I had heard good things about “Locke and Key” but had never read it until now. It was a slow week at the comic shop and I noticed they had recently gotten in this volume so I decided to pick it up. I’m glad I did because I heard right. It is good.

“Locke and Key” is a horror comic about murder, ghosts, a haunted well, and some mysterious keys. It’s mostly about three siblings, a high school age boy, a middle school age girl, and a grade school age boy. Their father is murdered by one of his high school students after which the family moves back to their father’s family home in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. Yeah, that’s going to work out well.

After they move to the town named after a famous horror writer and while the family is dealing with the horrendous events that ended with the death of the father we are introduced to a ghost that lives in a well and some magic keys that the youngest child discovers can do strange things. We slowly learn the ghost’s plan and it’s not a good one for the family or for many innocent bystanders.

The writing in this one was excellent. I’d say it was one of the better horror comics that I’ve read. Horror isn’t a genre I’m particularly attracted to but when it’s this well done what’s not to like. The pacing was good as the story unfolded and even though this volume is really just one part of a larger story it was still satisfyingly written with a beginning, middle and end.

The artwork was quite good too. Rodriguez, whose work I’m not familiar with, is a very good storyteller. His layouts were smooth and read effortlessly. The drawing style was interesting too. To steal a phrase from Dave Sim I’d call it “Cartoon Realism” in the Milton Caniff family tree. Though it’s many branches removed from Caniff. There is a lot of manga influence in the drawing plus some Bill Waterson in the kids and I even see a lot of Dave Sim and Gerhard in the places and backgrounds. Overall he creates a believable and lush world.

So there you go. “Locke and Key” is a good one. If you’re looking for a good horror read or just a good read then pick this one up. I’m definitely going to be buying volumes two and tree that I saw on my comic shop’s shelves.