It’s the 13th month of the year (Editor’s Note: No, it’s actually the 10th), and the witching-y day approaches! In honor of All-Hallow’s day, as any snotty 10-year old will try to correct you to, Nerdcenaries is doing a special countdown of spooky comics. For the next 13 days until Halloween, I’ll be talking about one scaaaaaary issue or original Graphic Novel per day, to get you in the proper mood (Editor’s Note: the proper mood is murder.) Here’s the Seventh!:
Locke and Key
Written by Joe Hill
Drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez
Colored by Jay Foto
READER SUGGESTION
This was suggested by my co-worker at the LCS, and awesome artist Jordan Witt. I woulda included it anyway, though, because it is incredible.
Locke and Key is the story of the Locke family and their trials and tribulations as they fight the (literal) evils of their home with (also literal) magic. But it’s not really about that at all. It’s about growing up, it’s about the innocence and power of children, it’s about family trumping just about anything else, and it’s about the power of stories. Joe Hill writes the absolute crap out of this book; every week that I buy it, I think that it can’t possibly keep up the same level of quality, and it actually gets better. No character stays static throughout the series; they grow, and learn, and fuck up, just like anyone.
Rodriguez is one of the absolute best, bar none, at drawing facial expressions; you’ll never have to guess what the characters are feeling, and you could skip every word in any issue and more or less tell what’s happening. He’s got a great style: the characters have weight, the action is fluid, and his designs for the keys and monsters are jaw-dropping. And Jay Fotos does a good job coloring, in that he makes things clear, and works well with Rodriguez.
Buy this comic, you guys. This is arguably the best one on the whole list.
BONUS RECOMMENDATION
Joe Hill also writes prose! It’s not drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez, but it’s still really good. I prefer his short stories, but his novel Horns is pretty killer too.
