{"id":1912,"date":"2018-04-18T18:11:44","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T22:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=1912"},"modified":"2018-04-18T19:24:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T23:24:05","slug":"welcome-to-lovecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/welcome-to-lovecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Lovecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Lovecraft<\/em>, the first volume in Joe Hill\u2019s\u00a0Locke & Key<\/em><\/a>\u00a0graphic novel series, focuses on siblings Bode, Tyler, and Kinsey Locke relocating from California to the Keyhouse on the fictional island of Lovecraft, Massachusetts after Tyler\u2019s classmate Sam Lesser murders their father.<\/p>\n

The murdered Mr. Locke was a high school counselor who met with Sam, and Sam fell prey to a demon named Dodge who projected itself through a painting on Mr. Locke\u2019s office wall. The demon enthralls Sam and convinces him to try to find a particular magic key so it can free itself. After murdering his own abusive parents, Sam and his sociopathic friend confront Mr. Locke at the Locke family\u2019s California summer house. Mr. Locke doesn\u2019t remember the magic of Keyhouse and refuses to help Sam. Sam shoots him; Tyler overhears the shot and ends up subduing Sam with a brick.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of really interesting stuff going on in this first collected volume of the series. One of the things that struck me is the characterization of 17-year-old Sam Lesser. He\u2019s\u00a0portrayed as a frustrated prodigy: the son of a violent, alcoholic father and a junkie mother, he\u2019s emotionally stunted from all the physical and psychological abuse he\u2019s suffered at the hands of parents and bullies alike, but nonetheless he is highly intelligent and artistic. He\u2019s delinquent enough to have been sent to Mr. Locke\u2019s office on a regular basis, but hasn\u2019t done anything terrible \u2026 until the demon Dodge decides he\u2019d be useful. Then, in keeping with the key theme, the demon unlocks the evil inside Sam.<\/p>\n

Most all of the above is portrayed through Hill\u2019s text. Artist Gabriel Rodriguez\u2019s visual portrayal of the boy adds an interesting dimension. Before the fight in the basement, Sam is drawn as plain and sad-looking. He looks unremarkable and a bit stupid, and wears baggy, unstylish clothes that hang unflatteringly on his skinny frame. He doesn\u2019t look like a potential criminal mastermind; he looks pathetic. His features are all just slightly disproportioned: his eyes too bulging, his mouth too wide, his brow too low. The way in which he\u2019s drawn reminded me of Robert Louis Stevenson\u2019s\u00a0original description of the fiendish\u00a0Mr. Hyde<\/a>: \u201che gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Tyler bashes Sam\u2019s face in with a brick, his visage (as one would expect) is rather changed. But instead of a radical deformation from crushed bones or puckered scars, Sam is drawn as having a face that looks stitched together, even months after the wounds would have healed and the stitches removed. He looks like Frankenstein\u2019s monster: he\u2019s a fiend who was deliberately and carefully created by Dodge. The demon raised him from the endless social death of an impoverished, bullied kid and gave him a new, terrible life. And, like Frankenstein\u2019s creation, Sam decides that the best way to deal with the people who fear and despise him is to slaughter them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a fan of using physical ugliness as shorthand for evil (though Gabriel\u2019s drawing Dodge as a beautiful girl or boy mitigates that somewhat). But in this graphic novel, visually linking Sam with both Hyde and Frankenstein\u2019s monster works pretty well and adds an interesting layer to the narrative conveyed through the text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Lovecraft, the first volume in Joe Hill\u2019s\u00a0Locke & Key\u00a0graphic novel series, focuses on siblings Bode, Tyler, and Kinsey Locke relocating from California to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[92,127,9],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-characterization","tag-graphic-novel","tag-horror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/locke-key-1-FI.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-uQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1973,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/locke-key-vol-2-head-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":0},"title":"Locke & Key Vol. 2: Head Games","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"May 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Head Games, the second volume in Joe Hill\u2019s\u00a0Locke & Key\u00a0graphic novel series, focuses on the Locke siblings as they cope with life after their father\u2019s death and unwittingly fall more under the influence of the escaped demon Dodge, who is posing as the cousin of the high school\u2019s track coach,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Locke Key cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/locke2-e1527723812982.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/locke2-e1527723812982.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/locke2-e1527723812982.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/locke2-e1527723812982.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/locke2-e1527723812982.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1827,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/on-being-nineteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":1},"title":"On Being Nineteen","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"March 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When I started reading Stephen King\u2019s\u00a0Dark Tower\u00a0novels, one of the things that resonated with me is his introduction, \u201cOn Being Nineteen\u201d, which is included in each book in the series (at least the editions I\u2019ve been reading). In his essay, King covers his motivations for starting\u00a0The Gunslinger\u00a0way back when he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dark fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Stephen_King_-_2011-e1521558863827.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1870,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-call-of-cthulhu\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":2},"title":"The Call of Cthulhu","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"April 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe Call of Cthulhu\u201d is probably\u00a0H.P. Lovecraft's most enduring and influential\u00a0story. It\u2019s been reprinted and borrowed from and adapted in thousands of ways since its publication in\u00a0Weird Tales\u00a0in 1928. Lovecraft, a\u00a0movie\u00a0fan, would probably approve of the faithfully retro black-and-white film of his tale released by\u00a0H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society\u00a0in 2005;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/call_of_cthulu_logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/call_of_cthulu_logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/call_of_cthulu_logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/call_of_cthulu_logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-red-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":3},"title":"The Red Tree","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caitli\u0301n R. Kiernan\u2019s\u00a0The Red Tree\u00a0is a dizzying weird gothic novel that chronicles the final months of a writer named Sarah Crowe as she grieves for her dead girlfriend, wrestles with writer's block and tries to unravel the dark mysteries behind the legends surrounding an ancient oak tree growing near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dark fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/redtree.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1721,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-shadow-over-innsmouth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":4},"title":"The Shadow Over Innsmouth","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Shadow Over Innsmouth\u00a0is a classic horror novella by H.P. Lovecraft. It tells the first-person story of a young man on break from college who travels to an isolated seaside New England village and discovers that it is run by a cult and most of the townsfolk are doomed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Weird-Shadows-Over-Innsmouth-2013.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1436,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/whats-weird-fiction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":5},"title":"What’s Weird Fiction?","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Weird fiction can refer to a couple of different types of literature, depending on who's discussing which books and stories. 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