Fans of Locke & Key are getting all new Locke & Key stories from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez following the success of the first season of the Netflix Original Series Locke & Key produced by IDW Entertainment. New and old fans alike will be able to enjoy the next wave of published offerings in the Locke & Key franchise while waiting for the second season to begin.
Starting in August and running through October, IDW will release the three-part miniseries, Locke & Key: …In Pale, Battalions Go…, which will serve as a lead-in to Hell & Gone, the long-anticipated crossover with DC’s The Sandman Universe slated for late fall.
Set in the spring of 1915, the story follows John Locke, a patriot too young to enlist in the greatest war of all. He intends to use the impossible, reality-bending keys to turn the tide on the grimmest battlefield of the 20th century… a hellscape whose darkness might even strike fear into an army of shadows.
When the crossover even begins in October, the Locke & Key – The Sandman Universe: Hell & Gone #0 comic book will officially kick off the crossover fans have been waiting for with a special reintroduction of storylines and characters who populate the fall’s landmark event series. This special will reprint such tales as “Open the Moon” (originally presented in 2011’s Locke & Key: Guide to the Known Keys), where Chamberlin Locke, patriarch of the Locke family, wields the Moon Key to reveal new secrets lurking in Keyhouse… and unlocks a strange new world which leads directly into the events of the Hell & Gone series. The #0 issue also peels back the curtain on Dream of The Endless with a classic tale reprinted from The Sandman.
Come November and running thru January, the most talked-about crossover of 2020 will hit stores: Locke & Key – The Sandman Universe: Hell & Gone, the monumental two-part story that shows the destiny of the Locke family intertwine with the mythos of DC’s The Sandman Universe.
In November, IDW will publish Locke & Key – The Sandman Universe: Hell & Gone #1, followed by DC’s The Sandman Universe – Locke & Key: Hell & Gone #1 in January. The story whose tagline is “If you think you can unlock the gates of Hell and just invite yourself in, you must be dreaming,”
These tales will be crafted by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, and overseen by Sandman writer and co-creator Neil Gaiman.
Joe Hill, the creator of Locke and Key, in a press release from IDW, said….
“I always wanted to have my own series character, like Philip Marlowe, Jack Reacher, or Sherlock Holmes. I just somehow never imagined my series character would be… a house. But that house is a home — my creative home. I’ve spent some of the happiest hours of my life knocking around Keyhouse’s closets, cabinets, and odd corners, hanging there with my artistic compadres, Gabriel Rodríguez, Chris Ryall, and Jay Fotos. We’ve never stopped having fun, and I couldn’t be more excited about the stories we’ve got ahead of us. We’re going to do our very best to unlock some good things in 2020.”
Gabriel Rodríguez, co-creator of the series added,
“Locks work both ways, so of course, the ending of the first Locke & Key epic would lead to new journeys altogether. It’s natural that Joe, Jay, Chris, and I would be eager to explore Keyhouse’s other thrilling and impossible tales,” “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the saga of Chamberlin Locke unfold and reach a bombastic ending in the upcoming arcs …In Pale Battalions Go… and Hell and Gone, the latter of which will give us the chance to pay tribute to one of the mythologies that inspired us all to devote our lives to comics — DC’s The Sandman Universe. And even that is only the beginning… so brace yourselves!”
“It’s impressive how Joe and Gabriel keep finding new ways to expand the scope and breadth of Locke & Key, so for that reason alone, I’m happy to be working with them again,” said Chris Ryall, editor of the series. “But really, what I remain most excited about is just the chance to continue working alongside some of the most talented and special people I’ve ever had the good fortune to work with. The great comics to come are just a bonus after that.”
Also hitting shelves in October is Locke & Key: Keyhouse Compendium, scheduled for release in October, collects the original, sprawling tale of magic and family, in one massive 900-page hardcover edition complete with a dust jacket featuring all-new front- and back-cover artwork by series co-creator Gabriel Rodríguez. Marking the first time that the core Locke & Key six-volume series has all been collected into a single tome, the Keyhouse Compendium — much like the doors of Keyhouse itself — transforms all who open its pages. Witness the triumphs and tragedies of Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke from their very first steps on the ancestral grounds of Massachusetts to the climactic final battle with the supernatural entity Dodge.
All in all, it is a great time to be a Locke & Key fan.