Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Every outstanding Graphic Novel or superhero requires a back story, there is a law somewhere, probably laid down by story teller supremo Stan Lee on a scrap of paper in a rest room and the flourished signature witnessed by Jack Kirby. The paper, possibly now residing on a wall in Marvel offices just below the enormous Captain America drawing that greets visitors to the building in New York, is surely seen by all aspiring writers and artists, none so more as Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez and in the book Clockworks.

Locke & Key has been an exhilarating ride, fully formed characters with true heroic growth to come, the imagination of two true artists working on arguably the finest set of Graphic Novels to date and one hell of a story. The story has had everything so far with the exception of finality, one could always hope the pair would keep it going forever but that is as likely as finding The Statue of Liberty knocking back beers and singing Marillion classics in a falsetto voice inside Harry’s Hula Hut on a wet Thursday afternoon, and the back story, the history of what lay beneath Locke House and the reasons why Dodge became one of the most interesting and dangerous creatures to inhabit the Earth.

The back story of the troubles that have beset the Locke children, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode are finally revealed and in great suspense tradition or indeed the tradition set down by Joe Hill’s father, Stephen King, it all boils down to the sins created by the previous generation, the fathers and mothers of this intrepid tale. The wrath of an ancient curse can surely only come at you through the issues and lies left by those who walked and stained the soil before your time.

This though is a history lesson of the Locke family that draws you in so well, that can haunt your waking moments, especially with the moment in which a goat’s beheading rivals anything that George R.R. Martin can do with a horse, for many nights ahead. The terrifying truth of Dodge’s metamorphic turn into the demon that has haunted the three members of the Locke family and the destruction of their father’s close friendships with members of his drama class is enough to make sleepless nights something you get to relish.

From beheaded goats, to the possessed body of Bode killing another young child, the disturbing scene in which the British army caused the death of the original tenants of Key House to the surreal beauty in which Kinsey Locke retakes control of her fears and emotions as she places memories back into her own mind to save her brother destroying himself, all are captured with true artistic intent by Joe Hill’s amazing imagination and the absolute dedication that Gabriel Rodriguez to each and every panel. Nothing is missing, not a scrap of detail, not an ounce of respectability.

There are many reasons to go out and buy every single one of Joe Hill’s and Gabriel Rodriguez’s masterpiece that is the Locke & Key series, only one truly matters; it is so good that it pains you to know it will eventually end. All great things eventually do.

Locke & Key: Clockworks is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall