I’ve just spent some time at Keyhouse with the Locke family, and it’s been a very interesting stay. I’ve been meaning to read the Locke & Key comic for some time, but other things have kept getting in the way. But now I finally decided it was time. I also decided I wanted to check out everything connected to the comic. That means the comic, the audio dramatization, the three-season Netflix series, the unaired Fox pilot, the unaired Hulu pilot and the physical keys that have been created by Skelton Crew Studio.

Before we move on, I want to make it clear that there will be spoilers for everything I talk about. I will try to not spoil more than I need to but it’s impossible to talk about it without spoiling some of it. So, consider yourself warned.


The Comic:
I started my journey with reading the comics. It’s based on Joe Hill’s story and illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez and spans six installments and a total of 37 issues. The story follows the Locke family and starts with Rendell Locke, the father of the family, being killed and his widow, Nina, and their three children, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode move to Keyhouse to get away from the horrible event that ended Rendell’s life. Rendell’s killer, Sam, goes to the same school as Tyler and Kinsey and we find out that he killed Rendell to get his hands on some magic keys that he intends to give to Dodge. Confusing? Well, not really. The keys are magic, and each is unique. One, the Ghost Key, lets you become a ghost if you open the right door with it and go through. Another, the Head Key, lets you open your head and look inside. You can also remove and add things. Another, the Timeshift Key, lets you travel in time. Those are just a few of all the keys that the Locke kids find during the comic’s run.

Dodge is someone from Rendell’s past and we get to know a lot more about her during the 37 issues.

During the run of the series we also get to know a lot more about the past and how it connects to the present and what role the keys have played over the years. The story is packed with history, keys and unexpected events and Hill does a great job telling the story and tying everything up in the end. And even though the main story gets its conclusion in issue 37, we, the readers, get more. The main series ran between 2008 and 2013 and experimented with different styles over the years. They experimented with everything from the style of four-panel gag strips to a 50s-era bare-knuckled war comic to entirely full-page, mostly wordless illustrations to where every panel captures a different day, mapping a whole month in the life of the Locke family. Something they didn’t do was a crossover issue…until The Golden Age that is.


The Comic: The Golden Age:
Between 2016 and 2022 Hill and Rodríguez released 8 additional issues under the name The Golden Age Chapters. These stories take place before the original Locke & Key comic and three of them are crossovers with the comic Sandman. You don’t need to have read the first 37 issues or The Sandman comic to read The Golden Age story but it will give you a better understanding of the story and you’ll also meet a few people you will recognize so, even though not required, I would definitely recommend that you do it.

As the original comic takes place in fairly modern days (the Obama era) The Golden Age takes place in the early twentieth century and tells stories of the forefathers of the Lockes we get to know in the original series. It’s also more violent than the original.


More Comics?
There were plans for more issues. Hill confirmed that he and Rodriguez proposed a new six-issue series called World War Key to IDW but that they unfortunately couldn’t come to an agreement and the chances of it happening are slim to none.


The Audio Dramatization:
The audio version of Locke & Key is not your normal audiobook. What they have done here is turn the first 37 issues into a dramatized version of the comics. Interesting? Yes. Easy to follow? Not so much. I had just finished the comic when I listened to it, so I know what was happening but many times it felt like listening to an audio track of a movie. A lot happened but you only heard it, you lost the concept of where it happened and who was involved, and I imagine that it will be quite hard to follow if you haven’t read the comics. To make matters worse it can only be found on Audible. Determined to check it out I got a trial membership but halfway through something happened and every time I tried to listen to it, I just got an error. So, in all fairness I didn’t finish it. Mostly because of technical issues but to be honest I wasn’t that disappointed when it stopped working. But let me be clear that that is NOT because of the story itself but because of the way they have chosen to present it, aka a dramatization.

One fun thing was that King did the voice of the man driving the boat between Swampscott and Lovecraft and is killed by Sam. Joe and Gabriel are also supposed to have lent their voices to some of the characters but I didn’t get far enough to hear them unfortunately.


The Fox Pilot:
With a successful story there are often attempts to turn it into a major movie or a TV series. Locke & Key is no exception. What’s different is that they failed twice before they got it right.

The first time it was in 2011 when Fox wanted to turn it into a series. They did a pilot that premiered on San Diego Comic-Con 2011. In the leading roles we saw Miranda Otto (Nina), Sarah Bolger (Kinsey), Jesse McCartney (Tyler), Skylar Gaertner (Bode), Harrison Thomas (Sam Lesser), Mark Pellegrino (Rendell Locke), Ksenia Solo (Dodge) and Nick Stahl (Duncan Locke).

For some reason Fox decided not to move forward with it and the pilot was shelved where it remained for a long time before it ended up online. A quick search will help you find it if you want to check it out. I’ll post the trailer they did for it here so you can check it out.


This pilot is very similar to the one Netflix did nine years later. It’s family friendly and not too scary. The setting is similar, and it follows the comic pretty well, or at least from what we get to see in the pilot. It only covers the start of the comic and the murder of Rendell.


The Hulu Pilot:
Six, seven years later. Sometime around 2017/2018 Hulu made another attempt to develop it into a series. This time the script was written by Hill himself and allegedly a pilot was filmed. Scott Derrickson was attached to direct but was later replaced by Andy Muschietti due to a scheduling conflict.

For a long time there was some question as to whether it was ever filmed at all. There are a few people who claim they have seen it, but it has never surfaced online and seems to be nowhere to be found. But based on some photos and concept images that have appeared along with comments from people saying that it exists, Hill being one of them, we must assume that it does.


Andy Muschietti directed a brilliant pilot episode… funny, relentlessly paced, and thoroughly terrifying. The kids — Meg and Jack and Jackson — acted their hearts out; Frances O’ Connor and Nate Corddry are witty and irresistible. I hope people will get a chance in the near future to see a remarkable TV show that isn’t like anything else out there. As they say on the idiot box… “stay tuned, folks.”
- Hill on the Hulu pilot.

With that said it should come as no surprise when I tell you I haven’t seen it. I have, however, read Hill’s script for it and based on that this pilot is a lot darker and scarier than both the Fox and Netflix versions and personally I think this one might be the best of the three pilots. Hopefully we’ll get to see it and decide sometime in the future.

This version starts with us meeting Al Grubb (who in the comic, is with Sam when he kills Rendell) using the Grindhouse key to open a closet in the house and when he steps in, he gets eaten. This is a unique scene for this pilot and is not found anywhere else.

The attack on Rendell and Nina is also more violent. Rendell gets the back of his head blown away and Nina is hit in the head with a hammer, and she ends up having to use crutches afterwards. Bode and Kinsey almost fall off the roof after Sam has found them, and we also get to see how Tyler defeats Sam. Brian, Duncan’s boyfriend, is also included here.

The one thing I was most surprised by though is that we only get to see the Ghost Key in the end. The keys are what sell the series and it’s risky not to introduce them earlier on.

The cast was different from the Fox pilot. This cast included Frances O’Connor (Nina), Megan Charpentier (Kinsey), Jack Mulhern (Tyler), Jackson Robert Scott (Bode), Owen Teague (Sam Lesser), Danny Glover (Joe Ridgeway), and Nate Corddry (Duncan Locke).

No reason has been given, at least not publicly, as to why it wasn’t picked up by Hulu. Maybe it was too violent?


The Netflix Series:
Then in 2020 Netflix gave it a try and this time it all worked out. Between 2020 and 2022 they told the story in three seasons and 28 episodes.

The cast was again totally new with one exception. Jackson Robert Scott was back in the role of Bode. In the other leading roles, we saw Darby Stanchfield (Nina), Emilia Jones (Kinsey), Connor Jessup (Tyler), Jackson Robert Scott (Bode), Steven Williams (Joe Ridgeway), Harrison Thomas (Sam Lesser), Mark Pellegrino (Rendell Locke), Laysla De Oliveira (Dodge) and Aaron Aschmore (Duncan Locke).


The Netflix version is as mentioned quite similar to the Fox pilot. It’s family friendly and not really that scary. It’s well done though and follows the comics pretty well. They have taken some liberties with the plot though. Nina doesn’t have a drinking problem like in the comic. She did but when we meet them, she’s recovering from it. Those of you who have read the comic will remember that she has a very severe problem there. Kinsey does remove her fear (not the crying creature though) but instead of putting her in a bottle she buries her in the woods. The result is the same though. Brian, Duncan’s boyfriend, is again gone from the story.

They have also changed some of the characters and their story arc. The main story and what happened (and why) in the past is also altered but it works this way as well. It’s all a matter of what works better in this visual media. They have solved the issue with illustrating going into someone’s head brilliantly.

We do get some cameos in the series. Tom Savini plays a storekeeper that gives Bode a jar full of keys. That’s also when Bode realizes how he is supposed to use the Head Key.



Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez are seen as paramedics, just like they are in the comic.


The Keys:
Skelton Crew Studio has been working with Hill on reproducing the keys from the comic and brought them to life. On their website you can buy a lot of different keys, all seen in the comic. I have a few of them and they look really great. Well, they are keys some of you might say. How hard can it be to make a key someone else might say. Well, sure, normal keys might be easy to get. What we’re talking about here is making real keys from something only seen in a comic. And to be honest, these keys are not regular keys and do definitely not look like normal keys.


When I go to their site I see about 60 keys and most of them you can get for between $30 and $35, some special ones are more expensive. One of the coolest keys is the Head Key that you can use to open your head, look inside and remove or add memories and knowledge. How nice would it be to have that one? The Ghost Key with which you can turn into a ghost and fly around. The Timeshift Key that lets you travel (as some kind of ghost) to any time you want up until the last day of 1999. The Anywhere Key. This one takes you to any door you have seen before. Leave your bedroom and enter the royal castle, your workplace (would come in handy when it’s raining outside) or any other place you’d like to visit. And lastly, The Alpha Key. This is the key to the secret door in the caves under Keyhouse. What you’ll find there you must read the comic to find out.


Links to Stephen King:
There are some links to Stephen King in the comic. I have already mentioned that he does one of the voices in the dramatization. We also see a joke based on the blood scene in Carrie. But the most interesting thing is that Hill calls the space between our world and the other world, populated in the comic by ancient creatures made of yearning and hate, a Thinny. Those of you who have read your King know what that means. For the rest of you, a Thinny is something mentioned in King’s The Dark Tower books. Does that mean that Locke & Key and all the keys are connected to The Dark Tower? Or is it just that Thinnys are more common than we have thought? You tell me.


With this I close my look at Locke & Key with the hope that I have gotten you interested. Comics can sometimes be hard to get into. You get a new issue once a month and it’s about 30 pages long. That is, for many people (me included), too little and too infrequent but this time you are in luck. All the issues are already released, and you can just go through them one after the other. That is what I did, and I told myself several times how happy I was for that. So, check them out. Check out the TV series. Check out the keys and if you want, check out the dramatization but don’t do that until after you have read the comic.

I don’t consider myself a comic reader. Not sure why but that is a fact. But still I really enjoyed Locke & Key and I really hope there will be more issues in the future.