Locke & Key: Clockworks #1

The "Clockworks" arc of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's acclaimed Locke & Key series kicks off with a cover that immediately signals something has gone very, very wrong at Keyhouse. Rodriguez's artwork places a blood-soaked, wild-eyed young man center stage, grinning with unsettling glee as he extends a skeletal key toward the viewer in one hand and clutches a dripping blade in the other — a fallen, bloodied figure visible in the snow behind him. With colorist Jay Fotos lending the snowy New England estate grounds a cold, eerie beauty, this opening chapter of "The Locksmith's Son" promises the kind of dark, layered storytelling that makes this series so hard to put down.