Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft Special Edition

Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s acclaimed horror series Locke & Key began with this 2009 one-shot from IDW, a special edition that serves as an entry point to the Locke family’s tragic return to their ancestral home in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. The issue introduces the key premise—magical keys that unlock strange powers and doors—while establishing the gothic, character-driven tone that would define the entire saga. As the first published Locke & Key material, it matters as the launchpad for one of the most celebrated creator-owned horror comics of the 2010s.