Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, #2 -- Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
It's now been a few months since the events of the first issue. While all of the characters continue to grieve in their different ways, they've also settled into life at Keyhouse.
This issue mainly focuses on Bode, who has gotten over his initial scare regarding the magic door that allows him to leave his body behind and travel around sight unseen—as a ghost. He zips around, figuring out the mechanics of ghost-travel, and then... meets a mysterious woman who lives at the bottom of the well, and does her a favor.
Artwork? I continue to love it. At first glance, Bode's comic that summed up his summer vacation—complete with the murder of his father and his discovery of the magic door—looked like a generic "little kid" style drawing, but, again, like the first issue, there were details that made me go back and look at it more carefully: mainly the difference between Tyler's madface and Mrs. Locke's grim/serious/sadface. Both are drawn as a straight line across the face, but somehow they convey completely different emotions. The art in the rest of the issue is pretty similar to the previous issue, but it's worth noting that the Mysterious Well Lady's dialogue font makes it clear that she's... probably not human. (As if living at the bottom of the well wasn't enough of a tip-off.)
Storyline? It was nice to see the focus switch from Tyler to Bode, and to see and hear Bode's take on how everyone else is coping—I hope that it continues rotating through the characters. I'm really curious to see what the Well Lady's game is, and I've got to say, I'm not looking forward to Sam Lesser's inevitable escape from Juvie for Murderers. Because I already feel that the Locke family has been through more than enough.
Keep going? YUP.
Previously: