Sunday, March 31, 2024

Sunday Splash Page #316

 
"Little Big House," in Locke and Key: Small World, by Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Since Locke & Key: Alpha concluded, Hill and Rodriguez have done a series of shorter books. Those revolve around Keyhouse, but not Tyler, Kinsey, or Bode. I suppose Tyler at least ought to be aging out of the point where he can remember the keys or the magic. Though we did see him build a key to restore Keyhouse entirely, so. . .

All the stories since then have focused on an early-20th Century generation of the Locke family. Pale Battalions Go was about John, the younger son, swiping keys to fight in World War I. This does not end well, and if I remember right, he ends up using the Anywhere Key to transport himself into the Titanic's sunken hull as penance for his hubris. To think we still have to rely on shoddily built submarines for that purpose.

There was also a crossover with Sandman, which I haven't read, but I think revolves around John's oldest sister, Mary (the blonde above) trying to rescue his soul from Hell via Dream's realm, which is a bad idea on so many levels one scarce knows where to begin.

This is the only one I still have, a done-in-one about Chamberlin Locke building this dollhouse that, when activated, can show the location and activity of every person in it. He expects the girls to use this birthday present to learn about keeping house properly. Mary sees it as a great way to gather blackmail on her brothers, while Jean sees it as a great place to hide boogers.

Problem being, the door swings both ways. Actions taken in the larger house are reflected in the doll house, but things placed inside the doll house from outside then manifest in the real house, at a proportionate scale. So when Jean leaves the dollhouse active and a spider wanders in, well. It's bigger than the dolls, so the version that is loose in Keyhouse is, too. It's an effective little horror tale (which Hill says owes a lot to Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man.)

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