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.)

Sunday Splash Page #315

 

"Two's Company," Locke and Key: Omega #5, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

The conclusion to Locke and Key was split between two mini-series, Omega and Alpha (helpfully collected together in volume 6 of the tpbs.) Omega, a 5-issue mini-series, came first, followed by the 2-issue Alpha.

Omega takes place near the end of the school year, all the students looking to their future, and to regrets. In Tyler's case, a lot of regrets, which he seems to be trying to run from by burying himself in work around the house. Similar to Volume 1, although he might see it as trying to become more responsible so he doesn't repeat those past mistakes.

The kids decide to have a post-prom party in the caves under Keyhouse (drained of water this time), which is when Dodge - still inside Bode's body, with basically all the keys, and golden eyes as he makes no attempt to disguise his presence - makes his move. As Tyler, his mother, his uncle and the detective come under attack from shadows, Dodge uses more shadows to gather the high schoolers at the doorway to his world.

Alpha is when Dodge reveals his true plan, which is not what Kinsey or we might expect. More critically, it's when Tyler comes up with a plan to counterattack, based on a conversation he has while dying with his dad's spirit. As a rule, last-second, death door's epiphanies are more useful than last-second, death bed recanting, but are also much rarer so I guess Tyler's luck was running good that day.

Tyler takes advantage of one last gift of his dad's, and that combined, with the return of Rufus and the fact memories extracted via the Head Key can't drown, is enough to take care of Dodge once and for all. A few characters die and stay dead. One character's dead and doesn't stay dead. A couple are already dead, but end up, I guess extra dead. Perma-dead? Unable to be summoned via the well, at any rate.

Sunday Splash Page #314

 

"The Door of Horrors," in Locke and Key: Clockworks #1, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

The fifth volume of Locke & Key starts with a trip to the 18th Century, to see how the keys first came into being, and where they came from. For the latter, from the things on the other side of that portal. For the former, from a young man determined not to let his parents' deaths be in vain.

The second issue shows how Tyler and Kinsey were able to see past events, and also what Dodge is getting up to inside Bode's body. It's bad. His actions do force Kinsey to reclaim her tears and fears. That's good! And their mother is going to AA meetings. That's definitely good! But Dodge found the Omega Key. That's bad.

But Tyler wants to see their dad, so the other 4 issues detail how everything fell apart for that group. Why Dodge is the way he is. Why Ellie had a bottle with one of Dodge's memories hidden in her wall. What the hell happened to Erin (though I'm still not clear why the experience turned her hair white.) Why we haven't seen any of Rendell Locke's other friends through the entirety of this story. Why Rendell moved so far away in the first place.

(One thing I'm curious about is how Rendell explained so many of his friends just disappearing, or what the hell happened to Erin. Fine, he might forget because the house had a key magic that makes you forget past a certain age, but other people would still notice their kids, part of a small clique, being reduced by two-thirds.)

Hill plays up the similarities between the generations of Locke kids. Rendell tries to threaten Duncan to keep him out of things just like Tyler tries with Bode, even though, like Bode, Duncan's the one who usually finds the keys. Doesn't work any better for Rendell than it will his son. And Rodriguez plays up the similarities in Rendell and Tyler's appearance, especially as Tyler starts wearing glasses more often. And Rendell makes the same mistake Tyler made: he tries to use the keys to impress a girl. Except Rendell fucked up even more spectacularly than his son did.

Sunday Splash Page #313

 

"Weird War Tales," in Locke and Key: Keys to the Kingdom #4, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Volume 4 of Locke and Key is a mixed bag. On the plus side, Hill and Rodriguez get more creative with the format of the issues. Issue 1 is set so that on each page, there's a 4-panel, newspaper cartoon strip running down the center that focuses on Bode's adventures as a sparrow (courtesy of the Animal Key.) Rodriguez modifies his style to something closer to Bill Watterson's for that, while retaining his usual look for what Tyler and Kinsey are doing in the meantime.

Issue 2 involves the Locke kids meeting an old friend of their father's, who is not in a good way. That Erin Voss is black leads into some discussion of racism and how little the Locke kids understand about that. Nothing more ever comes of Kinsey using the Skin Key to make herself black long enough to speak to Erin, so I don't know how great an idea that was.

Issue 3 covers February, with little calendar pages as panels in an upper corner. The kids fend off a series of attacks from the "dark lady", while their personal lives and relationships fall to pieces. Kinsey tried dating "Zack" (i.e., Dodge/The Dark Lady), but he refuses her request to share something with her from his mind via the Head Key. She turns to Scott and Jamal, but that leads to some chest-thumping between the two of them and the dissolution of their friendship with each other and Kinsey. And Jordan deliberately fucks things up with Tyler, which puts him in a irresponsible mood.

Issue 4 is Sam's ghost trying to recruit Rufus (the son of Dodge's old girlfriend/current "mother") to beat Dodge. Rufus tends to discuss things in soldier-speak, so Sam makes his ghost look like a sergeant, and Rodriguez draws some of the panels to match Rufus' imagination or himself as a big, tough soldier.

Then in the last two issues, multiple characters figure out something's going on with "Zack." Tyler, the detective that's been hanging around, and Sam all take a run at Dodge, and he slips past all of them into the perfect disguise. After spending an entire issue that established Dodge can't see Sam's ghost, Sam's big attempt to thwart Dodge goes to hell because Dodge had him outsmarted all the time anyway. No idea how Dodge got back the Music Box the Locke kids briefly contend with in issue 3 - presumably he swiped it back during one of his visits to Kinsey - but either way he's got it to keep Tyler busy.

It's just incredibly frustrating because Hill established right off in volume 1 that while Dodge is absolutely an unrepentant murderer and sadist, he's no criminal mastermind. He couldn't convincingly fake a suicide for the old professor or keep people from recognizing him, he can't keep Tyler hoodwinked, but somehow he was able to outmaneuver all these characters into thinking he's been dealt with.

Sunday Splash Page #312

 

"Big Time Smackdown," in Locke and Key: Crown of Shadows #4, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Crown of Shadows sees Dodge becoming more aggressive in his search for the Omega Key. But with his attempts to push things forward come setbacks. Sam Lesser is still hanging around Keyhouse as a ghost, but is no longer inclined to help Dodge. When he tries to keep Kinsey isolated by ridiculing her new friends Jamal and Scot (the Quentin Quire or Spider Jerusalem lookalike I mentioned last week), it backfires because Kinsey doesn't fear losing social standing by hanging out with, gasp, uncool people, while Dodge can't manage the same. (Which is kind of funny, since he's supposed to be past that kind of thing.)

He manages to infiltrate the house again later and unlock the Crown of Shadows, but not only does this fail to get him the location of the Omega Key (because none of the Locke kids no where it is), he ends up losing the crown in a half-issue, all-splash page fight against a giant Tyler. Between that and Dodge using the crown to create a variety of shadow creatures, Rodriguez seems to be having a lot of fun in this mini-series. Dodge only barely gets away with the Wellhouse Key, but fails to reclaim the Head Key. (It also stiffens the resolve of Tyler and Kinsey to fight him off, even if they don't know the true face of their enemy.)

Unfortunately, the Locke family is doing a pretty good job messing themselves up by this point. Tyler's attempts to impress Jordan by letting her submit his ethics paper backfires, because just jamming the book in your skull doesn't bring comprehension of the material, or teach a person how to write a proper paper. Unless you also jammed a book on writing proper academic papers in there, too, but Tyler didn't. Kinsey's removal of her fear nearly gets herself and her best friend Jackie killed alongside Scot and Jamal by going to investigate something at the bottom of a rickety staircase in a water-filled cavern. 

And their mother's use of alcohol to try and cope with her grief and loss comes to a head in a spectacularly uncomfortable sequence where she thinks she's successfully resurrected her husband, and instead is putting the moves on Tyler. That, was really an unpleasant scene to read on a lot of levels, but does lead to one important reveal.

Sunday Splash Page #311

 

"Keep Things Bottled Up," in Locke and Key: Head Games #3, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Welcome to Lovecraft ended with Sam Lesser dead, but the creature from the wellhouse on the loose, and posing as a student at Tyler and Kinsey's school. In Head Games, we find out the creature was once a friend of the Locke's father, Luke Carvaggio, or "Dodge."

Even 30 years hasn't been long enough for all memories to fade, so much of this mini-series is Dodge trying to cover his tracks, killing or otherwise incapacitating people who might recognize him and ask inconvenient questions. He's not very smooth at it - his attempt to make the death of a teacher look like suicide is seen through within minutes - but there's no way to easily tie any of it to him.

And the introduction of the Head Key makes thing a lot simpler for him, unfortunately. The key unlocks the top of a person's head, allowing them to take out or put in anything they want. There's even a nice bit of magic where the person using the key is able to look down into their head, so they aren't groping around blindly.

This lets Rodriguez draw some weird scenes, as we get a look inside both Bode and Tyler's heads. Some of the memories are true to life, such as Tyler's of him standing over his father's casket (plus or minus Sam Lesser whispering over his shoulder.) Bode's are much brighter and more fanciful, like some grand amusement park where everything is exaggerated. His conception of the creature in the wellhouse is therefore too off-base for the other Locke kids to recognize Dodge (or "Zack" as he's going by).

Likewise, Tyler's attempt to catch up on his schoolwork backfires because just stuffing a book about Machiavelli into your skull so you have all the information, doesn't mean you can craft a coherent essay. That said, it's interesting how Hill filters these actions, and Kinsey's removal of both her fear and ability to cry, are based on a desire to be able to jumpstart their lives. Tyler's sick of everybody looking at him with pity when he admits he hasn't done his homework, and he wants to play hockey, because it's something normal and people seem to want him around. And Kinsey's tired of crying and being sad and afraid to make friends with anyone, so she makes it so she can't be.

(She also catches the eye of a guy who looks like he thinks Quentin Quire was a fashion icon, but that'll become more relevant later.)

These are predictably bad ideas, but I can't say I wouldn't have jumped at the chance to do the same thing in my teen years. Hell, I'd probably give serious thought to removing my capacity to feel fear right now.

Sunday Splash Page #310

 

"Peek-a-Boo," in Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #2, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Welcome to Lovecraft was the first of, at that time, six mini-series following the Locke family as they return to the family home in Massachusetts following a family tragedy. It focuses primarily on the children - from oldest to youngest, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode - since Hill's story operates on the "you become blind magic as an adult," principle. Which means it's Bode who finds the first of the mysterious keys and begins experimenting with their power. And it's Bode who discovers the echo in the wellhouse.

Most of this first volume is the kids dealing with what they went through, and how other people perceive it. Bode's teacher and mother think his cartoon about walking through a door and becoming a ghost and looking for his father is disturbing. Kinsey thinks Tyler is dealing with it by focusing on manual labor around the new house, when what he's really seeing is the dead he blames himself for. Kinsey tries to be as innocuous as possible to avoid being noticed, and runs from anyone that tries to get close.

Gabriel Rodriguez makes Keyhouse a massive, Gothic thing. Stone archways over huge wooden doors in the cellar. Elaborate wood walls covered in just the sorts of things that would encourage a small child to explore, and in the process discover hidden surprises. The violence isn't wildly graphic, but he'll come back to a shot of a person with their face busted in with a brick as Tyler replays that memory, or the peculiar way a body lands if you break the neck. Things that would stick with the characters, so they stick with us.

Any progress any of them might make is rushed by the surprise arrival of their father's murderer at their doorstep. Each of them end up desperate in their own way. Ty's desperation makes him try to be a martyr, and Kinsey takes a risk because she's determined to do more than hide to protect herself this time. But it's Bode, knowing the power of the keys but not who he's dealing with, that helps the echo escape and releases the problem that'll carry through the next five volumes.

What I Bought 10/7/2020 - Part 1

The only good thing Columbus ever did was trick people into giving me a paid holiday in his name. It's really helped this go-around. Having an extra day meant I felt nice and relaxed yesterday afternoon, instead of being frustrated about all the things I hadn't gotten done yet.

And one of those things was this post, which I did eventually get written.

Deadpool #7, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Kind of a weird (and late) Valentine's Day gift, but I think Wade would appreciate it.

Deadpool accompanies Elsa to Greenland to find a way into the realm of the Bone Beasts which have infected her. Their realm is also the weird place Elsa's magic bullet teleported Wade briefly back when Kraven was trying to kill him. Elsa says all they gotta do is kill the Queen and the other creatures (which look like inky voids with multiple jaws) die. Except, oops, she actually made a deal with the Queen to offer up Deadpool as a host body in exchange for being cured of the infection.

Hmm, for some reason, I thought the idea was Deadpool was going to be an endless food supply, since he can just regenerate whatever bones they eat, but no. That would have at least made a certain amount of sense. Gross and extremely shitty, backstabbing behavior, but logical. Elsa's in the lead for Deadpool's worst love interest ever, and considering Shiklah declared war on the surface world, and Cable is Cyclops' kid, that's saying something.

That's pretty much the issue. Elsa gets two pages to explain how she got to this point, before Wade interrupts her because this is his book. Sotomayor goes for a more simplified, bright color scheme on the flashback than in the rest of the book, and I think Sandoval inks himself less heavily than he does most of the time. Unless those are the pages Nava is inking. Overall, it looks like someone doing a kind of half-assed attempt at looking more like a '60s book. Like if someone in a '90s comic tried to do a flashback to the '60s and ape the coloring style and whatnot. 

Honestly, when I think of an art style for Elsa Bloodstone, I think of Immonen doing the Mignola impression for that alternate reality of hers in NextWave. Might be out of Sandoval's wheelhouse, though.

Locke and Key: In Pale Battalions Go #2, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - That one German looks really excited about attacking a lady and her daughter. Best not to consider the implications of that!

So Jack Locke's been using the keys and other assorted tools to wreak havoc on the Germans. A pair of brothers have been investigating his attacks, and concluded the soldiers are hallucinating from drinking cheap hooch. Until they get caught in an attack. One dies, Jack lets the other run, presumably to spread fear among the Boche. Things turns when the Germans unleash chlorine gas on the enemy trenches and storm the lines. Jack's wounded and tries using the Anywhere Key to run home. Except he doesn't take it out of the door so the Germans follow him through and his mother gets bayoneted.

Great hustle, you dumbass kid. It was all fun and games when you had the Germans running in terror from your shadow wolves

I wonder how accurate the depiction of the effects of the chlorine gas is. The inflamed areas around the eyes, the vomiting, the veins bulging in the forehead. Although that last bit might just be a side effect of the vomiting. But you could tell me this is actually toned down from reality and I wouldn't be surprised. Mostly because I don't feel like the get-ups the German soldiers are using - goggles and cloths wrapped across their mouths and noses - would actually do the trick.

The landscapes are this depressing swath of disgusting orangish mud and rock, where it's difficult to tell what they're walking over. During the attack, everything except the gas is grey and dingy. It makes that green gas drifting over everything stand out that much more, and it's like it killed everything in its path, not just soldiers, and the Germans are right on its heels. The trees are gnarled and mostly lifeless.

What I Bought 8/30/2020 - Part 3

Ah Labor Day, a Monday where I don't have to work. The best of all Mondays. Granting that I will probably not be able to retire before civilization collapses and "retirement" becomes a euphemism for "throat slit over cucumbers by person wearing too much leather", but I will never understand the people who want to work an actual job after they retire. I barely want to work an actual job now, fuck that nonsense when I'm in my 60s and my knees are made of paper mache.

Locke and Key: In Pale Battalions Go #1, by Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - Don't worry, that guy just really wants to get away from that explosion. Entirely understandable, really.

John Locke is 14, and he wants to go Europe to fight in the Great War. Thinks it goes against everything their family says they stand for to not use the keys to fight against evil. Wrong war for that, kid. World War 1 only demonstrated the ludicrous stupidity of having a crap load of alliances between every damn country.

His father catches him when he tries sneaking to Canada to enlist, but this was all part of some larger scheme where John used the music box to put his mother under his control, to get him into the vault where all the keys are. He gets the keys, ages himself up a bit, and steps through a door into Belgium. Shut the door before you get gassed and let it in the house!

The pacing is not great. Hill and Rodriguez spend like 5 pages on John's parents walking down to the Vault, with his mother making all these comments which are clearly meant to be entirely out of character for her. Just to show how John's using her to get into the Vault of Shadows. I'd rather have spent the pages watching Fiona make the raccoons do housework. Although there's got to be better things to do with the ability to command animal life than that.

Rodriguez' art reminds me a little of John Severin, or maybe Russ Heath's. Shape of the faces, the way the hair's drawn, maybe. The linework is a little lighter, thinner than for those two, but Rodriguez is also drawing mostly children and domestic scenes, not soldiers (so far). But there's an economy to the characters. I don't feel like he's wasting lines.

Wicked Things #4, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Lotte's wandered into a bizarre Tetris world. And now I'll have that music stuck in my head all day.

Turns out Charlotte was right, a heist of all the hot new smartphones was in the works. And through the magic of hiring people for temp work through apps and forging security passes, they pulled it off. Then they sell them, while the police are grudgingly accepting Charlotte's help in figuring out how and where they're at. Unfortunately (fortunately?) they're a step behind, and while Charlotte figures out it was an inside job of sorts, the mastermind accounted for that. Perks of having a twin, I suppose. There'd have to be some benefit to having a clone of yourself, short of the opportunity to commit suicide without actually dying.

Anyway, Charlotte's depressed that they didn't catch the perp, and the lady detective suggests she trying be a team player instead of showing off how smart she is, and yeah, no. Allison did not sell that POV. The cops are consistently flummoxed through this entire case, and entirely reliant on Lotte to figure out each step. At the point she's briefly lost, Detective Bohle immediately opines that the criminal's genius must be smarter than their genius, meaning Lotte. Or maybe the cops could fucking do something other than sit on their asses and glare at the girl doing all the actual detective work.

It's like one of those episodes of House where everyone's yelling at him for being so self-centered and unconventional, but he's the only one actually saving a person's life. Except I don't have a strong urge to punch Lotte in the face.

I get we are not supposed to sympathize with the cops who don't like her because they think she's a murderess, what with us knowing she isn't. But I feel like we're supposed to take the criticism of her being a showoff as a legit and the evidence just isn't there. She had this figured out last issue, told all the cops about it, which is the definition of being a team player, and they blew her off.

I'm glad Lotte's parents were able to send her some clothes, if only so Sarin can draw her in something other than the grey sweatsuit she's been in the last 2+ issues. The tealady apron is an almost passable accessory, but I'm looking forward to what Sarin comes up with as we go forward.

What I Bought 11/8/2019

I was out of town for work almost all of last week. The first couple days were nice, but it rained all day the third day, and on the fourth, the temperature dropped mid-morning. At least the rain had stopped by then. I was really hoping for pleasant fall weather when I planned that one, too.

Black Cat #6, by Jed MacKay (writer), Mike Dowling (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I didn't know J. Scott Campbell was capable of drawing a woman without drawing her chest and hips. Learn something every day.

It's supposed to be a night for relaxing, so Felicia is out on a date with. . . Batroc?! OK, sure, he seems like he'd be a fun guy. And he's just honorable enough that it's not terrible for Felicia to be spending time with him. It's not like she's on a date with Sabretooth. Eventually dinner gets dull, so they go break into a place and steal some stuff. Batroc grabs a blender because he says Felicia should try smoothies. Just as long as he doesn't start preaching the benefit of kale or Crossfit.

While all that is going on, the Black Fox is fighting for his life against members of the Thieves Guild. He gives it a good go, but he gets caught. So I sure how he shared with Felicia how they were going to use all the stuff she swiped to break into the Guild's vault. Because it's probably going to be repurposed to save his butt. And empty out the vault. Multi-tasking.

The dinner date stuff was fun, although MacKay probably got a lot of fans' hopes up when he had it look like Batroc was saying he has a thing for Captain America. (Gwenpool would no doubt have given her whole-hearted approval). But no, he just likes fighting the good Captain. Good thing he didn't tangle with HYDRA Cap, probably wouldn't have survived that.

The Black Fox stuff is an attempt to keep the plot going, and keep it from being strictly an issue of talking, but I don't know. I don't really care that much about the Guild, and it plays out as an elderly man in a suit fighting some rejects from the Hand, visually. Dowling and Reber go a lot heavier on the shadows and murk in that part of the book than the date half. Even when Felicia and Batroc are in a dim apartment, the shadows don't loom as much. It's just some pleasant atmosphere for their fun. Felicia's face is still visible, just a bit darker. Whereas for the Fox, the shadows swallow up parts of his face, obscure them entirely.

Locke and Key: Dog Days, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - Good luck waiting for the dog to pass that.

There's two stories in this. The second one is mostly silent, and involves the Locke family that the original set of mini-series focused on returning to the site of their home and essentially magicking up a new house. Wow, spellcheck recognizes magicking (but not "whole-hearted"). There's nothing else much to it, other than gauging the reactions of the family. Can't help noticing how Tyler's mother is hugging herself with a frightened look on her face. Honestly, given the amount of shit that went down there, why would you voluntarily restore that house? It's like unlocking Michael Myers cell and just walking away. What could possibly go wrong?

The other, "Dog Days", is about three kids living in the '30s or '40s as they go through a day of fishing, exploring, and talking about stuff. Except one of the kids, Lloyd, is kind of odd in the things that he says, or the perspective he brings. The other two boys are alternately horrified or impressed by him, but they have to put things back how they were eventually.

Whereas "Nailed It" is mostly full-page splashes, "Dog Days" sticks to a set of four panels running down the middle of the page, set against a larger, full-page panel in behind them. That one mostly establishes the setting for the four smaller panels. So a panel of an old radio set, while the boys lay in front of it and discuss what they intend to do when they grow up. Rodriguez' art is a little looser, closer to what you might see in a comic strip than his normal style. Faces are rounder, lines lighter and less defined than in "Nailed It". But it's meant to be a funny story (and it is amusing, if not the kind of thing that makes you laugh out loud), so it fits with the tone.

I wouldn't call it an essential comic if you're into Locke & Key, since I would bet anything that comes out of "Nailed It" will give enough references you'd understand how the house was back, but it's not bad as it's own one-off.

What I Bought 12/21/2016 - Part 2

Let's go with a couple of books full of giant, hideous monsters, to properly honor the holiday season. I have one other comic from last week besides these two. I'll do that Wednesday, hopefully along with some of the books from this week (there are supposed to being coming out I'm interested in).

Locke & Key: Small World, by Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer) - Giant spiders menacing a quaint house? Feels like something out one of those '50s horror comics, or maybe Marvel's early '60s sci-fi.

This story is set in the early 20th Century, and revolves around a special dollhouse. You can use it to see where anyone is in the Locke house at any time, and if you tamper with things inside the dollhouse, it happens in the real house, done by a giant version of whatever you stuck in there. Like a hand, or a pencil. Or a spider that wanders in. And since the story is set a century before the events from the original series, given the Lockes tumultuous history, it's uncertain who might not survive.

It's a decent little done-in-one. I think you could follow what's going on without having read any of the earlier stories. It's just Hill and Rodriguez taking the opportunity to play in the sandbox they created some more. There's a lot of open ground unexplored, so here's one little thing that happened in the past. Inessential, but enjoyable.

Rodriguez is an excellent artist. The initial sequence establishes the rules of the dollhouse, the critical presences of both the family cat and the spider, and some of the personality traits of the family. The way Mary sees the dollhouse and is immediately planning mischief, while the younger sister Jean, is looking on with wonder and curiosity, but no real grasp of how it works. And their dad is there, prattling on about how it will allow the girls to understand their housecleaning duties in their, quote, 'natural empire'. Nice touch that when he's talking about that, Rodriguez draws him by himself in the panels, then switches to the two sisters talking between themselves about how they intend to use it. It sets the tone for the impending disaster. And in the panel when that disaster starts, Rodriguez gives Jean this great look. That look of excitement about something that has completely shoved everything else out of her mind. And Fotos uses the same red for the sunset in the background behind that he does for the spots on the spiders. And the way things are placed, Jean splits the red into two halves, like eyes. Nice touch all around.

Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #3, by Gerard Way and Jon Rivera (writers), Michael Avon Oeming (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer) - Cave trying to classic, "Angry Dad Finger" to stop the monster. Sadly, this technique is less effective than the "Angry Mom Finger".

Cave, Chloe, and Wild Dog tunnel into the earth to try and escape the strange monster pursuer. Then they're nearly eaten by giant worms. They escape that, and take some time to try and talk,as it turns out Chloe didn't know her mother was the princess of a subterranean empire. In the meantime, EBX has sent a mission to track them down, and the company's owner's father is up to something. Also, he may be made of goo.

I laughed at Chloe complaining to her father that Wild Dog nearly blew her up, only for Wild Dog to remember he hadn't finished blowing up her car yet and taking care of that. Just the way he can't pass up the chance to blow shit up. It's weird, but I think Wild Dog is more the everyman in this scenario than Chloe, who at least knows some stuff about the landscapes they're moving through. I'm curious if Way and Rivera will spend time fleshing out the team chasing our heroes, either to make us care about them (if there's a team-up down the line) or hate them. They're mostly cardboard puppets at this point, so we'll see.

I'm always a sucker for pages that are set-up largely without panels, just the characters moving across it to guide our eyes, and there's a couple of those here with the Mighty Mole tunneling through the earth. Those are nice. But I actually really like a pair of pages when they stop to catch their breath. Each has one panel at the top, establishing location and which characters are involved, then three panels across the middle, and one more at the bottom where the view pulls back and the conversation concludes. The first one is between Cave and Wild Dog, Cave explaining why Chloe might be angry about encountering giant worms, and in the three center panels, Wild Dog is progressively more in shadow as we move across. I'm not sure if it's so we focus on Cave, who is having to face past decisions that have led to current crises, or to emphasize Wild Dog being disappointed in Cave. They're at a distance in the panel at the bottom of the page, but it sure looks like Wild Dog turned away from him.

The next page, Cave tries to explain why Chloe wasn't told the truth about her mother. In this case, Chloe gradually turns towards Cave as the center panels progress, and rather than the eye remaining static, it moves in closer to focus on their expressions. It ends focused mostly on Chloe as she stalks away, leaving Cave sitting alone. It's interesting the first page is dominated by the reddish-pink colors and the panels are very rectangular. The second page, the reddish-pink is gradually overwhelmed by that green and black, and the panels are drawn more like entrances to caves, where the borders are formations reaching from the ceiling or floor.

So far Way, Rivera, Oeming, and Filardi continue to entertain and so I continue to stick with the book.