SDCC 2012: IDW - Locke & Key Panel
All you fellow Locke & Key fans can find answers to questions from other fans from this Q&A panel. Here's the panel description followed by the highlights:
5:00-6:00 Locke & Key - The Locke family has been through a lot so far in the acclaimed series, but the worst is yet to come in Omega, the concluding Locke & Key storyline coming this winter. IDW editor-in-chief and L&K editor Chris Ryall hosts a sit-down with the Locke & Key creators, writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, as they tell you what is coming in Omega, what else they have planned once that wraps, and a few surprises as well. Room 9
For anyone that doesn't know anything about Locke & Key, it's a series published by IDW and written by Joe Hill with art by Gabriel Rodriguez. It centers around a family who moves to a family-owned estate after the father of the family is killed. This mysterious house is full of secrets, which revolve around all these hidden mystical keys that each do different things. One, when used, can cause you to leave your body, while another can steal thoughts, and so forth. There's a dark spirit trying to gain access to al the keys and usurp the power from this family. The story is broken up into several mini-series.
Joe Hill opens the panel thanking everyone "for coming to the 'My Little Pony' panel, which of course gets some laughs. As you should know by now, IDW is doing a My Little Pony comic.
After some fumbling around with non-working tech, and Rodriguez joking that the blank screen was his cover for the next issue, they finally got it all sorted and began the panel properly.
IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall called the Locke & Key on of his most rewarding experiences at the company. He noted, as he was introducing Hill and Rodriguez, that this would probably be the last panel with both of them appearing together before the storyline "Omega" wrapped.
Before all that, though, there is the first of several one-shots called "Grindhouse," which Ryall compared to the Sandman single stories. "It allows us to break out of our box and do some new things." Hill added that he didn't think they'd get an Eisner nomination for it. Ryall then added that "Open Moon is who you want to be, Grindhouse is who you are." Rodriguez will be trying out a new style on "Grindhouse."
Hill said they talked a lot about what makes a dirty crime comic from the 50s work, and they decided it's all about teeth, joking that anything the characters do they are gritting their teeth. They were showing pages from "Grindhouse."
Hill then talked about building too much up without answers, noting that X-Files started floundering when they had too many mysteries going on with no resolution. But Rodriguez added that "everything seems to be developing in the right way" in Locke & Key.
Hill joked about a couple of things he did to annoy Rodriguez, one being writing in the script to draw twelve mason jars each with a tiny scene in them. This illicited a loud sigh from Rodriguez. The other was having Kinsey walk into a bathroom off the kitchen, which did not exist in Rodriguez' concept of the house.
"Omega" is no longer a six-issue, but a seven-issue series. Hill joked that they needed to figure out what to do with the other six because they kill off Kinsey, Tyler and Bode in the first one. While he was kidding there, he did note that he agreed with the "Joss Whedon system, that you have to be willing to pull the trigger on your favorite character." They have to behave realistically, and it bugs him when characters do something obviously stupid just to further the story.
Ryall said that while "Omega" does end the epic story that began in the first miniseries "Welcome to Lovecraft," it is not the end of Locke & Key. Book 7, Hill announced, will be "The Golden Age," which will not feature the current cast. It will, however, introduce keys we've never seen before.
"A lot of series that have an ending... there's really nowhere else to go, so when they come back it seems contrived," said Ryall, who went on to say that there was still a lot to explore in the world of Locke & Key.
Hill wants to eventually do a book called "Locke & Key: Battleground" set in World War II and explore why adults can't see the magic of the keys.
The panel then opened for questions. Here are the highlights:
- Hill always loved exploring what makes these good kids do reckless things.
- Rodriguez talked about his intro into comics, saying the comic industry in Chile had fallen apart. A friend pointed him toward then new publisher IDW who were looking for an artist for the CSI book. Ryall approached Hill with four samples: three terrible ones and Rodriguez' because Ryall thought he was the only guy for the job.
- Hill said he knew Rodriguez' art could make people care. "Gabe can draw anatomy with the best of them, but what we both really care about is emotional anatomy," said Hill.
- Answering a Twitter question about a Locke & Key play set, Hill replied he'd love to see a Bode toy case like the old Darth Vader ones, and it opens and closes with the Head Key.
- Hill has no intention of publishing the Locke & Key series bible.
- Locke & Key came about through years of failure, Hill said, selling his novels, but he had some success with short stories. Marvel recruited him and he did a short Spider-Man story "which was terrible, but somewhat saved by the art of Seth Fisher," Hill added. IDW invited him to do some adaptations later, but he pitched them on "this idea about a haunted house. I'll tell the whole thing in six issues." This got laughter from the crowd.
- Hill's second novel "Horns" is about a man who "wakes up with a hangover and a pair of horns growing out of his head." Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) will play the lead in the film adaptation. Hill joked that he didn't "know why [Radcliffe] chose to do the film, except that he can't wait to get naked and ride the shopping cart down the hill. So if you get full-frontal Dan, thank me."
- His next book is called "NOS4A2" and is about "a bad man with a bad car." The guy takes these kids to a place called Christmasland, which is not a nice place.
- Hill quipped that the Locke & Key pilot would be on Bit Torrent later that afternoon. Ryall said that Fox was knd enough to let them show it at a few cons, but it would not be returning.
- Elle's son, Rufus will play a role in the final arc.
- While he hadn't thought it through, it is possible that Stephen King, Hill's father, may have a cameo in the "Horns" film adaptation.
And that's a wrap.
Source: Various
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