Jessie Robertson reviews Locke & Key: Head Games #1 Hundred Penny Press Edition…
“Locke & Key might have recently wrapped but the series is still finding new audiences every month. Here’s a value-priced way to experience the start of the series’ second storyline, the critically acclaimed Head Games!”
First off, I’m not familiar with the history of this book but wanted to jump in and give it a try. From a lot of the dialogue, I can tell I’m far behind in mythos on this exact storyline. From what I gather, ghosts and keys play a big part of this comic; am I close?
There is a nice standalone story here from the perspective of a main character you don’t get very much, a septagenarian teacher named Joe Ridgeway. Finding a ghost of a student he thought disappeared thirty years ago shocks and startles him but awakens him to his old self, a student who shunned alone time with his girlfriend to write an amazing dissertation, seemingly just to prove to a professor that he could wow him with it. He has a dogged spirit that he had forgotten about since his wife had passed away. The opening scene is very telling as his white girlfriend (Mr. Ridgeway being African-American) jumps into the bottom of lake when feeling neglected and tells him he has to pull her out or she’ll drown herself, a very Woolf thing to do to prove something. And yet it is that memory that he calls back to mind as he encounters this ghost; that moment left an impression on him and solidified their relationship, even when, by the standards of forty years ago, they should not have been together because of prejudice and social distinctions.
I wasn’t all that into the over-arching story as you get to like and respect Mr. Ridgeway but his time with us is fleeting; and there are no redeeming qualities of the ghost student, Luke. The artwork I did enjoy though; the lines in Ridgeway’s face, the flicker of the TV screen against the younger boy, the characters weatherd looks. It’s not a style that suits everyone, but for this book I think it works; it brings a sense of solidity to the faces and places in the story.
Overall, it’s a good beginning to what I’m assuming are a strand of stories relating to this key Luke uses to move through solid walls but I don’t know if I’m that invested at this point. Think it may take further reading.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published May 15, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
