Fantasy-Horror Comic Locke & Key Sold Out in One Day

IDW Publishing to do a second printing of the comic book written by New York Times bestselling suspense novelist Joe Hill

Best-selling suspense writer Joe Hill unleashed an all-new fantasy-horror comic series on readers this month, on February 20, 2008-and the first issue sold out in one day. In response to the overwhelming demand for Locke and Key #1-which was Hill's first comic book-IDW Publishing (www.idwpublishing.com) is doing a second printing.

"IDW overprinted the first issue of Locke & Key #1 by a significant quantity and it still sold out the day it was released," says Ted Adams, president of IDW Publishing. "Joe and [artist] Gabriel Rodriguez have created an amazing comic and I'm proud to publish it. We're committed to making sure the book is available and we're working to get the second printing into stores as quickly as possible."

The item code for the second printing of Locke & Key #1 is JAN088121. Locke & Key #2 will be in stores on March 5, 2008 (item code is JAN083690).

Joe Hill
A rising star in the horror novel genre, Hill's stories have ranged from serial killers and abducted children to supernatural novels, but his latest dark fantasy, Locke & Key, is being unleashed as a six-issue comic series.

Hill's first book of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, received the British Fantasy Award, The International Horror Guild Award and the Bram Stoker Award for best collection. The Washington Post noted that "the collection should establish its author as a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction." Following on the success of 20th Century Ghosts, Hill released Heart-Shaped Box, which was a New York Times bestseller and made the Publisher's Weekly 2007 Best Books of the year list. The supernatural thriller about a merciless ghost is currently being adapted by Warner Brothers for a planned feature film release.

Locke & Key
Featuring art from Gabriel Rodriguez, who worked on IDW Publishing's Beowulf and Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show, Locke & Key is a supernatural thriller about three children who find themselves the custodians of a New England mansion. Within the house are fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them-fundamentally changing a child into an old person, a boy into a girl, and so forth. The mansion is also home to a hate-filled creature that will not rest until it forces the kids to open the most terrible door of all.

"Ultimately it's a kind of modern Grimm's fairy tale, about the way young people discover and construct their own identity," says Hill.