This article deals with a collection published by IDW, formed of oversized carved leather hardcover books (13.5 x 9 inches or 35 x 23 cm), printed on both thick glossy paper (main paret) and mat paper (scripts), and featuring a coloured satin ribbon bookmark. If the series is edited by Chris Ryall, this collection is edited by Justin Eisinger and designed by Robbie Robbins (with Bill Tortolini on the first volume). So far there have been three volumes published (very approximately once a year). Note that the second volume displayed here (Head Games), is the Red Label IDW Limited edition version (different color and IDW Limited logo on back cover), and on a picture below it is compared in size with the French edition of Head Games HC that has the same size than the original floppy comics.
Let's begin with Locke and Key I: Welcome To Lovecraft, published in December 2011 (296 pages, ISBN 978-1-61377-076-4, cover price 100$):
The book displays the same second and third of cover and a black satin ribbon bookmark. A picture below shows the excellent quality of the binding.
 |
| second of cover |
This book reprint the entire Welcome To Lovecraft series (originally published as 6 issues in 2008), which is the first part of the whole Locke & Key saga. The covers are included in virgin form (alongside the main material).
The bonus section begins with 10 pages dedicated to Gabriel Rodriguez art gallery:
Of course the main extra in this collection is the fact that each book features the entirety of Joe Hill's original scripts (here 114 pages). The book ends with short bios of the authors.
 |
| redacted! |
For the time being, concerning Locke and Key II: Headgames, I will let interested readers navigate to the IDW limited version wich is closely similar to the "regular" Special edition.
Now let's continue with Locke and Key III: Crown of Shadows, published in May 2014 (264 pages, ISBN 978-1-61377-759-6, cover price 100$):
The book displays the same second and third of cover and a black satin ribbon bookmark. A picture below shows the excellent quality of the binding.
 |
| second of cover |
This book reprint the entire Crown of Shadows series (originally published as 6 issues in 2009), which is the third part of the whole Locke & Key saga. The regular covers are included in virgin form (alongside the main material), as well as the Locke Family Journal excerpts.
 |
| some of Gabriel Rodriguez art really diserve the oversized treatment |
The bonus section begins with 10 pages dedicated to Gabriel Rodriguez art gallery, this time mostly virgin variant covers:
 |
| variant cover for issue #1 |
Again the main extra in this collection is the fact that each book features the entirety of Joe Hill's original scripts (here 100 pages). The book ends with short bios of the authors.
Je vends en ce moment 2 exemplaires de cette collection, voir ici.
You will be disappointed to hear IDW may not
ReplyDeletepublish volumes 4 – 6. If some
of us who have bought the first three
books were to send some nice but
persuasive messages, maybe we can sway
IDW to finish publishing the whole set.
Please pass this message on to anyone
else you know has these so they can write.
Send tweets to @IDWPublishing or visit
the contact page on their website,
http://www.idwpublishing.com/contact/ .
Thanks!
'Nice' is the 'key' word indeed. This is their latest response (8 July 2015): "There’s no date set right now, actually. We’re working on figuring that out". So there is still hope!
DeleteI'm going to be very bummed out if IDW doesn't publish special editions of the final three volumes. I wouldn't spend that much money on any old comics, but I'd definitely spend it on "Locke & Key."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder, it is time again for my periodic lobbying ;)
DeleteWould be "nice" if they could at least publish the art of the series, i.e. without the scripts. I always felt that the latter was a bit overappreciated.
ReplyDelete