Check Out the First 4 Pages of IDW's Upcoming LOCKE & KEY / THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE: HELL & GONE #1
Author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez have teamed up with IDW to bring fans a new tale of mystery and terror that combines two comic franchises: Locke & Key and The Sandman. Locke & Key / The Sandman Universe: Hell & Gone #1 will follow Mary Locke on her quest to rescue her brother from The Pit, and we’ve got the first four pages available for you to check out below.
Hell & Gone #1 follows a desperate Mary Locke, whose brother Jack may be 10 years dead but still sends letters home from Hell. Her quest to rescue him from The Pit will require her to outsmart Roderick Burgess (the most wicked man in England), puzzle her way through the House of Mystery, and risk the walking nightmare known as The Corinthian in a disintegrating Kingdom of Dreams!
Talking about this combination of titles, Hill said:
Without Sandman, I don't know if there ever would've been a Locke & Key. Neil Gaiman's stories taught Gabriel and me how to tell ours. The Sandman series is to comics what J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was to fantasy and maybe what Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was to rock & roll: it's the Alpha & Omega of dark fantasy in this format. Neil dreamt up all the best toys, and what a thrill it's been to play with them. Maybe the biggest surprise is how well, how naturally, these series lace together. It's like they've always been waiting for each other.
Rodriguez added:
An idea we started discussing with Joe as a joke became a Dream once and now the stars aligned to lend us the Key to open the gate to a story that means so much to us! Both Joe and myself fell in love deeper than ever with comics thanks to a generation of genius creators guided by editor Karen Berger in DC's Vertigo line. They brought to the medium a breath of insane, mind-bending fresh air rarely seen before. Morpheus' saga is directly responsible for inspiring the foundation of Keyhouse, the crafting of the magic keys, and the family saga of Locke & Key. To have these universes weave together in a multi-dimensional, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking adventure is indeed a Dream UnLocked.
Coincidentally, both of these franchises have Netflix adaptations. The IDW Entertainment produced Locke & Key series is working on its second season. Meanwhile, The Sandman is still working on its first season.
Fans will be able to read Hell & Gone #1 on April 14 with a main cover by Rodriguez. Variant covers from JH Williams III, Kelley Jones, and Rodriguez also available.
