SDCC '07: JOE HILL TALKS LOCKE & KEY @ IDW

[MattBrady]

by Zack Smith

At their panel today at SDCC, IDW announced a new project by a known/unknown author (depending on what you’ve heard). Author Joe Hill is a young writer’s who’s just coming into his own thanks to the reception his novel Heart-Shaped Box has seen. Hill was ”outed” by Variety in 2006 (after his book was published though) – his fill name is Joseph Hillstrom King, and he’s the son of Stephen and Tabitha King.

But – as any number of critics have pointed out, Hill was making a name for himself before his genealogy was known. He’d even sold a comic story to Marvel amidst his early career. And now, Hill’s Locke & Key, a six issue miniseries, will be launching in January.

We spoke with the author.

Newsarama: Can you tell us a little about the basic concept of the book -- the premise, the main characters, etc.

JOE HILL: Locke & Key is a supernatural thriller about three kids who find themselves the custodians of an unlikely New England mansion called Keyhouse. Within the house are secret doors with transformative powers, the power to fundamentally change a person’s identity. There’s one door, when a kid steps through it he’s turned into an old person. Pass through another door, and a boy will turn into a girl, while a girl will be turned into a boy. There’s another door that unlocks a closet, filled with robes: an African robe, an Asian robe. By putting the robe on, you change your race. And they find themselves pitted against a thing that calls itself Dodge, who preys on children with a weak sense of self. Dodge has a habit of turning them lethally dangerous: into Columbine style-killers, or lynch mobs. There’s a terrible door within Keyhouse that Dodge would like to force open, and which my heroes have to keep shut at all costs. Ultimately it’s a kind of modern Grimm’s fairy tale, about the way young people discover and construct their own identity.

NRAMA: How did you get into comics in the first place?

JH: Strange as this may sound, my first ever fiction submission was a script I sent off to Marvel comics. This was when I was twelve years old. Remember The Marvel Try-Out Book? The idea behind the Try-Out was that you were given the beginning of a typical Spider-Man story, and prospective writers were invited to write their own ending. Whoever did the best job would see their comic illustrated and published. I spent a week or so working on my own webtacular wrap-up, and sent it off. I got back a form rejection: no big surprise. But at the bottom of the rejection was a little scribbled note from Jim Shooter, the then editor-in-chief. I couldn’t actually read what he had written and for all I know his note said: “Hang it up, kid. You suck.” But I felt this great euphoria at the idea that he had read some of my script, felt like I was on my way. It definitely motivated me to write more. continued...

Newsarama's Comic-Con International '07 coverage is brought to you by Witchblade – The Anime Series. Available on DVD September 25th. Click here to view trailer.

Fast-forward about twenty years. I was writing and selling short stories, and just starting to have some success on the small press scene. A talent scout at Marvel, named Teresa Focarile, came across my story “20th Century Ghost,” in The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror, and dropped me an e-mail to ask if I had ever considered writing for comics. I was thrilled - totally high on the idea. At the time, it was the most exciting message I’d ever had from an editor. I wound up writing an eleven-page tale for Spider-Man Unlimited. I’m not sure the story is actually very good, but I was saved by the late Seth Fisher, who created some stunning eye candy for the piece. Working on that story was the fulfillment of a very intense childhood fantasy.

It’s a blast to write for illustration - the best kind of collaboration – and I got hooked on the form. I wrote a few stand-alone horror scripts for an indie comic (they still haven’t been published) but that didn’t quite satisfy my jones. So I started working up proposals for new titles. Locke & Key was one of those proposals, the best of them. I sent it around to a few places, but couldn’t get anyone interested, not initially. So it sat in my desk for a couple years.

NRAMA: How did this project come about? IDW had contacted you before Heart-Shaped Box was published, correct?

JH: Yeah, I think so. My first published book was a collection of stories, titled 20TH Century Ghosts, after the same story that attracted the interest of Teresa Focarile. Chris Ryall, over at IDW, read the book, and had an idea to adapt some of the stories to comic book form, either for one of their anthology titles, or as a standalone graphic novel. And when they contacted me, I thought, oh hell, I’ve got to show them Locke & Key. They were enthused by the concept and told me they’d love to make it happen.

NRAMA: What made you want to tell this story as a comic book, as opposed to a novel?

JH: It started as a comic book idea, and I’ve never been able to imagine it any other way. Maybe that’s partly because I conceive of the story as being a bit Sandman-like, in the sense of it being a big, almost epic tale, which is told in a series of brief episodes… essentially, a string of short stories connected by the same characters, and by some larger, overarching concerns. It couldn’t be a novel. It has the sprawl of a novel, but not the focus of one. It’s important to make sure that form and content are one and the same, that they work together, and in this case the form has to be something serial in nature.

Right now we’re just focused on telling a great story in six issues. But the first storyline only scratches the surface of a much larger story, something that could run as long as 68 issues… ten six-issue stories, one eight-issue story. But even if Locke & Key is successful enough to allow for all 68 issues, I won’t write it straight-out. I’ll do one chunk, then leave it for a while, come back in a year. I see this as something I can play with off-and-on for a decade at least. This is assuming people actually want to read these stories, and IDW wants to publish them.

NRAMA: What's the adjustment been like, moving from novels to comics? Also, what's it been like working with IDW?

JH: Professionally, I’ve had a chance to work with some great editors and publishers, and IDW is no exception. They’re a laid-back crew, and they’re giving me plenty of time to get the story right, which is always good. If I blow it, it won’t be for lack of support.

It’s been a pretty easy adjustment. I’ve had some tune-ups writing those other scripts I mentioned, and I’m an avid reader of comics, a student of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and also Brian Vaughan, who has really joined their ranks as one of the most gifted guys to ever work in the field. I have a basically comic book imagination, so for the most part I feel like I’m in my comfort zone.

NRAMA: Tell us about your artist, Gabriel Rodriguez. What's your collaboration with him been like, and what do you feel he brings to your story?

JH: Gabriel has a tremendous sense of place and setting, and a flawless instinct for showing the key dramatic moments in any sequence. I’ve had an advance look at some of his action sequences for Beowulf and was floored. I can’t wait to see him stage some of the big action pieces in Locke & Key. I’m especially looking forward to his depiction of the Greyhound bus from hell in issue four. If I can’t freak people out with that, I can’t freak people out at all.

NRAMA: Do you have any favorite horror comics? Also, why do you feel horror translates so well to the medium of comics?

JH: I’m not sure horror really does translate to comics all that well. It’s hard, within the confines of the form, to produce the right combination of suspense and moral shock that makes for great horror. It can be done, and was in Sandman, but there are more who fail than succeed. The key (I think) is to push the limits psychologically… to bring the heroes, and the reader, into an uneasy, uncomfortable place, and force them to live there a while.

Probably my favorite horror comic is Archie’s Pal Jughead. Jughead is like some kind of Elder God. He’s the goat with a thousand mouths. Where does all that food go? He contains a limitless, world-swallowing black hole. What’s with that crown he wears everywhere? Looks like something he stole from Sauron’s hat-rack.

NRAMA: Just one question regarding your dad -- he's done a number of comics, most recently overseeing The Dark Tower books at Marvel. Did he give you any advice about doing comics?

JH: Naw, not really. In the comics field, we’re both novices… enthusiastic fans. But he read the first script of Locke & Key and was pleased.

NRAMA: Neil Jordan's doing a film version of Heart-Shaped Box -- how's that coming along?

JH: I’ve heard he turned in a script that was fabulous, but I haven’t seen it yet. He’s a good guy to have in charge of the production, though. I’m happy with him as Warner Brothers’s choice for director. He’s a careful, literate film-maker, a guy more interested in emotional and psychological pyrotechnics than trying to blow the audience away with the latest CGI (which never works anyway). And he knows ghosts. He wrote a very favorably reviewed novel about a haunting: Shade. So we’ll see.

NRAMA: Outside of comics, what's coming up for you?

JH: My first book, 20th Century Ghosts, which was published in England by a small press, several years ago, is due out here in the States this October, in a brand-spanking new edition. I’m fairly chuffed about that. The stories in GHOSTS were written over the course of a decade, and I carried them around for a long time before they were finally all collected into one book, so I’m emotionally attached to them, and glad they’ll have a shot at a wide audience. And I’ve got one, possibly two new books on the way: a thriller and a young-adult novel. My one superstition, though, is that I don’t like to talk about unfinished work if I can help it, so I better not say anything about them.

[coldwarmyth]

I may look into this when it comes out, like the idea of changing your ethicity or gender.

I haven't read Joe's fiction yet, but when the paperbacks start arriving, if the content is to my taste I certainly will.

[Porcelain]

Heart-Shaped Box is an awesome read. You will not be disappointed.

Can't wait for Skull Key and any new work by Hill.

[Porcelain]

Heart-Shaped Box is an awesome read. You will not be disappointed.

Can't wait for Skull Key and any new work by Hill.

[Allen]

I liked news about even Heart Shaped Box movie. I am now reading novel. Very quick reading. I read fifty pages yesterday. I am now going to try to read some more into novel.

[Trey]

Has anyone else been reading this? The first two issues are awesome!

[Allen]

I have not read yet.I did though read heart shaped Box. I ordered first two issues though from online store yesterday.