Sorry for the prolonged period of radio silence. I’ve been neck-deep in a new project and the thing is a time hog; it hasn’t left a lot of room for blogging.
There’s a lot happening with LOCKE & KEY over the next month. Maybe a visual will help. This, from editor Chris Ryall:
You’re looking at the small avalanche of LOCKE & KEY stuff that will be arriving in comic shops and bookstores on August 11th. They are: the hardcover edition of LOCKE & KEY (Vol. 3): CROWN OF SHADOWS; the beginning of the new story arc, KEYS TO THE KINGDOM #1; and WELCOME TO LOVECRAFT #1: LEGACY EDITION, a $1 reprint of the very first LOCKE & KEY story.
For those who haven’t been following the comic, KEYS TO THE KINGDOM #1, and the $1 LEGACY EDITION are great places to jump in and give it a try. KEYS will be a series of standalone LOCKE & KEY stories (except for the final two issues, which work as a two-parter). You don’t need to be a devotee or a longtime follower to drop in and enjoy them. And LEGACY is more than just another edition of a story which has already been reprinted a few times. It also includes an 8-page “Story So Far” feature in the back – hosted by a damn fine looking hunk of manmeat – which covers everything else that’s happened since LOCKE & KEY began. It isn’t the same as reading the stories themselves, but it does catch you up on the highlights.
And for those of you looking to lay hands on signed copies, there are a few ways to get them:
Signing: July 29th (Thurs), 7PM — NYC. BARNES & NOBLE (82nd and Broadway). IDW has hooked the 82nd St Barnes & Noble up with advance copies of CROWN OF SHADOWS; I’ll be there this Thursday to sign CoS, other volumes of LOCKE & KEY, HORNS, HEART-SHAPED BOX, and 20th CENTURY GHOSTS. Don’t let me be lonely, guys… come see me!
Pre-Sign: August 12th — SALEM, MA. CORNERSTONE BOOKS. Between now and August 11th, you can preorder a signed, personalized copy of CROWN OF SHADOWS, and up to two other books, through Cornerstone Books in Salem, MA. They’re happy to ship wherever you live (although the shipping costs are on you). Note that this is not an in-store appearance. The only way to get your books is by contacting Cornerstone to preorder.
There are a few ground rules: I’ll only sign up to three books per household. One of them has to be CROWN OF SHADOWS, but the other two can be anything else I’ve written. All three books will be autographed, although I’ll only personalize and/or doodle one of them. Cornerstone Books will make every effort to deliver your books to you in mint, but they won’t accept returns. No one can promise there won’t be a scuff mark somewhere on one of your books. Here’s the info on Cornerstone Books:
Signing: August 14th, 4-6 PM — PORTLAND, ME. CASABLANCA COMICS. I’ll be in Casablanca Comics on the afternoon of the 14th to sign KEYS TO THE KINGDOM #1, WTL: LEGACY, CROWN OF SHADOWS, and all the other volumes in the LOCKE & KEY series. This is a great comic store in the Old Port. If you’re in the area, come on down and say hello.
Stay tuned… if there are other signings to announce, I’ll post them as soon as they’re scheduled.
I wrote the first draft of this story – it’s a standalone titled “Beyond Repair” – as part of HEAD GAMES, but when I hit the last page, I realized I was going to have to put it aside for a while. Because when you get to the last page, it’s pretty clear that we’ve reached the halfway point of the overarching story, and I didn’t think it had been properly prepared for way back in HEAD GAMES. So this one has been waiting for about a year and a half. Oh, and also, it’s the first and only time I’ve ever had to make a chart to write a story.
I just wanted to thank Chris Ryall, Robbie Robbins, Jay Fotos, Ted Adams and all the IDW crew for their hard work on CROWN OF SHADOWS… and I want to especially thank Gabriel Rodriguez, who turned in some of his best work ever, while battling through a series of personal setbacks that would’ve kicked the legs out from under most people (including his whole fucking country falling down around his ears). I can’t imagine a more fun collaboration.
Thanks as well to everyone who’s been reading these stories. At the time of this writing, I’m about midway through the fourth storyline, KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, and for the first time I have more of LOCKE & KEY behind me than I have ahead of me. I hope you stick around for the end. I’m gonna try real hard not to screw it up.
Blair Butler’s vote, anyway… Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #5 is out as of last Wednesday, and Blair Butler just named it her pick of the week. Today is Free Comic Book day, so it’s a good time to visit your local comic store, and if you’re going to be in there anyhow, why not pick yerself up a copy? (No, it’s not free, but a practically-free L&K is in the works for sometime down the road)
And here’s what Miz B had to say about the penultimate issue of CoS:
Yes, it was also out last Wednesday. But owing to a kink in the distribution chain, Locke & Key #4 didn’t arrive in a broad swath of the US last week; didn’t turn up in the UK either. It finally made it into most stores today, however, and Newsarama says you should run out and pick it up (scroll down to find the review).
I blasted through Toronto on Monday, to do about a week of events in 24 hours. There were a lot of highlights, but I especially enjoyed two. The first was an appearance on The Hour, a late night show hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. Link is here – it was an unusually long interview for a TV thing, and we had some fun. Although I apparently need to say “Y’know” a whole lot less. The interview starts at about the 26:00 mark.
And the last reading of the tour, at the Merril Collection, a part of the Toronto Public Library, was great fun, and the ideal way to wind things up. Did you know the Merril Collection has the biggest collection of scifi and fantasy novels in the world? A collection so valuable, the entrance to the library is protected by a Griffin and a Hippogriff? Well, I mean, obviously. You don’t guard books this important with just a couple rent-a-cops:
I had a good time on the tour, and was glad to spend time with some old friends, and some new. Big thanks to all the editors and author escorts who showed me around the west coast, the east coast, England and Toronto. Hopefully it won’t be three years between tours this time.
That’s also a wrap on the website for the next couple weeks. I’ll probably burp up occasional, completely inessential comments on Twitter, but other than that I’m laying low, and getting some work done. Be well everyone, and a whole lot of thanks for being so good to me while I was out on the road.
Was up around 5 AM and out of the hotel by 6, roaming the streets of London and trying not to get run over (Look left, fuckwit! LEFT!). My sleep schedule is going to be SO fucked up when I get back to America. Here’s the morning picture:
That’s from outside the National Gallery. It was cool and sprinkly but kind of a nice sprinkly.
The last appearance of the UK tour is this afternoon, at 1 PM, in Forbidden Planet London. No reading, just scribbling, doodling, etc. If you’re in town for the weekend you’ll have to go back tomorrow morning, where FP is hosting Mark Millar and John Romita, jr., and how awesome is that?
In other doings, Blair Butler hauled off and made Locke & Key #4 the Pick-of-the-Week, calling Gabriel Rodriguez her favorite artist working in comics today. Even if you’re already on board with Locke & Key, I encourage checking out this week’s Fresh Ink anyway… lots of other fine recommendations, including some vampire comic that looks like a must read.
Finally, here’s the cover for issue 5, out next month… they can go ahead and hang this in the National Gallery, far as I’m concerned:
I’m flying from one place to the other, so this has to be a brief hit, but: I’ve heard directly from Gabe and he and his wife and his kids are all okay.
And if you can find it in your heart (and wallet) to give a little to help Chile out, I hope you will. Here’s a link to the Red Cross International Response Fund.
I loved going in the Book Revue last night – if I was a Huntington, NY guy, I’d live in that joint. I left them with a low wall of signed, doodled books, and they’re more then willing to ship, so if you can’t catch me on the road, but want something with my name scribbled in it, give ‘em a call. They even ship internationally.
I had a new short story out the same day HORNS arrived in bookstores. It’s called “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” and it appears in Christopher Golden’s anthology of zombie stories, THE NEW DEAD. Chris is signing today, along with several other contributors: Stephen Bissette, Rick Hautala, and Holly Newstein, at the Barnes & Noble in Framingham, MA, at 2 PM. I won’t be there myself… but I am planning to stop in Framingham on my way north and scribble my name in their copies of NEW DEAD. I draw a pretty good li’l zombie with his brains falling out, too. If you’re in the vicinity of Framingham, stop on by, grab a book, and tell Chris I said hi.
In other news, the good Blair Butler reviews Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #3 in her new Fresh Ink and likes what she sees. Check it out.
And with that I’m going to wink out of existence for a couple days, but I’ll pick it up again in Pittsburgh on the 1st.
I wanted to thank everyone who braved the blizzard to come to the book launch event at River Run last night; thanks, also, to everyone who called in and ordered a book or two ahead of time. In spite of the weather, it was a lot of fun, and a great way to kick off the release of HORNS.
If you were snowed out of the River Run signing, you can catch me tonight at the Barnes & Noble in Manchester, NH, at 7PM. If that doesn’t work, maybe another date will. My whole tour schedule is here. And if you can’t make any of the readings/signings, most bookstores are glad to ship you a signed book, as long as you’re buying the stamps. River Run has quite a few signed copies of HORNS (and LOCKE & KEY, and 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS, and even a couple 1st editions of HEART-SHAPED BOX).
In other news, the new issue of LOCKE & KEY is out, at least in the west, but has been delayed a week or two on the east coast. A truck delivering IDW’s mid-February titles was involved in an accident – a bad one, I’m afraid. My understanding is that the driver was seriously injured; my thoughts are with him and his family. I hope he’s all right, and that he has a fast, full recovery.
I may never luck out this way again, but this week I’ve got the fuckin’ hat trick going: a new short story, a new novel, and, on Wednesday, a new issue of LOCKE & KEY.
I’m going to be spending most of the month working my jaws on the subject of HORNS, but I love me my comic too, and I’m always schoolkid happy when there’s a new issue out. Even though this is the third issue of the third arc, new readers should find this a relatively smooth entry point (although I think the best way to approach the series is to go back to the beginning, and read LOCKE & KEY: WELCOME TO LOVECRAFT). Longtime followers will be glad to see a couple new keys in this one.
As if that wasn’t enough, Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows 3 also contains an extended preview of the novel in the back end. So if you’ve been reading Locke & Key, but aren’t sure you want to gamble on HORNS, it’s a great chance to try before you buy.
