The Art of Trauma: Abstraction and Locke & KeyKirsten E. StrickerWittenberg University

Page from Locke & Key: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Locke & Key• Art by Gabriel Rodriguez• Story by Joseph Hillstrom King Writes under the pseudonym ‘Joe Hill’

Son of Stephen King

• The Children – Tyler (18), Kinsey (16), and Bode (6)

• The Parents – Nina, and Rendall (Deceased)

Covers of Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2010 – 2014.

Gabriel Rodriguez• 1974 – born in Santiago, Chile

• Architect by training• Graphic Novel Artist• First job in the world of graphic novels was for Clive Barker in 2002

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Rodriguez’s ArtArt from “Welcome to Lovecraft,” Locke & Key, volume #1 (2008)

Art for a cover of “The Walking Dead” (2012)

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez Cover for The Walking Dead by Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012. http://www.thewalkingdead.com/image-gallery/hero-initiative-twd-100-gallery/rodriguez-gabriel/

Abstraction in Locke & Key• Abstraction: freedom from strict representation qualities

• May contain exaggerate characteristics and/or omit details for the sake of the story

• The abstraction of the three Locke children develops throughout the series in response the trials and tribulations they go through

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

• PTSD, a recognized mental disorder in the DSM-V

• Factors that may increase the likelihood of developing symptoms Increased proximity and exposure to a stressor event

Changes following the event, i.e. lose of home, school, community

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Tyler Locke

• Begins his senior year of high during the story

• Protected the rest of his family during the event of his father’s murder

• Becomes the ‘man of house’ • Feels responsible for his father’s death

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012

Tyler Locke and PTSD• A sense of reliving the event

• Lack of responsiveness to his environment

• Impaired concentration

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012.

Panel from Locke & Key: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2010.

Tyler Locke and PTSD, continued

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012

Tyler Locke, continued

• Tyler’s PTSD is mostly dealt with in the first two volumes of the series

• His overall stylistic transformation is not made until the later volumes

• Abstract and soft more realistic and hard

Panel from Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012

Panel from Locke & Key: Alpha and Omega by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2014.

Conclusion• Without the art the story would have been missing an important element of the story

• The art is not simply illustrative, it is communicative in it’s own right

Panel from Locke & Key: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2010

Selected References• Anderson, Tanya. "PTSD in Children and Adolescents." Great Cities Institute, November 2005.• Ault, Donald. "Imagetextuality: Cutting Up Again, pt. III." ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary

Comics Studies 1, no. 1 (2004).• Careaga, Roberto. Ilustrador chileno recibe premio por novela gráfica escrita junto a hijo de Stephen King. September 24, 2009. http://www.latercera.com/contenido/727_185936_9.shtml (accessed January 10, 2014).

• Duncan, Randy, and Matthew J. Smith. The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture. New York: Continuum, 2009.

• Fullerton, Carol, and Robert Ursano, . Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Acute and Long-Term Responses to Trauma and Disaster. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1997.

• Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. Art In Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. 2nd. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

• Krueger, Rex. "Abstraction, Trauma, and the Orphan in Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack's 'Daredevil: Wake Up'." ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies 4, no. 2 (2009).

• Wegner, Phillip E. "Alan Moore, 'Secondary Literacy,' and the Modernism of the Graphic Novel." ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies 5, no. 3 (2010).

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