Locke & Key: Small World is the first issue of the Golden Age series. It was released on December 21, 2016.
Synopsis[]
An impossible birthday gift for two little girls unexpectedly throws open a door to a monster on eight legs!
Plot[]
Sometime in the 1910s, in the main living room of Keyhouse, Chamberlin Locke presents the Small World Key and its Dollhouse as a birthday present to his two daughters, Mary and Jean Locke. Chamberlin explains that he intends for the Key and the Dollhouse to be a teaching tool to teach Mary and Jean the responsibilities of being a homemaker which is what all women were expected to become at the time period as well as responsibility in the use of the Keys. The family is so distracted by the gift that they fail to notice that a black widow spider has made its web on the ceiling.
Later that evening after dinner, Jean activates the Dollhouse to pull a prank on her father by grabbing the bathtub while he is still in it and pulling it down the stairs. She is then called to bed by Harland, and in her haste to get ready, she accidentally leaves the Dollhouse activated, and the spider makes its way into the Dollhouse.
Later that night, Harland reads Peter Pan to Jean and Mary, using the Crown of Shadows to act out the story. After the girls are asleep, he gives the Crown to Ian before sending him off to bed.
Chamberlin, Fiona, and Harland are too distracted by the mess Jean made with her bathtub prank that they fail to notice the spider until it is too late. All three are captured by the spider, who wraps them up in its silk webs to eat later. Their screams wake Jean, Mary, John, and Ian, who investigate where they are when confronted by the spider.
Ian attempts to kill the spider using the shadows but suffers a seizure caused by the tumor in his head and is captured. Deducing that the Small World Key and Dollhouse are to blame, Jean, Mary, Tiberius and John flee down the stairs to the first floor to shut off the Dollhouse. John tears off a piece of tapestry, wraps it around his hand, sets it alight and punches the spider in the eyes, but is captured. Mary and Jean make their way to the bathtub, where Mary breaks off the handle of a mop and fashion it into a crude spear and stabs the spider in the mouth, but is captured. Only Jean and Tiberius remain.
Jean run into the living room to shut off the Dollhouse, but trips on the carpet and is cornered by the spider. At the last moment, Tiberius stick his paw into the Dollhouse and squashes the spider, simultaneously causing a large paw to crash through the window of the real Keyhouse and kill the giant spider.
With the Locke family freed, John is healed using the Mending Cabinet and Mary uses the shadows to clean up the mess. Harland asks Chamberlin where Jean is, and he replies that she fell asleep, curled up with the cat. Harland looks over the stairwell balcony to reveal that Tiberius in inside the Dollhouse, causing a giant sized Tiberius to manifest in the real Keyhouse with Jean sleeping within his tail.
Variant Covers[]
Trivia[]
- This issue introduces the Small World Key which works with a replica of Keyhouse showing the inhabitants as dolls. One can interact with the real house by manipulating the dollhouse.
- Joe Hill stated in an interview that the title "Small World" was a shout-out to the 1981 novel "Small World" written by his mother, Tabitha King.[1]
- The Deluxe Edition of Small World includes a few pages from the first draft of the script as written by Joe Hill. The first draft of the script reveals that the working title was "Locke & Key: Northern Widow".
The first page of the first draft of Small World script showing the working title: "Locke & Key: Northern Widow".
- According to Joe Hill, the story is meant to take place a few months before the Titanic was due to set sail.[2]