Book Series Guide
Joe Hill

Author guide

Joe Hill Books in Order

Joe Hill is an American writer of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, and comics. His fiction includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, The Fireman, and King Sorrow; short-fiction collections including 20th Century Ghosts, Strange Weather, and Full Throttle; and numerous graphic works, including Locke & Key and stories for Hill House Comics.

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Catalog record updated .

Joe Hill's Newest Book

Cover of Jackknife

Jackknife

short_story · First published 2025

Ruined by scandal, Dennis Lange is hoping for a comeback. Selling the story of a cursed tree could make his future—if it doesn’t kill him—in this monstrous short story from New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill. Dennis awakens something evil when he removes a decades-old jackknife from the trunk of a gnarled old sycamore. Once pinned in place—now thoughtlessly freed—the tree returns to its roots. An act of vigilante justice took place under its boughs long ago. But its taste for blood has only grown stronger… Joe Hill’s Jackknife is part of The Shivers, a collection of haunting stories that reveal the otherworldly terrors all around us. Once you know, there’s no going back. Read or listen to each story in one unsettling sitting.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of 20th Century Ghosts

20th Century Ghosts

The foundational short-fiction collection and an accessible introduction to Hill's range.

Cover of Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box

A concise, self-contained first novel and a representative entry point to his horror fiction.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

The first collected volume of Hill's major comic series.

Read in order

Books by series

comic series · complete

Locke & Key

A comic-book saga written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez, comprising a six-volume main narrative and later companion stories collected in The Golden Age.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

    Book 1 · graphic_novel · 2008

  2. 2
    Locke & Key: Head Games

    Book 2 · graphic_novel · 2009

  3. 3
    Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows

    Book 3 · graphic_novel · 2009

  4. 4
    Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom

    Book 4 · graphic_novel · 2010

  5. 5
    Locke & Key: Clockworks

    Book 5 · graphic_novel · 2011

  6. 6
    Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega

    Book 6 · graphic_novel · 2012

  7. 7
    Locke & Key: In the Can

    Book 7 · graphic_one_shot · 2009 Optional

  8. 8
    Locke & Key: Open the Moon

    Book 8 · graphic_one_shot · 2011 Optional

  9. 9
    Locke & Key: Guide to the Known Keys

    Book 9 · graphic_one_shot · 2011 Optional

  10. 10
    Locke & Key: Grindhouse

    Book 10 · graphic_one_shot · 2012 Optional

  11. 11
    Locke & Key: Small World

    Book 11 · graphic_one_shot · 2016 Optional

    Three years after wrapping up their award-winning, best-selling Locke & Key saga, the team that built Keyhouse returns to Lovecraft, Massachusetts with a new tale of terror and suspense! An impossible birthday gift for two little girls…

  12. 12
    Locke & Key: Nailed It

    Book 12 · graphic_one_shot · 2019 Optional

  13. 13
    Locke & Key: Dog Days

    Book 13 · graphic_one_shot · 2019 Optional

    TWO new stories by creators Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez—"Nailed It" and "Dog Days"—plus an 8-page preview of an all-new series by Hill and artist Martin Simmonds, too!

  14. 14
    Locke & Key: In Pale Battalions Go

    Book 14 · graphic_novel · 2020 Optional

  15. 15
    Locke & Key: Hell & Gone

    Book 15 · graphic_novel · 2021 Optional

  16. 16
    Locke & Key: Face the Music

    Book 16 · graphic_one_shot · 2022 Optional

  17. 17
    Locke & Key: The Golden Age

    Book 17 · graphic_novel · 2022

    The beloved graphic novel series turned Netflix hit continues! Take a trip through the past and unlock moments from Keyhouse's long history that expand the saga of the Locke family in this collection of stories including the crossover…

comic series · complete

The Cape

A comic-book series based on Joe Hill's short story, co-written with Jason Ciaramella.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    The Cape

    Book 1 · graphic_novel · 2010

    From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this e-short story—from Joe Hill’s award-winning collection 20th Century Ghosts. Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about…

  2. 2
    The Cape: 1969

    Book 2 · graphic_novel · 2012 Optional

  3. 3
    The Cape: Fallen

    Book 3 · graphic_novel · 2018 Optional

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (18)
  1. Voluntary Committal

    novella · 2005

    From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this e-short story—from Joe Hill’s award-winning collection 20th Century Ghosts. Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about…

  2. Heart-Shaped Box

    novel · 2007

    Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious…

  3. Gunpowder

    novella · 2008

  4. Horns

    novel · 2010

    After his childhood sweetheart is brutally killed and suspicion falls on him, Ig Parrish goes on a drinking binge and wakes up with horns on his head, hate in his heart, and an incredible new power which he uses in the name of vengeance.

  5. Road Rage

    graphic_novel · 2012

    Acclaimed novelist/Eisner-winning graphic novelist Joe Hill collaborated with his father, Stephen King, in Throttle, for the first time on a tale that paid tribute to Richard Matheson's classic tale, Duel. Now, IDW is proud to present…

  6. In the Tall Grass

    novella · 2012

    As USA TODAY said of Stephen King’s Mile 81: “Park and scream. Could there be any better place to set a horror story than an abandoned rest stop?” In the Tall Grass begins with a sister and brother who pull off to the side of the road…

  7. NOS4A2

    novel · 2013

    See work: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16802476W

  8. Thumbprint

    graphic_novel · 2013

  9. Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland

    graphic_novel · 2013

  10. Strange Weather

    novella_collection · 2017

    Four short novels from the author of THE FIREMAN and HORNS, ranging from creepy horror to powerful explorations of our modern society. One autumnal day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails, splinters of bright…

  11. Tales from the Darkside

    graphic_novel · 2016

  12. The Fireman

    novel · 2016

    #1 New York Times Bestseller From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to…

  13. Basketful of Heads

    graphic_novel · 2019

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill asks, "With a cursed Viking axe, what can you accomplish?" and June Branch is ready to answer! Heads will roll... June Branch is in trouble. She's trapped on Brody Island with nowhere to run.…

  14. Sea Dogs

    graphic_novel · 2019

  15. Plunge

    graphic_novel · 2020

    In the aftermath of a devastating tsunami, an exploration vessel known as the Derleth begins sending an automated distress signal from a remote atoll in the Bering Strait. The only problem is that the Derleth has been missing for 40…

  16. Dying Is Easy

    graphic_novel · 2020

    Comedy is hard... but dying is easy! From New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill (LOCKE & KEY, NOS4A2) comes this new graphic novel mystery. Meet Syd "Sh*t-Talk" Homes, a disgraced ex-cop turned bitter stand-up comic turned wanted…

  17. Rain

    graphic_novel · 2022

  18. King Sorrow

    novel · 2025

    Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a…

Short fiction (6)
  1. 20th Century Ghosts

    short_story_collection · 2005

    Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . . Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .…

  2. Full Throttle

    short_story_collection · 2019

    In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including "In The Tall Grass," one of two stories co-written with Stephen King, basis for the…

  3. The Pram

    short_story · 2023

    A husband’s obsessive desire for a child leads to an unexpected manifestation of his yearning in a nightmarish short story about fatherhood dreams by New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill. Willy and Marianne’s farmhouse in Maine has…

  4. Back to the Graveyard

    short_story · 2023

  5. Ushers

    short_story · 2024

    **A young man who has improbably escaped death twice reveals his secret in a spine-tingling short story by New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.** Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s…

  6. Jackknife

    short_story · 2025

    Ruined by scandal, Dennis Lange is hoping for a comeback. Selling the story of a cursed tree could make his future—if it doesn’t kill him—in this monstrous short story from New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill. Dennis awakens…

Essays and speeches (1)
Plays (1)
  1. Tales from the Darkside: Script Book

    screenplay_collection · 2016

Other (3)
  1. Better Than Home

    chapbook · 1999

  2. Kodiak

    graphic_one_shot · 2010

  3. Creepshow: Joe Hill's Wolverton Station

    graphic_one_shot · 2024

Frequently asked questions about Joe Hill

Who is Joe Hill, and what is his real name?

Joe Hill is the professional name of Joseph Hillstrom King, an American novelist, short-story writer, and comic-book writer. He is the son of authors Stephen King and Tabitha King.

Source: encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)

Why did Joe Hill choose a pen name?

He wanted his writing to be judged on its own merits rather than through his family name and his father’s fame. The pseudonym also gave him greater freedom to develop independently as a writer.

Sources: wbur.org (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)

How did Joe Hill begin his writing career?

Hill spent nearly a decade writing and publishing short fiction under relative anonymity before his first book brought wider attention. He later established himself across fiction and comics.

Sources: encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)

What influences Joe Hill’s writing?

Hill has identified comics, horror films, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur Conan Doyle among his influences. He has also acknowledged that growing up around his father’s stories shaped his imagination.

Sources: kirkusreviews.com (opens in a new tab)encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)

What awards has Joe Hill won, and why is he important to horror and comics?

His honors include a World Fantasy Award for “Voluntary Committal” and an Eisner Award for Best Writer for Locke & Key, along with Bram Stoker and British Fantasy awards. His career is notable for bringing ambitious horror storytelling to both prose fiction and comics.

Sources: worldfantasy.org (opens in a new tab)comics.org (opens in a new tab)encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)