Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez is, hands down, one of the best comic books ever made. It’s a modern masterpiece with sinister characters, gorgeous visuals, and a deep mythology surrounding an old house and the magical keys the Locke family kids find there. Attempts to adapt it to a movie or a television show have thus far come up short, but the audio book version has just released from Audible. While the final product has incredible presentation, it’s not something we would recommend you try out if you’ve never read Locke and Key before.

The audio play covers the entire Locke and Key series from start to finish, laid out in six volumes. That means that this audio play lasts a whopping 13.5 hours, making it more of an audio epic than anything else. Don’t be intimidated by the length, though, as it’s something you can listen to in chunks and return to when you want another fix. But given how tense and intriguing the core mystery is, it’s hard to imagine not immediately diving into the next one.The story follows the Locke family children -- teenagers Tyler and Kinsey and their little brother Bode -- as a family tragedy has them sent to an old family house, aptly named Keyhouse, where they discover magical keys with a variety of strange abilities: the Anywhere Key takes you to any place on Earth you can imagine, the Gender Key turns you from a boy to a girl or vise-versa, and the Ghost Key kills you dead so you can explore the grounds as a ghost. Of course, the tragedy follows them to their new dwelling, and a mystery unfolds surrounding a murderous spirit in the well and the magic of the keys themselves.The voice cast is spot-on, with Zack Wells aka the villainous Dodge stealing every scene he appears in. The main Locke trio are voiced by members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, so know that Tyler, Kinsey, and even little Bode all have their essence captured perfectly. Several stars lend their vocal chords to the production, including Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) as the disturbed Sam Lesser, Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) as the lady in the well, and Kate Mulgrew (Orange is the New Black, Star Trek: Voyager) as the vile old grandma. While those three big names have been used as part of the marketing campaign, they all have relatively small roles, with the UCB actors carrying most the weight -- and doing a smashing job at it.The score only adds to the already-high production quality. Ominous chords strike as the plot hits its trademark moments of horror, and scenes with magic are given a mischievous blend of notes that capture the wonder and fear of it all. The main theme is especially catchy and sinister -- like Darth Vader’s booming Imperial March -- and will have you humming it to yourself long after listening.Now, let’s address the thing that’s probably been nagging at you this whole time.The big hurdle to overcome when adapting a comic book to an audio book is finding a way to successfully capture the story despite losing all of the visuals. Comic books are a marriage of word and art, so the gut-reaction to hearing that the pictures have been removed feels almost like sacrilege. The impressive production of the Locke and Key audio play will immediately put your fears to rest -- the voice actors, musical score, and numerous sound effects all work together seamlessly to capture the tone and appeal of the comic.However, there were several instances where the audio play faltered in conveying exactly what was happening. The Head Key scenes in particular felt short-changed. In the comic, we saw elaborate, detailed double splash-pages overflowing with symbols and metaphors, whereas in the audio play we hear some sounds and reactions but it falls short of getting the right amount of wonder and awe across. Without a narrator to describe precisely what’s happening, those scenes and several others just don’t work. These moments are few and far between, but they still exist.On top of that, it's impossible for us to imagine a Locke and Key experience without taking in Rodriguez's amazing, breath-taking artwork. He has a style all his own and he uses it to great effect to convey the human emotion, bizarre magic, and horrifying surprises. His masterful layouts are packed with detail, so even if the reader pores over every visual, they still feel like they've missed a hidden morsel once they bring themselves to turn the page.That’s why we’d only recommend this to someone who has already read Locke and Key in comic book form and wants to experience it all over again in a new format. The production is top-notch, so the few moments that don’t quite jive won’t be a problem because you already know what’s actually happening. The audio play makes an excellent companion piece to the comic book, one that heightens the experience and makes you feel the terror and magic all over again. But if you haven’t read the comic yet, do yourself a favor and save this audio book for after.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Lady Gaga are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN