I won’t lie. I don’t know what this is, but I’m here to tell you about it anyway. Dungeon Crawler Carl is getting its own ongoing comic book series, bringing Matt Dinniman’s wildly popular LitRPG saga from the webtoon to comic shops in January 2027.
Vault Comics is publishing the series, with a double-sized debut issue that gives readers 48 pages of dungeon-crawling madness. This really sounds like a story for DrScreams. Can someone go wake him up?
From what I can tell over at Variety, The comic will adapt the hit Dungeon Crawler Carl webtoon, with writer Tevagah and Laurel Pursuit Studios returning from that series. Artist Kuzomari is also joining the team, with the artwork being expanded to better suit the comic book page.
For anyone who hasn’t entered this particular nightmare yet, Dungeon Crawler Carl follows Carl, a Coast Guard veteran whose life takes a catastrophic turn when the world ends and humanity’s survivors are forced into a deadly dungeon. His companion is Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend’s cat, who is considerably more than a furry passenger along for the ride.
The dungeon is actually the set of an intergalactic reality television show, with alien viewers watching the contestants fight to survive. Carl and Donut must navigate a video-game-style world filled with traps and monsters, where making it to the next level is a matter of life and death. The books mix fantasy with LitRPG mechanics, turning the usual progression system of a role-playing game into a brutal televised spectacle.
The first issue arrives in comic book stores in January 2027, with subsequent issues scheduled for monthly release. Nathan Gooden, whose credits include Barbaric and Post Malone’s Big Rig, will provide the main covers. The variant-cover lineup includes Ryan Ottley (Invincible), Frank Cho, Clayton Crain, Doug Mahnke and several other artists, with more names expected to be announced.
Dinniman is thrilled to see his creation move into another format.
“Entering the comic space is nothing short of amazing,” the author said. “The fact that I get to work with some of the greatest creators and artists working today feels like a dream.”
The comic announcement is another big step for a property that has grown well beyond its original books. The webtoon has already given the story a visual format, and the upcoming print series will bring that material to comic shelves with artwork designed for the page. For longtime readers, it offers another way to follow Carl and Princess Donut into the dungeon. For newcomers, a 48-page first issue could be a pretty good entry point into a series where the apocalypse comes with a viewing audience.
The comic isn’t the only screen adaptation in the works. Dungeon Crawler Carl is also being developed as a live-action television series for Peacock by Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door. The project has Chris Yost and Eric Heisserer attached as co-showrunners, bringing experience in genre storytelling to a story that could be a particularly strange fit for live action.
There’s no premiere date or casting announcement in the current update, so the television version remains in development. With the comic arriving in January 2027, readers will get a new version of Carl’s disastrous adventure before any confirmed television debut. Turning a dungeon built for alien reality TV into a live-action series is a sizeable undertaking, but if the adaptation captures even a little of the books’ deranged sense of humor, Carl and Princess Donut could be quite a pair to watch.
