Dungeon Crawler Carl Gets a Monthly Comic Book Series From Vault

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is coming to comic book stores as a monthly series. Vault Comics and Dinniman announced the ongoing comic on October 22, with the first issue due in January 2027. Variety first reported the series that morning.

The comic will serialize the existing Dungeon Crawler Carl webtoon, written by Dinniman and Tevagah, with art by Laurel Pursuit Studios. The artist Kuzomari joins to rework that art so it fits a printed comic page, Vault said.

What's in issue #1

Dungeon Crawler Carl #1 will be a double-sized, 48-page issue that combines the first two episodes of the webtoon. After that, issues will come out monthly, according to Vault. Its solicitation copy plays on the books' game-style alerts: "New Achievement! You like 'em floppy!"

Nathan Gooden will draw the main covers. Vault listed a rotating group of variant cover artists that includes Ryan Ottley, Brett Bean, Frank Cho, Clayton Crain, Yoshi Yoshitani, Katie Cook, Riley Rossmo, Tyler Walpole, Doug Mahnke, Trish Forstner, Todd Beats and Tony Moy, as well as Luciano Fleitas, who paints the covers of the novels. More cover artists will be announced later, the publisher said.

"Entering the comic space is nothing short of amazing," Dinniman said in the release. "The fact that I get to work with some of the greatest creators and artists working today feels like a dream."

A self-published hit, still growing

Dungeon Crawler Carl follows a Coast Guard veteran named Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, through a trap-filled fantasy dungeon that turns out to be the set of an alien reality show. Vault describes it as the No. 1 New York Times-bestselling LitRPG series, with more than 19 million copies sold.

The comic is the latest format for a series that started online and grew through self-publishing and audio. Vault's release also notes that Peacock has greenlit a live-action series from Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door, with Chris Yost and Eric Heisserer as co-showrunners and a writers' room already working.

Why it matters for authors

For indie authors, Dungeon Crawler Carl shows how far one property can travel: from web serial to self-published novels, audiobooks, a webtoon, a TV deal and now monthly print comics in the direct market. The adaptation reuses webtoon pages that already exist and adds a new artist to resize them, rather than starting again from scratch. That kind of rights reuse could work for other genre series that already have a comic version.

Sources

• Vault Comics, October 22, 2026: Vault Comics and Matt Dinniman announce Dungeon Crawler Carl ongoing comic book series
• Variety, October 22, 2026: 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' Comic Book Series Launching in January