Darkest Dungeon Getting Graphic Novel Expansion Crowdfunded by Dark Souls Veteran

Red Hook Studios released the roguelike role-playing game Darkest Dungeon in 2016. It made players question the sanity of their Dungeons & Dragons characters by focusing on the mental and physical decline of adventurers fighting cultists and abominations underground. The hard game continued with a 2023 sequel, and the studio released new downloadable content for the original on August 18. Fans will receive even more hero stories as a crowdfunding campaign launches in October for the next expansion of Darkest Dungeon.

Vault Comics will publish a series of canonical graphic novels expanding the mythology of the video game. In the game, players attempt to save the world from an ancient evil unleashed by their ancestor’s quest for knowledge and power. Horror writer John Lees and Maan House, who drew Titan Comics’ adaptation of Dark Souls, are working with Batman book inspirations and Darkest Dungeon creative director and Red Hook Studios co-founder Chris Bourassa to develop the series.

“I learned to draw from studying the carefully crafted panels of the Bronze Age Batman books, and later, the exuberant splash pages of the Image Comics revolution,” Bourassa said in a statement. “Darkest Dungeon was born of a deep love of this medium, and from day one, I’ve always dreamed of seeing it on the page.”

The crowdfunding campaign includes rewards for comics collectors and game fans who do not typically read graphic novels. The goal is to introduce new readers to the dark world and characters while providing longtime fans with deeper insights into its mysteries.

“When I got to know Chris Bourassa, I learned that X-Men was one of his biggest inspirations, and suddenly it all clicked: Inside the grueling and grim (but often wickedly funny) world of Darkest Dungeon, there was comic book DNA,” Vault chief creative officer Adrian Wassel said in a statement. “Now we get to tell a new story — with the heroes everyone knows — in the comic book medium that’s been swirling around inside the games’ blood this whole time.”

Source: Polygon