Vault Comics attended New York Comic-Con 2022 this past weekend, bringing not only their top trades for both their main line and young readers’ imprint but also treats for fans (did someone say massive axe to play with?!)

Vault Comics
The Vault Team

The publisher also had its first-ever NYCC panel, where the team shared their history, how they celebrated their five-year anniversary recently, and how founders Nathan Gooden, Damian Wassel, and Adrian Wassel created the beloved company. Panelists included Editor-in-Chief Wassel, David Dissanayake (Vice President of Sales and Marketing), and convention coordinator Daniel Crary. The audience was treated to a surprise guest, artist Sally Cantirino (Door to Door Night by Night, I Walk With Monsters). 

Vault Comics
I got to play with the massive axe

The panelists teased how fans can look forward to “The Year of the Axe” which clearly means more Barbaric, the massively popular fantasy/comedy book by Michael Moreci and Gooden. Hints were dropped that the world of Barbaric isn’t going anywhere any time soon and will take shape in spinoffs and even “new forms.”  

The company has big plans to collaborate with new creators and even musical talent to expand its diverse library of books while keeping its fans happy with fantasy, horror, and sci-fi titles, specifically Door to Door, Night by Night by Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, Basilisk, The Last Book You’ll Ever Read) and Cantirino.

Vault Comics NYCC panel

While the team talked about some of their top books from the last few years like their Nightfall imprint which brought us some of my personal faves like The Plot, they also discussed getting to work with big names in genre books like Brandon Sanderson. They also shared that Chris Sebela (Test) will return with an exciting new series, Godfell.

Crary shared with The Beat:

“We’re so glad to be back at New York, and it’s really special for us to do our first Vault panel. And we’re excited and you can expect a lot more panels from us in the future to make a lot of really cool announcements. We are back at convention, baby!”

Wassel added:

“We founded this company on really two big pillars: authentic and diverse storytelling from day one and a genre mandate to do the best in science fiction/fantasy. And then we added horror. And we’ve built an incredible ramp over five years, and I can’t wait for everyone to see the crazy trick we do off that ramp in the next five years the same way we launched Nightfall. It’s been an amazing success and has added horror to our lineup. We have plans to add more that will be really, really exciting, and we can’t wait to unveil those. Look for some new imprints in the future, doing some very new kinds of books with some really cool collaborators. And those two missions that we launched with will always be the pillars that support everything we do here, bringing together incredibly well-established talent and new talent that we really believe in to make the best in genre comics.”

Miss any of our other NYCC ’22 coverage? Find it all here!