Vault Comics and game developer Red Hook Studios are joining forces to publish graphic novels based on the Darkest Dungeon series. Published in 2016, Darkest Dungeon, co-created by Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman, is a gothic, turn-based roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Players recruit, train, and lead a team of heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the challenge of keeping track of the players’ sanity. Darkest Dungeon is among the most beloved independent games, with Red Hook Studios following up in 2023 with Darkest Dungeon II, which received widespread acclaim.
Vault’s Darkest Dungeon graphic novels will be written by John Lees and drawn by Maan House, working in close consultation with Red Hook Studios co-founder and Darkest Dungeon creative director, Chris Bourassa.
Darkest Dungeon graphic novels will debut with a launch campaign on BackerKit. Pre-launch sign-ups are now live. More details will be announced in the lead-up to launch.
Vault’s all-new graphic novels will tell a canonical story set in the universe of Darkest Dungeon, revealing new details and introducing new mysteries at the heart of the game’s mythology.“I grew up reading comics. 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. 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. I couldn’t be more excited to work with the team at Vault to make this a reality – together, we’re going to do it right,” said Bourassa. “This book will be a meaningful, canonical entry in the ongoing lore of Darkest Dungeon, offering long-time fans new and important insights while introducing new readers to the characters, tone, and world that made our games so successful.”
Vault Chief Creative Officer and co-founder Adrian Wassel will lead the project for Vault, alongside Vault VP of Special Projects and Crowdfunding Der-shing Helmer, with Bourassa overseeing creative for Red Hook Studios.
“Our Darkest Dungeon graphic novel campaign will channel the spirit of the games—a realm filled with hidden rewards alongside myriad choices and dangers,” said Helmer. “We’ll have a little bit of something for everyone, from those who are newer to graphic novels to the most seasoned collectors of curiosities. We hope you’ll join the adventure and add this new story to your bookshelf before the torch goes out.”
“When I was a kid, I had a book that detailed the stats of every X-Men character and their backstories. I would pore over it for hours, imagining battles with different team configurations. That’s Darkest Dungeon in a nutshell, and it’s why I am obsessed with the games,” said Wassel. “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. 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. It will be a horrific and excellent evolution—or, dare I say, mutation.”
Check out the BackerKit page for Vault’s new Darkest Dungeon graphic novels here.
