Another adaptation, another deadline, and apparently nobody checked with the person who has to survive the end of the world first. Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is getting an ongoing comic book series from Vault Comics, and while we are happy to see the crawl expand, we are also watching the calendar with the same suspicion we reserve for a floor collapse timer. According to Variety, the series begins with a double-sized 48-page first issue in January 2027, followed by monthly issues that will serialize the existing webtoon adaptation. This joins an increasingly crowded slate of ways to experience Carl and Donut's suffering, including the live-action Peacock adaptation, a card game, and an official board game, as covered in our earlier piece on Dungeon Crawler Carl Board Games Crawl to Shelves Before the Show Shoots. The comic is another loot drop, and we are here to appraise it.
The practical takeaway for readers is straightforward: if you have been following the webtoon and want a physical collection that arrives in a predictable monthly rhythm, this is your best option yet. Writer Tevagah and Laurel Pursuit Studios continue their work, joined by artist Kuzomari, whose artwork is being scaled up for the comic page. The cover lineup is aggressive and smart. Nathan Gooden handles main covers, with variants from Ryan Ottley, Brett Bean, Frank Cho, Clayton Crain, Yoshi Yoshitani, Katie Cook, Riley Rossmo, Tyler Walpole, Doug Mahnke, Trish Forstner, and novel cover artist Luciano Fleitas. That is a roster that signals Vault is treating this as a flagship launch, not a licensed afterthought. For collectors, this is the kind of variant spread that makes a first issue feel like a boss drop you want to grab before the floor collapses.
What this means for the broader crawl is less certain and more interesting. The comic arrives in January 2027, and the Peacock show has not yet locked a premiere date. That puts the monthly comic in the position of being the primary gateway for new readers for at least the first part of that year. As we noted in our guide on A Crawler's Guide to Glaring at an Incomplete Story, the book series is not finished, the show is not filmed, and now the comic is running alongside both. That is a lot of plates spinning for a story that is still being written. The comic is adapting existing webtoon material, so it will not outpace the novels, but it will give a new audience a fixed, monthly dose of the dungeon before the live-action version introduces its own take on the chaos.
The one detail worth watching is how the comic handles the tone. The webtoon has its own visual language, and scaling it for a monthly comic page is a different rhythm than a scrolling digital format. Kuzomari joining the project suggests the art team is serious about making the transition work, but the proof will be in how the first issue reads as a standalone artifact rather than a collected chapter. For now, mark January 2027 on your collapse timers. The dungeon is getting another floor, and we will be watching to see if it holds.
Source: Variety, "Dungeon Crawler Carl Comic Book Crawls to Shelves in January", 2025. [Link] Status: Confirmed