Vault Comics And Red Hook Studio To Produce Graphic Novels Based On ‘Darkest Dungeon’ RPG
by Olly MacNamee
Vault Comics and Red Hook Studios are developing a series of graphic novels based on the Darkest Dungeon RPG games co-created by Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman in 2016, in which “players recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark.”
Vault’s Darkest Dungeon graphic novels will be written by John Lees, with art by Maan House, and working in conjunction with Red Hook Studios co-founder and Darkest Dungeon creative director, Chris Bourassa.
The first planned graphic novel will be crowdfunded on BackerKit, and you can sign up for the pre-launch now and stay up-to-date. It will be set in the Darkest Dungeon universe and reveal “new details and introduce new mysteries at the heart of the Darkest Dungeon core mythology.”
Red Hook Studios co-founder Chris Bourassa, said of this new partnership:
“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. 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.”
Helmer added:
“Our Darkest Dungeon graphic novel campaign will channel the spirit of the games—a realm filled with hidden rewards alongside myriad choices and dangers. 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.”
Adrian Wassel, Vault Chief Creative Officer and co-founder, said:
“When I was a kid, I had a book that detailed the stats of every X-Men character and their backstories. I would pour 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. When I got to know Chris Bourassa (the game creator), 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.”
