NYCC 2026 : Dark Horse Continues Returns To The Table With A ‘D&D Dark Sun’ Graphic Novel
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Dungeons & Dragons announced the concept of seasons earlier this year. I got really excited to see how much these themed time periods in the rollout of their core products, along with other associated media, were going to play out across the pop-culture space.
Dark Horse Comics, being the current home for the recent D&D comic stories, has added a new facet to the upcoming D&D season of Survival themed around the brutal legacy setting brought up to date for the modern D&D5.5 rules with an 18+ rating. Announced this weekend at New York Comic Con 2026, they will publish the Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun Vol. 1 graphic novel next spring.
The first of these Dark Sun graphic novels will be written by Dan Abnett, illustrated by Nil Vendrell, colored by Mattia Iacono, and lettered by Buddy Beaudoin.
Dark Sun is a brutal setting. The core world, Athas, is a dead world rotting from magic wars and ecological disaster. This upcoming story will focus on survivors fighting for scraps in the shadows of sorcerer kings.
It appears Tikat, a thri-kreen gladiator, is a central figure in the story. Thri-Kreen are a species of bug folk, and in the normal landscape of conventionally attractive and almost always human protagonists, seeing a Thri-Kreen be a central character really works for me both as someone who loves fresh stories and someone who thinks this species deserves their due.
When one of Tikat’s friends is targeted by a psionic enemy, Tikat volunteers himself as a bodyguard, and what is said to follow is a battle for survival. Tikat, Kavora, a cannibal, more than likely one of the halflings of the Dark Sun setting, and the rest of their rag-tag party fight to escape the dangerous city of Tyr.
The book is set to drop in April 2027 and can be pre-ordered now at your local comic shop.
Until next time, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks, Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers, and Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft have all been really solid books from Dark Horse thus far. I am excited to see how Dark Sun feels when I finally get a chance to give it a read!
