Darkest Dungeon Goes Full Comic Book as Vault and Red Hook Studios Announce Canonical Graphic Novels

Wepa, Crusaders! Keep that torch burning because one of gaming’s most punishing, twisted, beautifully miserable worlds is officially crawling onto the comic book shelf.

Vault Comics and Red Hook Studios are teaming up to bring Darkest Dungeon into graphic novels, expanding the universe of the hit video game franchise with an all-new canonical story that promises new mysteries, deeper mythology, familiar heroes, and plenty of the psychological torment fans have come to know and strangely love.

Yeah, because apparently getting emotionally abused by a video game wasn’t enough. Now we can experience the suffering one beautifully illustrated page at a time.

Originally released in 2016, Darkest Dungeon was created by Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman and quickly carved out its own nasty little corner of the RPG world. The gothic roguelike turn-based game throws players into a brutal cycle of recruiting, training, and leading deeply flawed adventurers against monsters, disease, madness, stress, death, and basically every possible reason a sane person would pack up and go home. But sanity ain’t exactly part of the job description here.

What separated Darkest Dungeon from the pack was never just the difficulty. Plenty of games can kick your teeth in. This one made the pain part of the story. Your heroes crack under pressure, develop fears, suffer diseases, build unhealthy habits, and occasionally become absolute liabilities right when you need them most. It turned adventuring into psychological warfare and somehow made watching your carefully assembled squad fall apart feel both horrifying and addictive.

The franchise expanded in 2023 with Darkest Dungeon II, continuing Red Hook Studios’ approach to brutal tactical combat, atmospheric storytelling, and the kind of decision-making that makes you stare at the screen wondering where your life went wrong. Across both games, Darkest Dungeon has sold millions of copies and become one of the defining names in the modern roguelike space. Now Vault is bringing that darkness into comics with a creative team that feels built for the assignment.

The upcoming Darkest Dungeon graphic novels will be written by John Lees, whose horror credits include The Nasty from Vault Comics and Hotell from AWA. Artwork will come from Maan House, whose résumé includes Dark Souls for Titan Comics along with Vault’s The Cemeterians. Lees and House will work closely with Red Hook Studios co-founder and Darkest Dungeon creative director Chris Bourassa, keeping the new stories connected directly to the world and mythology of the games. That last part is the big one, mi gente. This is not some disposable licensed side quest slapped together because the logo looks good on a hardcover. According to Bourassa, these graphic novels will officially matter.

“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.

For longtime comic fans, hearing Bourassa trace Darkest Dungeon back to Bronze Age Batman and the visual explosion of early Image Comics makes this whole collaboration hit differently. The comic book influence was apparently sitting inside the franchise from jump, waiting for somebody to finally crack open the door. Bourassa also confirmed that the graphic novels will not simply revisit stories players already know.

“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.”

Now we’re talking. Vault says the new graphic novels will reveal additional details and introduce fresh mysteries tied directly to the core mythology of Darkest Dungeon. That gives existing fans a legitimate reason to jump aboard beyond curiosity while also creating an entry point for comic readers who may have never touched the games. And before anybody asks, yes, you apparently get to experience the existential dread without spending thirty hours leveling somebody up just to watch them have a nervous breakdown in a hallway.

The project will launch through a BackerKit campaign, with pre-launch sign-ups already live and additional details expected as the campaign gets closer. Vault has increasingly made crowdfunding a major part of its publishing strategy, and the company is clearly planning something bigger here than simply tossing a standard hardcover onto shelves and calling it a day.

Leading the project for Vault will be Chief Creative Officer and co-founder Adrian Wassel, alongside VP of Special Projects and Crowdfunding Der-shing Helmer, while Bourassa oversees the creative side for Red Hook Studios. Helmer previously oversaw Vault’s record-breaking Dungeon Crawler Carl: Crocodile campaign, so the company isn’t exactly sending rookies into this dungeon.

Helmer says the campaign itself will borrow some of the spirit that made the games famous.

“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.”

Translation? Prepare your wallet for temptation. Collectors, deluxe-edition hunters, hardcore gamers, horror readers, and that one friend who somehow needs every variant of everything are probably going to have some decisions to make once Vault reveals the full campaign lineup.

For Wassel, the connection between Darkest Dungeon and comics goes even deeper. His obsession with the games began with something a lot of longtime comic readers will immediately understand: staring at character profiles, comparing stats, imagining impossible matchups, and basically turning fictional universes into your own personal playground.

“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,” Wassel said.

He later discovered that X-Men had also been a major inspiration for Bourassa, helping explain why the franchise’s lineup of distinct characters translates so naturally into comic book storytelling.

“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.”

Look, when the creator is talking Bronze Age Batman, early Image Comics, X-Men, horror, madness, monsters, and canonical lore in the same conversation, you already have our attention.

The real opportunity here is that Darkest Dungeon doesn’t need to be forced into comics. Its DNA already fits the medium. The franchise is built around memorable characters, exaggerated silhouettes, heavy shadows, grotesque creatures, dramatic narration, trauma, shifting relationships, and sudden bursts of violence. Half the work was practically sitting there screaming, “Yo, somebody make this a comic already.”

Now Vault and Red Hook Studios finally are. No release date for the first graphic novel has been announced yet, but with the BackerKit pre-launch campaign underway, more details should begin surfacing as Vault moves closer to launch. The collaboration between Vault and Red Hook Studios was facilitated by Maximum Orbit.

So keep your eyes open, Crusaders. If Lees, House, Bourassa, and the Vault crew deliver on the promise of making this a genuine extension of Darkest Dungeon lore instead of just another licensed adaptation, this could become one hell of a crossover between gaming and comics.

Just remember the first rule.

Keep the torch lit.

Because in Darkest Dungeon, once that light starts fading, you already know the universe is about to slap the confidence right outta you.

The Crusade Never Ends!