Read the first 10 pages of the Dungeon Crawler Carl graphic novel

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Published Apr 27, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

The world has ended and Carl is stuck outside in his underwear

Carl has a fluffy white cat named Princess Donut on his shoulder as he runs from an explosion on the cover of the graphic novel version of Dungeon Crawler Carl

Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl LitRPG series has become a massive hit since he self-published his first book in 2020. There are now eight bestselling books about a world where all of Earth’s resources have been used to create a fantasy dungeon for an alien reality TV show. The bizarre, meta adventure has inspired a line of toys, a tabletop role-playing game that has raised more than $7.6 million on BackerKit, and an upcoming TV show produced by Seth MacFarlane. Now the first book is being turned into a graphic novel by Vault Comics.

Webtoon studio Laurel Pursuit provides the illustrations for Dungeon Crawler Carl, Vol. 1, which covers about a third of the story of the first book. It offers the same mix of grizzly violence and twisted humor, following Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s prized showcat Princess Donut as they find themselves living through the apocalypse. They may have avoided being squished when the Borant Corporation crushed every building on the planet, but in order to keep surviving, they’ll need to work together to level up, kill monsters and bosses, and ideally win over the fans with their exploits.

Unfortunately for Carl, he got caught outside without shoes or pants. Lucky for him, bringing a cat into the dungeon proved a lot more useful than you would think. Donut is a snarky companion, helping him in fights and negotiations even if she has very poor impulse control when it comes to putting on shiny new accessories she pulls out of loot boxes.

Ahead of the graphic novel’s release on May 19, Vault Comics offered Polygon an exclusive excerpt from Dungeon Crawler Carl, Volume 1.