Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl Graphic Novel #1

by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah (Adapter), Laurel Pursuit Studios (Illustrator)

The Apocalypse WILL be televised!

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat. Join Carl and Princess Donut as they try to survive the end of the world — or just get to the next level of a trap-filled fantasy dungeon.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comics, Litrpg, Fiction, Humor

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 2026

About the author

Matt Dinniman is the best-selling writer and artist from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the published author of dozens of short stories and a gaggle of books. In addition, his art publications—from greeting cards to stationery kits to calendars—can be found in boutique and stationery shops around the world. Also, he strongly feels like a pretentious twat when he writes about himself in third person.

Reviews

[Marcelle]

I miss Carl's inner monologue, but I really like the visuals.

[Steve Chaput]

I picked up the first Carl prose novel about a month ago and was instantly hooked.

This contains the first thirteen chapters of the DCC webcomic. It’s very manga in style and a lot of fun. My
Only gripe is that the instructions given by the AI are in a white type with an orange background that can make it sometimes difficult to read, at least for my eyes.

If you enjoy the DCC series you should check these digest sized books out.

[Feyre]

Attention crawlers: This was amazing, I loved the novels by Matt Dinniman and this adaption is so amazingly done! It was also really amazing to dive back into the beginning of everything (I'm kinda craving a reread although I'm half way through novel number 8). Now go out there and read, read, read.

[Steph ✨]

I'm up to book 7 in the series, but picking up the graphic novel was so fun. I had a good time with this.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions)]

This graphic novel volume adapts the first 16 chapters of Dungeon Crawler Carl (up to page 133 of my copy). It's a fairly accurate adaptation so far, so this review will be less focused on the story and more on the graphic novel aspects.

Art-wise, I'm okay with this, even though I'd never have matched this particular art style up with this series. Neither Carl nor Princess Donut look how I pictured them, but that's not unusual for an adaptation. The important thing is that Donut, with her massive eyes, is so expressive and charming that her essence is still the same. And Carl's fine too. (We all know that Donut is the most important character here.)

That said, some of the action was occasionally difficult to follow, and if I hadn't read the book this was based on, I'm not sure I'd have fully understood everything that was going on. Another issue I had was with all the AI text. There is a LOT, and in order to include all of that loot box and achievement text, the font was occasionally very small. I imagine this was less of a problem for those reading the original Webtoon, but I, unfortunately, occasionally found it impossible to read in print, particularly when the boxes were orange with white text. The description text for the Crown of the Sepsis Whore was a triple whammy: lengthy, white text on an orange background, and located in a panel close to the inside of the book. If I'd actually tried to read it all, I'd probably have broken the book's spine.

I don't know how many people are jumping straight into the graphic novel adaptation without having read the books, but it's always safest to assume at least some people are. While I don't necessarily think this is a terrible way to go and may continue reading the graphic novel (accepting that there will be parts I just won't be able to properly read) just for the joy of seeing more Princess Donut, I personally prefer the original books.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Dez the Bookworm]

How can you NOT read this?! This was incredibly fun to read even though I’ve read the full novel (the audiobook is INCREDIBLE if you haven’t listened yet). My eyes feasted upon the story come to life in this graphic novel and are ravenous for the next graphic novels in this series. Definite read, re-read and absolute must purchase.

[kiki’s delivery witch ౨ৎ]

*stupefy* Donut can talk?

[Lexi]

Soft DNF: Chapter 2

Other books just seem to be calling my name right now. Maybe I’ll return to this during the Fall Season?!?! Idk. We shall see. 😬😬😬.
~~~~~~~
***Pre-Read:*** I’ve been to B&N. I stay at my library. I know how long and thick these books look. The Graphic Novels feels more like my speed. 🤭🤭🤭.

[Crowinator]

Actual rating: 2.5 for visual challenges, 5 for huge Donut eyes

Now that I am obsessed with this series, I enjoyed seeing the choices they made while turning part of the first book into a graphic novel. While I enjoyed it, I don't think it was as successful as, say, the graphic novel adaptation of The Adventure Zone podcast, which is the most similar kind of zany but also dark adaptation I could think of.

I really like the art style, especially the depiction of Carl and Donut (especially Donut!), but the action scenes were hard to follow, especially in the beginning (the destruction of Earth's buildings, etc., and creation of the dungeon, Carl's first foray into the wrong, trapped, hallway with the goblins, etc). I wonder how well people who came to the graphic novel first followed the initial beats of the story. I think too much is lost in the translation.

Speaking of things being lost in translation, a complaint about font choice and size. I wear glasses, and even with those, I could NOT read some of the text. In the print book, I found Carl and Donut opening the loot boxes and reading through the achievements peak fun (probably because I play a lot of video games and also because they are very funny), but here, in order to cram in a lot of this content, the text was so tiny, like the back of a pill bottle tiny, made worse by choosing blocky white letters on a light orange background. Maybe a person with young eyes could do this, but I needed a magnifying glass on top of my actual glasses. I had to give up in places and that's never a good feeling.

I'm glad this version of the story exists, and I'll probably skim through the other graphic versions just to see Donut's huge eyes, Carl's hilarious heart boxers, and the inevitable pedicure scene, but this won't be my preferred format.

[VeldonReads]

Volume 1 of DCC contains the first 13 chapters of the DCC graphic adaptation. The story stops at around the halfway mark of book 1 (when Carl and Donut first meet Rory and Loralai and acquire their goblin motorcycle).

While I wasn't certain about the art style at first, I ended up really loving it by the end. This graphic novel is a great way to go through the story, and I really hope they continue it for the whole 10 books
That would be something amazing. Overall, everything from the art to the text and the design was fantastic. I loved loved lovedd it!

I can't wait for Volume 2!!!

[debs]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 4/5 ⭐️
i really liked the visuals and honestly this was more fun than the original novel!

[Andrée]

This is a 3.5 stars read for me. The comic's rendition of the novel is great but I find the images to be too zoomed-in making it difficult to decipher what is happening.

[Ruxandra Grrr]

Fun and easy to read for shitty brain settings. The art style was fine. It covers a very small portion of the first book though, would have gone through a lot more of it, personally.

[Rachel]

Only problem is that Donut is not drawn as a tortoiseshell in this!
Still amazing tho

[Halo]

This was such a nice Graphic Novel!!!
Loved the art, loved having images of what I read in the book.
It’s a nice complement to the novel ✨

[Crystal Frost]

Of course this graphic novel was AMAZING!

[Ben A]

A fun adaptation of the novel that brings the characters to life in an entertaining way even if the visuals didn’t quite live up to the same events in my head from reading the original. Nevertheless, I will continue to look for these graphic novel versions.

Special Thanks to Vault Comics and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[Aiden Marini]

I honestly preferred this over both the audio and physical versions.

[Anna]

This one genuinely disappointed me.

I’ve been reading manga and comics since I was about fifteen, so sequential art is a medium I know very well. I was ridiculously excited to see Dungeon Crawler Carl adapted this quickly because I love the books and wanted to finally see the dungeon, the creatures, Carl and Donut.

Unfortunately, the visual storytelling did almost nothing for me.

The character designs are fine. The action is readable. The panels themselves are easy to follow.

My problem is that the adaptation rarely communicates movement, emotion or internal reaction well.

Book Carl is stunned, grieving, horrified, angry, confused and constantly processing the fact that humanity has basically been destroyed for entertainment. Graphic-novel Carl mostly looks peeved or like he’s sneering.
That matters, because DCC isn’t brutal just because monsters explode. The real horror is what has been done to humanity. Without Carl’s reactions, a lot of that gravity disappears.

I also found the pacing too compressed in the wrong places.
There are plenty of game pop-ups and information boxes, but not enough of Carl himself. I understood what was happening because I already knew the novel. My brain kept supplying emotional context that the graphic novel wasn’t giving me.

That’s ultimately the biggest issue:
It tells me what happens, but it doesn’t make me experience what happens to Carl.

There were a few moments where it was fun to finally see monsters I had only imagined before, but that wasn’t enough to justify everything that got lost in translation.

For me, this felt less like an adaptation and more like an illustrated summary of a much richer story.

And that makes me sad, because I love the idea of DCC as a graphic novel. I just really don’t love what this version did with it.

[Mikal Lorraine]

Was a very pleasant surprise when a customer purchased this at work yesterday as I had no idea we had them already 👀

Naturally, I loved it. Anything in the DCC universe is top tier. Although not everything was pictured the same in my head, the art rendition was so funny to follow. I would certainly give this to someone who is overwhelmed of the series. A great starter point to see if you want to continue.

[James]

New Achievement!: Visual Learner!

It’s like the book but less words and more pictures.

Reward!: You get to buy the same story twice, once in book form, once in comic form. Isn’t that reward enough?

[Doc of the Dark Arts]

4/5 Stars
Format: Paperback
Spoilers: No

I was one of the few people who was not a huge fan of the original Dungeon Crawler Carl book. I tried reading, audio, and immersive, and it just didn't work for me. The story was so over the top, the humor got repetitive for me, and I felt like I wanted a lot more character work. On top of that, the LitRPG thing just didn't work for me - I like playing a game, not reading one. However, it is such a beloved series, and when I heard they were making a graphic novel version, I thought it might work in this format.

Overall, I was right - this story works well as a graphic novel. The video game stuff and inventories seem more at home in an animated format, and the format forced a lot of the repetitive jokes to be cut back. I even felt like I got a bit more emotional connection between Donut and Carl in this version.

I'm hoping they keep putting these out, as it was a fun interlude in between heavier books, and again I would love to see how the story progresses in a format that works for me.

[Zach]

That was a fun read. I was a little unsure about the art style at first, but it worked. It did a good job at conveying the story.

I’m a big fan of the original series, so it was fun to read it in another format. It stayed true to the story, and even had a couple extra tidbits added in. Overall, I’d be interested in continuing. It was a fun read.

[Raquel]

I need the next volumes asap

[Miriam]

Can be tricky to read but I still had so much fun!

[Alli Kingsman]

absolutely exquisite

[Chloe McEwen]

I consumed this the way Matt Dinniman intended: at 2 AM in the Houston airport after 300 mg of caffeine while listening to a 200 bpm running playlist.

[Sherry Moyer]

A fantastic pictorial romp through the beginning of the Dungeon Crawler universe, in which Carl and Donut get swept away in a competition they never wanted to join.

Seeing Dinniman approved art and reading a shorter retelling was a vibe I am glad I did not miss.

[Kristen]

After finishing A Parade of Horribles it was fun to go back to the beginning with this graphic novel. I initially thought that Volume 1 = Book 1...but it was pretty quickly clear based on pacing that was not the case. This volume is roughly the first third of Dungeon Crawler Carl.

There's been a lot of hot takes regarding the artwork, but I liked it (yes...even though Carl looks like a teenage boy and Donut is white instead of tortoiseshell). It's fun, the characters are expressive, and it's cool seeing parts of the dungeon come to life outside my head.

My only real complaint is that so much of the AI explanations have to be included to make the story make sense so the writing is SO TINY sometimes. There's also a few times where I think the plot would be confusing if you hadn't already read the novel (you just simply can't jam everything into a graphic novel), so I'd be curious to speak with someone reading this in isolation.

I'm not sure how quickly all these volumes will be released, but I suppose it's something while we wait for Book 9.

[Brandon Roy]

Fun

I read all 8 of the books in August. Finished them in one month. It was fun to see it drawn out.

Can't wait until the next graphic novel and book.