Dungeon Crawler Carl Vol. 1
Creative Team
writers: MATT DINNIMAN & TEVAGAH
artists: KUZOMARI, LAUREL PURSUIT STUDIOS
letterers: ALI ZAGHLUL, LAUREL PURSUIT STUDIOS
publisher: VAULT COMICS
Written by Seán Norman
Matt Dinniman's hugely successful book series is no longer constrained to words: Carl’s got visuals now thanks to webtoon house Laurel Pursuit. But he’s still stuck in the same old boxers.
Dungeon Crawler Carl's premise is simple enough, is there anything worse than standing outside in the freezing cold, legs bare from the boxer hem down, waiting for your ex's cat to come back inside?
The answer is yes, actually. There is always a chance, however slim, that an alien race may obliterate the beautiful Earth you’ve stared at in wonder since the day you gained consciousness to feed off her bountiful resources. Billions of human lives wiped out in an instance, but somehow, your ex's cat is still alive.
Our titular hero Carl, having just had his whole world upheaved, then proceeds to get thrown into an RPG style dungeon crawling death game that will be broadcast live for the amusement of alien races universe wide.
The book is all gas, no brakes from here on out. Before he can even check his stat screen, Carl is marauded by random tutorial messages, (all of which are not particularly kind or helpful), bombarded by loot boxes he doesn’t know how to open, and attacked by homicidal goblins all within the first chapter.
The reader is just as lost at this point, but that mystery, that feeling of confusion, is the strongest part of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and is the real driving force that keeps you turning the pages.
The same can’t really be said for Carl himself though. He is a white man, he has brown hair, he plays Call of Duty and his girlfriend left him out in the cold.
He is, one could suppose, exactly what RPGs look to create, a blank slate character. One you can impose your own thoughts and beliefs on, and, at least for the first volume, he remains rather generic. His only defining characteristic seems to be that he’s nice to his cat and he has some zany phrases like “holy tits!”.
This works well for video games, or TTRPGS, you can transpose your own narrative and traits onto your character, with a combination of good writing and well designed dialogue trees of course. The same cannot be said for a graphic novel though, and it can leave you struggling to attach yourself to Carl.
This could have been remedied by introducing additional characters. But other than a talking cat (who is easily the best character in the book) and a humanoid mouse-man, the reader is left short of any other living person to grab hold of in the first volume.
But, Carl is really only half the reason to read the book.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a webtoon, and with that comes the dynamic, lightning strike action scenes the medium is so well known for. The fights are dynamic, quick and brutal. The artists have done a fantastic job at conveying the weight behind Carl's brawling style. Even Princess Donut, the cat, has some electric moments, firing off eye beams a la Scott Summers, and burning enemies to a crisp.
Dinniman has also done an excellent job of creating a microcosm of humanity within the book's dungeon, and it’s this strong world building that makes you want to delve deeper into the story alongside Carl.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is, at its core, a take down of the clout chasing capitalism that streaming services have created. The aliens running the games have learnt about humanity through our media, and thus, have a suitably exaggerated view of what we’re really like as a species. The dungeon is a world in which the flashier your kills, the more daring your exploits, the more you are rewarded with views which in turn will help you get a good “exit deal”.
Unfortunately, despite the interesting concept, the issues caused by these ideas are really only nodded to, and the “scathing” criticism rarely boils down to more than a weak jab of a joke, followed by a reference to another media property. Which is not to say that Dungeon Crawler Carl is devoid of poignant moments, one particular conversation with the aforementioned goblins hints at a deeper concept.
The idea of constantly having to deal with hostile invaders, leading to a society that just wants peace, a promise never quite fulfilled, “one day, we will wake up, and we will be deeper. We will be so deep that the crawlers will never come, and we will finally have peace”. This conversation ends with the goblins starting a meth war with some fire breathing llamas.
Dungeon Crawler Carl can be a frustrating read because of this mile a minute humour. The book is seemingly possessed by a deep seated need to make an out of date reference to Tommy Wiseau's filmography, almost like it's afraid to just let the moment sit.
The book's humour is unfortunately not a strong point, yes, it is purposefully annoying, but at some point, it just becomes annoying. Couple this with some rough dialogue and it can sometimes feel like you’re just waiting for the next fight scene. (Which are, admittedly, really cool).
All in all Dungeon Crawler Carl, despite its best efforts to dig deep, never quite breaks the first floor of the dungeon. It’s still a fun read, especially for fans of action and exploration and it never asks too much of the reader. Just don’t go into this book expecting the literary equivalent of a Dark Souls game and you’ll have a fun time guaranteed.
