Dungeon Crawler Carl vol. 1

 

Dungeon Crawler Carl vol. 1 by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah, and Laurel Pursuit Studios, 320 pages.

Chasing his ex-girlfriend's cat through the snow is the only thing that saves Carl's life when aliens crush every structure on the surface. Carl follows a stairway underground that leads him to Dungeon Crawler World, the universe's premier game show and exceptionally lethal death game. Carl better learn the rules of this new world fast, because any mistake could be deadly. 

I was skeptical of this graphic novel of the popular book, not because I don't like the books, but because I suspected this would mostly be a simplified version of the novel I already read with the addition of some occasionally gnarly art. However, I decided to give it a try when it came across the desk at the library, and I'm glad I did! The art here is very expressive, and conveys the action and feelings of the characters very well in a way that felt like it was actually adding something to the original. They also showed a lot of restraint with illustrating the grosser elements of the source material, which I appreciate a lot. I will probably read more of these as they come out!