Dark Souls will be receiving a comic series courtesy of Titan Comics this April to coincide with the release of Dark Souls 3. The series, a cover of which you can see above, is being penned by Dr. Who comic scribe George Mann, and illustrated by Alan Quah, as revealed by IGN.
Mann said of the the announcement that he’s “‘dead’ excited to be working on this new series… Dark Souls has a rich, original universe that’s just begging to be explored in comics, and I’m honoured to have the opportunity to delve in and tell some new stories within it. I’ve been a fan of the games for some time, so it’s a real thrill to be able to contribute to the mythology of the Hollows and their world.”
There is certainly room to tell more stories in the worlds that the Dark Souls series has created, though I feel like a comic series can’t help but miss the point of why fans hold the lore in such high regard. Dark Souls has become famous for it’s atmospheric storytelling; dialogue is scant and players are encouraged to use their own inferences to piece together what is happening, and has happened, in the worlds of Lordran and Drangleic. Most of it is deliberately obtuse, and requires careful observation and multiple playthroughs to discover. It’s one of the qualities that has made the Dark Souls community such a permanent fixture, as it encourages discussion and debate without clearly spelling out the answers for what everything ‘means’.
It also means that for many, playing the games is a very personal experience; your character is essentially just a cipher for you, and has no personality beyond that. It’s up to the player to inject that. Furthermore, time and space are distinctly called out as being distorted in these worlds, which again provides another challenge to creating a meaningful, ongoing narrative. None of this means that the series will definitely be rubbish, of course, but it does mean they’ve got a tough hill to climb. Agree? Disagree? Let us know below.
Dark Souls #1 launches April 6th, and Dark Souls 3 on April 12th.
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