New Dark Horse D&D Comic Book Puts the Monsters in Charge
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Dark Horse Comics is continuing its partnership with Wizards of the Coast and will be rolling out a brand new Dungeons & Dragons comic book. The series, however, won’t be following the typical heroic D&D adventuring party and instead will be focusing on a group of misfit monsters struggling to get by in the lower depths of a dungeon.
Officially entitled Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers, the four-issue series is written by Christopher Hastings (creator of the popular Dr McNinja comic), illustrated by Denis Medri (who has worked on a number of major Marvel and DC titles) and will be coming out in July 2026. Below, we take a closer look at what to expect from all the creature-filled comic chaos.
What is “D&D: Total Party Killers” about?
Total Party Killers is a tongue-in-cheek series that flips the traditional D&D script on its head, following a group of monsters who were enslaved in a dungeon by an evil wizard named Custos. When the story begins, Custos has recently been slain by a party of adventurers and, with the monsters now free, they must band together to protect the dungeon and its loot while avoiding the hack n’ slash happy heroes who have stumbled into their lair.
The “Total Party Killers” or TPK for short (a term every DM knows and loves) consists of five iconic D&D creatures:
- A Werewolf
- A Gelatinous Cube
- A Mind Flayer
- A Death Knight
- A Baby Beholder
Who is the artist and writer on the “Total Party Killers”
The creative team behind the new series consists of writer Christopher Hastings (who also penned Marvel’s Gwenpool series) with interior art by Denis Medri (perhaps best known for his work on Marvel’s Spider-Verse), coloring by Dan Jackson (best known for his work on Stranger Things and Star Wars) and lettering from Lucas Gattoni (whose previous credits include Absolute Green Lantern).
The series will also feature a number of variant covers by artists including Elizabeth Beals, Michael Walsh and Lukas Ketner. Collectors and D&D fans may also be interested to know that Dark Horse will be releasing a limited-edition blank character sheet variant cover.
Final Thoughts
Dark Horse seems to be finding its groove with the D&D license (which they acquired back in July 2024). In fact, the partnership has been pretty successful, with recent releases like the Fallbacks series (based on the D&D novels of the same name) being generally well received by both comic and D&D fans. With Total Party Killers, Dark Horse is now introducing its own original characters and exploring the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse in a way we haven’t really every seen before.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the series in the days ahead, with the first issue coming out on July 22nd, 2026. In the meantime, you can learn more on the Dark Horse website.
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Jason Volk is the Publisher of Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics and lives in the wilds of Western Canada. He has been playing D&D for over 25 years and is a huge fan of Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. His favorite character of all time was a Necromancer named Neek who spent most of his adventuring career resurrecting the corpses of slain monsters. When he’s not playing TTRPGs, Jason enjoys video games, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40K, watching football and spending time with his wife and adorably nerdy children.
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