New Dark Souls comic The Willow King is a gothic return to the world of the game
Preview | George Man and Maan House are behind the limited series
While the official word is that there are no current plans for future Dark Souls games, Hidetaka Miyazaki's world lives on in comic book form. Titan has been publishing new Dark Souls stories since 2016, and continue in 2024 with the release of Dark Souls: The Willow King. The four-issue series is by writer George Mann and artist Maan House.
You can check out a lettered preview of pages from the first issue in the gallery below. Steeped in gothic atmosphere it looks like House is a perfect fit for the gloomy world of the game.
"I'm overjoyed to be returning to the dark, grim, Hollow-ridden world of Dark Souls for this brand-new comic series," said Mann in a statement. "Like an Unkindled, we're rising from the ashes to bring you something entirely new and exciting. We'll journey with Herad the Unlived as he and his companions seek out a reluctant Lord of Cinder, The Willow King, to try to bend him to his task. Expect new monsters! Giants! Unseen horrors! Dungeon delves and ruined cities! Will the flame ever be linked? You'll have to read to find out… unless the Hollows get to you first…"
The first issue comes with a plethora of variant covers from Stephanie Hans, Maan House, Alan Quah (both as a front cover and a wraparound), Nick Marinkovich, and Diego Yapur. Foil variants of Quah's covers will also be available. Check them all out in the gallery below.
Titan's official synopsis for the new issue reads:
"The mighty king USTRAD OF UTHREL linked the flame, after his servant Herad failed and was consumed by the fire, reduced to ashes.
Now, the time has come to link the fire again, but Ustrad now refuses to do his duty to his kingdom. HERAD, resurrected as unkindled, returns to unite three mighty warriors to venture into the WILLOW KING’S domain, and do what needs to be done..."
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Dark Souls: The Willow King #1 is published by Titan Comics on January 31.
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Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.