Not since the late ‘90s have I seen a series capture such a diverse swath of humanity to the degree Dungeon Crawler Carl has. Matt Dinniman self-published the first book in 2020 and now in the latter half of 2026 you cannot avoid the alluring neon color schemes and cheeky embossed hardcovers of the Ace Books. We’ve seen this meteoric rise before in literature but what’s behind DCC’s rise speaks to what nearly all people on Earth are suffering under right now.