Dark Souls' lore is a product of spatial design, vague hints and imagined meaning, so I find it strange that Titan Comics is releasing a comic book series based on the franchise from April 6, less than a week before Dark Souls 3 goes live in the West. Somehow I can't imagine "HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH" having the same impact in print as it does when Oswald of Carim appears suddenly in an abandoned belltower.

The comics will tell new stories based on Dark Souls' world but separate from the games. Three of the five covers for the first issue's split run feature a character in the hallmark Elite Knight Armor, but it may just be a convenient motif rather than indicative of time and place.

Alan Quah, who did the artwork for Godzilla: Awakening will be bringing life to the words of George Mann, responsible for Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor, with two of the additional covers by Joshua Cassara and Marco Turini. The length of the series is unknown.

Dark Souls #1 variant cover by Marco Turini, via IGN

"I’m ‘dead’ excited to be working on this new series (see what I did, there)," Mann says. "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."

My hope for this series is that it embraces Dark Souls' love of saying next to nothing and suggesting only fragments through its environments.

Thanks, IGN.