Dark Horse Comics and Wizards of the Coast have moved Dungeons & Dragons past the miniseries format it has used since 2025's The Fallbacks, launching a genuine ongoing series on November 4, 2026.
Dungeons & Dragons #1 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Ibraim Roberson, inks by Arabson Oliveira, colors by Dan Brown, and letters by Haley Rose-Lyon.
The story centers on Mordenkainen, stripped of his magic as a draconic apocalypse closes in on the Forgotten Realms, forced to assemble Faerun's most legendary heroes to stop it.
Here is what is confirmed about the creative team, the story setup, and what makes this launch different from the miniseries that came before it.
Dark Horse's prior Dungeons & Dragons output, starting with 2025's The Fallbacks, was built around self-contained miniseries rather than a continuing monthly book. Dungeons & Dragons #1 is explicitly positioned as Dark Horse's first ongoing title based on the tabletop franchise.
That shift matters for collectors deciding whether to jump on a first issue, since an ongoing series carries different long-term speculation and back-issue dynamics than a miniseries that was always going to wrap in a handful of issues.
The series follows Mordenkainen, one of the Forgotten Realms' most powerful wizards, after he is stripped of his magic just as a draconic apocalypse threatens the setting. Learning he is the subject of an apocalyptic prophecy, he has to rally Faerun's greatest heroes rather than face the threat alone.
A May 2026 Free Comic Book Day prologue titled Magefall already set up the stakes, giving readers a head start on the central conflict before issue #1 proper begins.
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly write the series, a writing duo with experience across several major licensed properties, while Ibraim Roberson handles art duties, known for prior work on Star Wars and Weapon X titles.
Arabson Oliveira inks the series and Dan Brown provides colors, rounding out a team built for a book that needs to render both Forgotten Realms spell-slinging and grounded character drama convincingly.
Every single issue includes backmatter aimed squarely at the game's tabletop audience, either an essay from an RPG personality or a Dungeons & Dragons campaign asset exclusive to that issue.
Issue #1's backmatter features an essay from Erika Ishii, known for voice work and Dimension 20 performances, a detail that signals Dark Horse is courting the actual-play audience alongside traditional comic readers.
Dungeons & Dragons #1 carries a standard single-issue price of $4.99, putting it in line with most current-format Dark Horse releases rather than pricing it as a premium or oversized debut.
Launching as an ongoing series rather than another limited run also puts it in a different category than the licensed figures and tabletop accessories that have otherwise carried most of the brand's recent collectible attention.
A first issue of a brand-new ongoing series, especially one tied to a franchise with Dungeons & Dragons' built-in audience, tends to see stronger long-term demand than a miniseries opener that readers know will wrap quickly.
Picking up a first-print copy near the November 4 release date, rather than waiting for a second printing, is the more reliable way to land the version collectors will care about later.
Once that first print is in hand, slide it onto a rigid current-age backer board before it ever goes into a longbox, since a floppy modern issue warps faster than most collectors expect.
An ongoing series typically gets collected into trade paperbacks on a rolling schedule, arc by arc, rather than a single complete collection the way a finite miniseries does.
That means single issues stay the only way to read new material as it releases, which keeps demand for individual issues higher for longer than it would be for a story readers know they can just wait out in trade.
It also means a first issue of an ongoing tends to see steadier long-term reprint and back-issue interest than a miniseries opener, since the story has no fixed endpoint collectors can simply wait out.
November 4, 2026.
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Ibraim Roberson.
Mordenkainen, stripped of his magic, must unite Faerun's heroes against a draconic apocalypse.
$4.99.
A new ongoing series from a franchise this size is worth protecting from day one, starting with a current-age comic bag ready the moment your copy arrives.
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