Audible Immerses Fans in Their Favorite Worlds at San Diego Comic-Con

This July, more than 350 fans clad in heart-patterned boxer shorts and fluffy cat costumes lined up at a retro arcade to have their photos taken with Matt Dinniman and Jeff Hays, the author and narrator, respectively, of the hit litRPG series, Dungeon Crawler Carl. The fans had come to San Diego Comic-Con in cosplay as Carl, the unlikely hero, and his Persian-cat sidekick, Princess Donut, as well as an array of other characters from the series, and after meeting the creators of the world they so loved, they got to relax and refresh in Audible’s immersive “Carl and Donut’s Safe Room,” modeled after the books’ sanctuary where the heroes take breaks from fighting monsters and other players.

This was one of the most memorable activations at SDCC, where we celebrated the imaginative, hilarious world of Dungeon Crawler Carl, including Dinniman’s latest book in the series, This Inevitable Ruin. In the Safe Room, fans were treated to a photobooth that inserted a digital Princess Donut into pictures and sat in diner-style booths with cat-ear headphones, listening to samples from select Audible titles while sipping Carl’s favorite cocktail, the Dirty Shirley. Many had a shot at the classic arcade game Frogger—a nod to the glitchy, chaotic dungeon Carl has to fight through—which also featured short “levelling up” clips from the series.

“Comic-cons provide an ideal platform to engage with an enthusiastic and dedicated fanbase,” says Katja Lindemann, Audible’s senior director of brand activations and events. “We create unique, immersive listening experiences and conversations that connect creators, talent and fans, and give them a new way to experience content they love.”

And Crawlers, as the series’ fans are called, are particularly engaged with this content. “It is the nicest fandom I’ve ever been a part of, and the fact that I’ve had a hand in creating it is really, really special to me,” Dinniman said to a fully packed audience at Saturday’s panel, called, “Dungeon Crawler Carl: You Will Not Break Us.” He talked about how the fandom has impacted the stories—Dinniman will sometimes have fans vote on or suggest certain directions—and Hays talked about voicing the books, as well as the origins of his and Dinniman’s alchemic collaboration. “His ideas are always the most far out,” said Hays. “He sent us a scene (to read live), and by the time we were done, I knew I had to narrate the audiobook.”

Fans hung on every word as Hays then improvised a performance of a page from Dinniman’s forthcoming eighth book in the series.

Audio fans also gathered for an “Audible Book Club” panel Saturday afternoon with the best-selling author of Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, and the audiobook’s narrator, Ray Porter. Beloved by fans and critics, Project Hail Mary is soon to be released as a major motion picture. The two were joined onstage by Aditya Sood, the film’s producer.

Weir addressed a longstanding question about the book’s fan-favorite character, Rocky. “Until the movie comes out, there is no firm definition of what Rocky looks like,” he teased. “Everybody gets to have their own interpretation from the audio.” And Porter divulged the secret to his transporting power as a narrator: “I don’t pre-read books; I go in cold. I’m a big believer in experiencing it for the first time, the same way the reader does.”

Many of SDCC’s estimated 135,000 visitors rode to and from the convention center in trolleys wrapped with Dungeon Crawler Carl, plus exciting new Audible Originals, including the latest title in the Oracle series, performed by Joshua Jackson; Sacrilege, performed by Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things); and Kingsland, a new sci-fi thriller from producers Kevin Hart and Charlamagne Tha God.

We also invited entertainment host and self-described “geek culture expert” Maude Garrett to moderate both panels and to interview Crawlers on the street, some of whom sported temporary tattoos of Princess Donut, inspired by the permanent tattoos Dinniman and Hays received earlier this year on Audible’s YouTube channel. The tattoos were just some of the Safe Room’s swag, all loaded with inside jokes from the series: boxer shorts, Donut tees and totes, enamel pins, plastic beer steins, and more. Dinniman and Hays even donned some of it to interview each other with their characteristic sass and to express admiration for the cosplay they saw that weekend.

As Dinniman marveled, “There are lots of Dungeon Crawler Carl fans out there, of all different ages… different types of people you wouldn’t expect. They’re everybody, because Carl brings people together.”