Vault Comics is an American publisher of comic books. The company is known for its horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles, with a focus on diversity and cross-media properties. A private family-owned company, Vault Comics is based in

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five ...

.Walsh, Cory
"From Vault to the screen: Missoula-based comics publisher gets titles under development,"
''The Missoulian'' (Aug. 16, 2019).

History

Vault was founded in 2016 by brothers Damian and Adrian Wassel, and their cousin Nathan Gooden. The founders based the company's business model on such publishers as

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

and

Vertigo Comics DC Vertigo, also known as Vertigo Comics or simply Vertigo, is an Imprint (trade name), imprint of the American comic book publisher DC Comics. Vertigo publishes comics with adult comics, adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and ...

. In 2025, book publisher Aethon Books announced to have purchased majority share of Vault.

Creators

Notable creators associated with Vault include

Tim Seeley Tim Seeley is an American comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as '' Grayson'', ''Nightwing'', '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''G.I. Joe vs. Transformers'' and '' New Exiles''. He is also the co-creator of the Ima ...

, Ashley A. Woods, Magdalene Visaggio, Cavan Scott,

Donny Cates Donny Cates (born September 14, 1984) is an American comic book writer, artist, and podcaster, known for his work on titles like ''Venom'', ''Thanos'', ''Doctor Strange'', ''Thor,'' and ''Hulk.'' Early life Donny Cates was born in Dallas, Texa ...

Brandon Sanderson Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the '' Mistb ...

, and

Jen Bartel Jen Bartel is an American illustrator and comic artist, best known for her work for Marvel Comics and Image Comics. She co-created the comic ''Blackbird'' for Image with Sam Humphries. She won two Eisner Awards for her work as a cover artist in 2 ...

Notable titles

Titles published by Vault include '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', based on the

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

of the same name. The creative team includes writers

and husband-and-wife duo Blake and

Tini Howard Tini Howard (born 1985) is an American comic book writer. She is best known for her work on ''X-Men'' titles, namely ''Excalibur (comics), Excalibur'' as well as Boom! Studios's ''Power Rangers (comics), Power Rangers'' titles. It was announced i ...

, artists Devmalya Pramanik, Nathan Gooden,

David W. Mack David W. Mack is an American comic book artist and writer, known for his creator-owned series ''Kabuki (David W. Mack comic), Kabuki'' and for co-creating with Joe Quesada the Marvel Comics superhero Echo (Marvel Comics), Echo. Early life Mack ...

and Aaron Campbell,

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

Addison Duke, and

letterer A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic-book-reading experience. The l ...

AndWorld. The comic was nominated for an

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

for Best Lettering of 2021. Other titles include '' Dark One'', a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

series created by American author

, written by Sanderson, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with artwork by Nathan C. Gooden. It is the first part of a planned

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

and the opening volume was published by Vault Comics on May 18, 2021. It is being developed by Sanderson and FremantleMedia North America for a fantasy-

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series. The three-issue limited series ''Reactor'' (November 2017–April 2018) was written by

with art by Dylan Burnett. Natasha Alterici and Ashley A. Woods' ''Heathen'' ran for 12 issues from 2017 to 2020, and is in development as a feature film. 2018 saw the debut of Magdalene Visaggio's six-issue series ''Vagrant Queen'', followed in 2020 by the six-issue series ''Vagrant Queen: A Planet Called Doom''. In 2020, a television series adaptation of ''Vagrant Queen'' aired on SyFy (co-produced by Blue Ice Pictures).

's ''Money Shot'' debuted in October 2019 and is still running. In July 2020, Vault released the magical private eye series ''Shadow Service'', written by Cavan Scott with art by Corin M. Howell. This was Cavan Scott's first creator-owned comic series. Vault's longest-running title is ''Wasted Space'', which has been published since 2018. In 2022 Vault began publishing the ongoing series ''Door to Door Night by Night'', written by Cullen Bunn with art by Sally Cantirino. Issue #1 was released in November 2022.

Awards and nominations

won the 2019

Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist The Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist is an award for creative achievement in American comic books, given to an artist of comics cover art. Winners and nominees Multiple awards and nominations The following individuals have won Best Co ...

in part for her work on the Vault title '' Submerged''. The Indian creators Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vitorio Astone, Aditya Bidikar, and Tim Daniel won the 2020 Ignyte Award for Best Comics Team for their Vault title '' These Savage Shores''. Vault Comics letterers Jim Campbell and Deron Bennett have been nominated for multiple

Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

. '' The Unfinished Corner'', by author Dani Colman and illustrator Rachel "Tuna" Petrovicz, was a 2021

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

finalist, and winner of the VLA Graphic Novel Diversity Award (Youth).

References

Notes

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vault Comics Comic book publishing companies of the United States American companies established in 2016 Privately held companies based in Montana Publishing companies established in 2016