So, you’ve seen a rise of tiara wearing cats in sunglasses and a man in heart boxers. Maybe you’ve seen the blue dinosaur and wondered what that’s about. Or the fish in the spacesuit. Or heard about the bizarre obsession with one man’s bare feet and you’ve thought to yourself…what the actual heck is going on in these weird books everyone is suddenly talking about? Well, if you haven’t come across any of that, you’re likely going to this year at Dragon Con and beyond, because one book series is skyrocketing to mega fandom seemingly overnight. On Thursday, at 7PM in the Hilton Salon, the first official main programing panel of the convention welcomed the author of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, Matt Dinniman, and the audiobook’s voice actor, Jeff Hays, to the stage to answer questions, make some jokes, and lovingly insult a few fans here and there.

The Hilton Salon is a 1,500 capacity ballroom, and by 6PM, the Disability Services line had already been capped. The staff at the door seemed to have no concept of how many people were actually in line, only that it far exceeded what the ballroom could hold. Hundreds were turned away, but the vibe inside the room was surprisingly intimate. Dinniman and Hays, entering to thunderous applause, had a casual stage presence and camaraderie between them that made the massive ballroom feel like a couple dozen people gathered together, rather than hundreds. They opened the panel with what they called “questions they always liked to ask.” We learned that most of the fans in the room had started reading the series since last Dragon Con, and the vast majority had not yet finished the most current book. Dinniman shared that in the month of July alone, across the whole series, two million copies had been sold. When asked how this sudden explosion of exposure made them feel, they both said the same thing. “It’s overwhelming,” with Dinniman jokingly adding, “It’s crazy bonkers.”

Questions posed to the guests covered a wide variety of topics, from Dinniman’s writing process, to plot decisions, to character inspirations, and beyond. Hayes was asked about his method for crafting new voices and how the collaboration with Matt had helped, hindered, or influenced that process. Dinniman, famously a “pantser” in writing style (ie, writing by the seat of his pants), talked about his multiple rewrite process, specifically when it comes to comedy, saying, “I write scenes over and over and over again, multiple times… I’m such a re-writer that… there’s so much on the cutting room floor that usually what happens is I go to that floor and pick up all the pieces and put them all together, and the only stuff that makes the cut is stuff that I felt, after so many interations in my brain, it’s all A jokes.”

For the voices, Hays said, “It’s all in the text. Matt is incredibly good at putting in detail that doesn’t clog everything up. That doesn’t, you know, slow you down as a reader, but still is rich and helpful for my perspective.”

One fan asked Dinniman specifically about the world building in the series and how he keeps it straightforward while still making it feel organic, jokingly adding, “Please don’t tell me you make this shit up as you go along,” earning a big laugh from the crowd.

“So, I make this shit up as I go along,” Dinniman replied, to even more laughter. But he followed up by sincerely referencing back to his earlier comments about his cutting room floor and the way a scene, or a scenario, or a bit of backstory might find its way to page much later than when it was actually written down. He spoke on the tendency of some writers to get so caught up on the world building, and to spend so much time on it, that they never actually get around to writing the story. He advised against giving details that aren’t actually needed in the moment, they can always come around later.

While Dinniman did drop tantalizing hints about the series and its characters, such as Samantha’s true purpose in the story having not been revealed yet, to me, the most interesting answer of the hour was in response to a question about the past Crawlers. Those not familiar with the series will have no context for that idea, but to put it simply and without spoilers, there are instances where we have the chance to hear from people who were in the main character’s situation once upon a time, and they can be some of the most affecting sequences in the books. One in particular, Volteeg, is only heard from a single time and yet has left a lasting impact on fans. In discussing him, Dinniman said, “First off, I consider it a horror novel, a horror series… It’s a very dark story that’s cut with humor, because if I didn’t cut it with humor, it would be, you know, unpalatable.” He went on to focus more directly on Volteeg. “There’s a recurring theme that happens throughout the whole story, which is about how people treat those that are below them. It’s framed in different ways, and in this particular case framed as a pet and a pet owner, and that chapter is just another camera lens, if that makes sense. Cause this is a theme that’s told in big ways and small ways throughout the entire series, how people treat those that are… less powerful than themselves.”

The final question did bring the discussion back around to comedy, however, which is very fitting for such a series. Dinniman was asked, in specific, what the deal with the foot fetish in the book really was, and if he wishes he could change anything about the books now. He told quite an amusing tale. The foot fetish, in the beginning, had been a means to an end, a way to describe the main character and his shape and size without having him look in a mirror. Instead, he had him assess an enemy and decide to just jump on him and hopefully crush him. The initial foot fetish joke had been added as one of those “A jokes” that made it off the cutting room floor. “I didn’t, at that moment, realize I was ruining my life.” The crowd laughed heartily at this admission. “So, the thing is, the other day… I got a letter in the mail to my PO Box that was nothing but five Polaroid’s of men’s feet. Five different men. And it was actually a wedding invitation and it was all their groomsmen’s feet. So, I have the opposite of whatever a foot fetish is, and if I could rewind time, that is what I would pick.” He also clarified that no; he will not be going to that wedding.

The panel ended with a reading by Hays of one of the character Prepontente’s more infamous rants, much to the audience’s delight. And if you’re hoping to see more of Hayes, perhaps gracing us with a little bit of Wonderwall from the Queen Anne Chonk herself, he lightly floated the idea that he might attend Karaoke in the Hyatt Friday night. I know I’ll be there.