Graphic Novel Review: HERO CAVE sparks joy in the depths of a dungeon

Hero Cave

Cartoonist: Syd Madia
Publisher: Silver Sprocket
Publication Date: July 2025

Dark fantasy dungeons have recently begun expanding their reach below the bright surface of mainstream culture. Despite its punishing level of difficulty, FromSoft’s action RPG Elden Ring was a breakout hit in 2022, spawning a manga series and an upcoming movie adaptation. In many ways, Elden Ring’s grim story of undead knights and ruined kingdoms spoke directly to the zeitgeist of the lingering Covid pandemic. Were those of us who felt trapped and alone in our homes not similarly cursed by fate? Were we not abandoned by our kings? Did we not have to pledge ourselves to a never-ending grind for resources?

Syd Madia’s Hero Cave is one of the many mushrooms to sprout from the fertile soil of the dark fantasy genre in the wake of FromSoft’s pandemic-era success. This lean but powerful graphic novella takes its visual inspiration from dungeon exploration games filled with twisting underground corridors, hooded necromancers, and hordes of sword-wielding skeletons. Despite its spooky imagery and respect for the unapologetically morbid tone of the dark fantasy genre, Hero Cave is a clever comedy that confronts a cultural sense of malaise and offers not just a glimmer of hope, but an epic explosion of joy.

A nameless skeleton works a thankless job as the first monster to challenge the questing adventurers who brave the depths of an underground dungeon. The skeleton is doing their best, but the heroes leaving Yelp reviews are not impressed. Still, no matter how many times the skeleton gets knocked down, they always get back up – whether they want to or not.

They’ve been doing this job for hundreds of years, and the time has finally come for them to meet the necromancer who manages the dungeon for a dreaded performance review. The dungeon master is as banally evil as any boss, and he’s not the least bit interested in the welfare of his workers. When he reveals the retirement plan he envisions for the skeleton, it becomes clear that they will never get any rest or reward for their employment, not even in (a second) death. 

Shaken and dispirited, the skeleton has an existential crisis, and they realize that their job has drained them of any sense of personal identity. With nothing to lose, they indulge in shameless debauchery. Their excessive hedonism may seem ridiculous and unproductive, but a night of bad behavior might just give them the space they need to consider what it would mean to escape the dungeon entirely.

It’s easy to look down on NPCs, the “non-player characters” who seem shallow and uninteresting when compared to the protagonists. It’s not so easy to realize that, in certain aspects of your life, you’re not much better than an NPC yourself. In Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity, Jaroslav Ŝvelch explains how the construction of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons reflects the concerns of the white-collar managerial class. To the dungeon master, even a creature as miraculous as a walking skeleton is little more than a series of numbers to be entered into a spreadsheet. Given how frequently we’re all reduced to data points—by social media algorithms, by insurance companies, and certainly by employers—perhaps it’s worthwhile to extend a bit of sympathy to a low-level skeleton.

Hero Cave isn’t just sympathetic; it’s sharply satirical and delightfully strange. To break free of workplace expectations, the skeleton becomes sexy and violent and grotesque. If there can be no joy in a job well done, liberation lies in an unapologetic expression of the self. Syd Madia’s art rises to the challenge of representing the skeleton’s transformation through a cathartic explosion of detail and movement. What begins as a cute workplace comedy about friendly talking monsters ascends to a brilliantly weird sequence of open panels and fluidly shifting lines. The comic’s closing landscape spread is gorgeously cathartic. 

Hero Cave is a short but rewarding excursion for fans of RPGs from Dungeons & Dragons to Dark Souls, and it will speak to readers who appreciate more sensitive approaches to fantasy tropes as modeled by comics like Monstress and manga like Delicious in Dungeon. For artists, Hero Cave is an interesting study in how a looser drafting style can effectively communicate a story’s themes and appeal, especially in terms of Madia’s thoughtful deconstruction of the rigidity of anatomy and architecture. Even for readers who have never set foot in a dungeon before, Hero Cave is a dark but relatable comedy about the daily grind, as well as a welcome reminder of the subversive pleasures of becoming ungovernable. 

Hero Cave is available from Silver Sprocket.

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