Scholastic has increased the first printing for Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, the fifth entry in Dav Pilkey’s immensely popular series.  The print run has been upped from the previously announced one million copies to three million copies.  The volume will be available simultaneously in the U.S., Canada, U.K., New Zealand, and Australia on August 28.  The hardcover has an MSRP of $9.99.

The sixth entry in the series, Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild, will be on sale December 26, 2018, but Scholastic has not announced the print run yet.  Pilkey will be touring across the U.S. and Canada in a series of large-scale events and readings this fall.

Dog Man is currently the top kids / tween graphic novel franchise (see “Top 10 Kids/Tweens Graphic Novel Franchises--Spring 2018”).  The first four volumes currently sit at the top of the BookScan charts (see “Pro: June 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels With Actual Sales” and “June 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels”).  In fact, all four probably would have held those positions since the December 2017 release of Dog Man and Cat Kid, except the volume was miscategorized, an error that wasn’t addressed until the May 2018 charts were unveiled (see “Pro: May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels With Actual Sales” and “May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels”), so the franchise had to settle for the top three spots for a few months. Dog Man and Cat Kid debuted at #1 on the New York TimesUSA TodayWall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.

The Dog Man series has been credited with the bump in bookstore sales for kids graphic novels in 2017 (see “Kids Graphic Novels Up 20% in Bookstores in 2017”).

Pilkey, who already had the hit Captain Underpants series under his belt, launched the Dog Man series in August 2016.  In the series, Greg the police dog and his handler are both injured in an accident and fused together in a life-changing surgery (see “New Titles From Raina Telgemeier and Dav Pilkey”).  The well-reviewed series (see “Review: 'Dog Man' Book 1 HC”) has also been included on a number of best of lists (see “Amazon's Best Graphic Novels - 2016” and “Amazon's Best Graphic Novels - 2017”).