Dog Man creator Dav Pilkey is extending his brand even further with a new manga series based on his best-selling Captain Underpants chapter books. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Manga, written and adapted by Pilkey with art by the manga artist Motojiro, will be released on April 7, 2026, as a paperback with an MSRP of $14.99 and a jacketed hardcover with an MSRP of $24.99. The manga, which is rated for ages 7+, will follow the storyline of the first Captain Underpants book, The Adventures of Captain Underpants, which was published in 1997. It will be in full color, read from left to right, and incorporate Pilkey’s trademark Flip-o-Rama flip animations.

Graphix launched its manga program in 2024 and recently announced its first Marvel manga Spider-Man: Shadow Warrior (see “Graphix to Publish Spider-Man Manga for Middle-Grade Readers”).

Pilkey’s Dog Man and Cat Kid books, which are part of the extended Captain Underpants universe (they are comics supposedly drawn by the main characters), continue to dominate the graphic novel market (see “Full Year 2024 Circana BookScan”), but the original novels have not been adapted into comics, with the exception of a few volumes based on the animated series (see “September 2020 NPD BookScan”).