The manga by Sankichi Hinodeya was originally serialized in 2015. Three volumes of the series have been collected in Japan, and the first volume will come to the U.S. in December.
“We're really excited to be launching Splatoon tie-in manga towards the end of the year,” VIZ Media Vice President - Publishing Leyla Aker said in an interview with ICv2. “When we did our announcements at C2E2… Splatoon far and away got one of the biggest reactions we've had to an announcement. People were really excited about it.”
Splatoon is a kid-friendly variation on the third-person shooter that features ink-blasting, shape-shifting squid creatures called Inklings that are engaged in a technicolor paint war. The original Splatoon, which was released for the Wii U in 2015, has an ESRB rating of E (10+). The rating is pending on Splatoon 2, the upcoming sequel due July 21 for Nintendo's red-hot Switch console.
Dark Horse is releasing The Art of Splatoon, a 320-page hardcover collection of illustrations, maps, and more inspired by the video game on June 13 (see “Dark Horse Has Splattitude”).