VIZ Media will publish a new series, Kirby Manga Mania, featuring the round, pink character from Nintendo video games.  The manga, by Hirokazu Hikawa, will debut in June with an MSRP of $9.99 and is rated for all ages.  According to VIZ, this is the first Kirby manga to be translated into English.

Hikawa is the creator of an earlier manga series that ran in CoroCoro Comic from 1994 through 2006 and was compiled into 25 volumes in Japan.  In 2009, VIZ announced that it had licensed that series (see "VIZ Media Adds 5 Manga Series”), but it was never published.  Hikawa returned to the series in 2017 and drew new episodes, which he has put together with some of his favorite chapters from the older material to create a new series, which is up to volume 4 in Japan. This new series is the one VIZ has licensed.

Kirby first appeared in the 1992 game Kirby’s Dream Land, and since then he has appeared not only in a whole series of games but also as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. games.  VIZ published an art book, Kirby: Art and Style Collection, in 2020.


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