Baby frogs make comics in Dav Pilkey's Cat Kid Comic Club preview

(Image credit: Dav Pilkey (Scholastic/Graphix))

Dog Man cartoonist Dav Pilkey is growing his family of kid-friendly comic characters with the upcoming graphic novel Cat Kid Comic Club.

Scheduled to debut December 1, the 176-page OGN is a story within a story - a series of short stories tied together with one overarching narrative - in this case, a story of people making comics.

"In Cat Kid Comic Club, Li'l Petey, Flippy, and Molly introduce 21 rambunctious, funny, and talented baby frogs to the art of comic-making. As the story unwinds with mishaps and hilarity, readers get to see the progress, mistakes, and improvements that come with practice and persistence," reads Scholastic/Graphix's description of the book. 

"Squid Kid and Katydid, Baby Frog Squad, Monster Cheese Sandwich, and Birds Flowers Trees: A Haiku Photo Comic are just some of the mini-comics that are included as stories-within-the-story, each done in a different style, utilizing humor and drama, prose and poetry, illustrated in different media including acrylics, pastels, colored pencils, felt-tip markers, clay, hand-made cardboard sculptures, photographs, pipe cleaners, construction paper collages, and cookies."

Here is a six-page preview:

(Image credit: Dav Pilkey (Scholastic/Graphix))

Fans of Dog Man will remember Cat Kid Comic Club's Li'l Petey, who has been a fan-favorite in that popular series.

"[Li'l Petey has] always been a special character to me because he is based on my mom, and - like her - he embodies love, optimism, and hope," Pilkey has said. "And - like me - he loves comics."

This OGN comes hot on the heels of Pilkey's most recent Dog Man OGN, Grime and Punishment, which is one of the best-selling books (not just comic books!) in all of North America this year.

Cat Kid Comic Club goes on sale on December 1.

Read our review of Pilkey's previous OGN, Dog Man: Grime and Punishment.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)