The next Dog Man OGN sets 5 million first print run

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

Dav Pilkey's hit OGN series Dog Man returns this coming Tuesday with a new, ninth volume Dog Man: Grime and Punishment and an astounding print run for comics: 5 million copies.

In this volume Dog Man goes undercover and comes up with the best disguise of them all: Cat Man. Dog Man (dressed up as Cat Man) will use his disguise to infiltrate the underworld and once again put a stop to crime.

"The Supa Buddies bamboozled the baddies, but all's not right in the world," reads Scholastic's description of the new OGN. "Dog Man has a new problem to pound, and he's going to need his entire pack to help him. Will he go barking up the wrong tree?"

Here's a six-page preview:

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

The last three volumes of Dog Man (Brawl of the Wild, For Whom the Ball Rolls, and Fetch-22) also had five million copy first printings, but Grime and Punishment's comes in the midst of a pandemic which could have hampered demand for the print series. Over 30 million copies of the Dog Man series have been sold and have been translated into over 30 languages.

Of course, this is Pilkey's second most popular series following the breakout success of Captain Underpants, which has more than 90 million copies in print worldwide.

Pilkey is currently living in Japan working on the as-yet-untitled tenth volume of Dog Man, which is scheduled to be released March 23, 2021. A spin-off series titled Cat Kid Comic Club is due out December 1.

Dog Man, Vol. 9: Grime and Punishment goes on sale September 1.

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)