Although not quite comics, Captain Underpants’s creator Dav Pilkey has stepped firmly into panel-and-balloon turf in the past with Ook and Gluk, last year’s best-selling graphic novel, and his two Super Diaper Baby GNs. And now he has two new Captan Underpants books on the horizon:
Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, due on August 28, 2012 and Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers in January 2013. Each will have a one million copy first printing.
In related and interesting news, the two Super Diaper Baby spinoff graphic novels will get e-books on January 31 of this year, each with supplemental material for that e-book/DVD extra format. These have the potential to be among the biggest selling e-comics of the year — or not since every kid has a print version. Worth keeping an eye on.
PR below:
Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, announced today that it will publish two new books in the worldwide bestselling Captain Underpants series by award-winning author Dav Pilkey on August 28, 2012, and in January 2013. In addition, Scholastic will release the first Dav Pilkey e-books—two titles in the bestselling Super Diaper Baby series—on January 31, 2012.
Scholastic will release Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers (Captain Underpants #9 ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0, $9.99 hardcover, Ages 7 and up) on August 28, 2012, to be followed by the publication of Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (Captain Underpants #10 ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4, $9.99 hardcover, Ages 7 and up) in January 2013—each with a world English language first printing of one million copies.
On January 31, 2012, Scholastic will release e-book versions of Pilkey’s bestselling graphic novels, The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (E-Book ISBN: 978-0-545-41483-8, $9.99, Ages 7 and up) and Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers (E-Book ISBN: 978-0-545-41484-5, $9.99, Ages 7 and up), which will each include bonus material about the making of the books, samples of sketches by Dav Pilkey, deleted scenes, and more.
In his ninth epic Captain Underpants novel, Dav Pilkey takes readers back in time to the carefree days of kindergarten, when the worst thing heroes George and Harold had to face was NOT an evil mad scientist or an alien cafeteria lady but a sixth-grade bully named Kipper Krupp, the nephew of their clueless school principal. And because George and Harold don’t actually invent Captain Underpants until fourth grade, the two clever kindergartners are on their own—using their brains to beat the bully.
“All of us at Scholastic are so excited to be publishing new Captain Underpants books!” said Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade. “Dav Pilkey is simply unmatched when it comes to combining innovation, creativity, and humor in a way that appeals to all kids including the most reluctant readers. We also look forward to expanding Dav’s brilliant kid-friendly books into digital formats.”
“I’m delighted to be back with George, Harold, and the gang,” said Dav Pilkey. “I’ve had so much fun writing and drawing their latest adventure, and I hope kids enjoy it too.”
At $9.99, I expect lots of kids (and parents) will be buying the e-book. Lots of libraries as well!
(When I was in the Fifth Grade, circa 1980, we were all addicted to Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. When we heard about the ORIGINAL book, Sugarcane Island, we hunted it down fanatically. Kids are ravenous fanatics, learning everything about something that they enjoy, like dinosaurs.)