Is My Dog Man a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First printing: Graphix (Scholastic), New York, 2016, 240 pp., full-colour comic on glossy stock, pictorial laminated boards, issued WITHOUT a dust jacket — 'no jacket as issued', so a copy offered in a jacket is wrong for this title and there is no jacket price point to check
• The copyright page of the first printing carries a complete number line including the numeral 1 together with the printing statement 'First edition, September 2016'; later printings advance the number line and alter that date line
• This is the point that matters, because the series became a commercial juggernaut and the overwhelming majority of 2016-dated copies in the trade are later printings of the same first edition — dealers explicitly catalogue copies as 'first edition, later printing'
• Neither the boards, the endpapers nor the 2016 date distinguishes a first printing

How Graphix / Scholastic marked a first edition

• Full number line on copyright page; first printing includes/begins effectively with '1' — Scholastic uses interleaved year/printing strings (e.g. '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' followed by year codes). If the printing portion do…
• Frequently states the edition: e.g. 'First American edition, October 1998' (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

Full Graphix / Scholastic first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US-only true first: Graphix (Scholastic), New York, published late August 2016 (the copyright-page printing line reads September 2016) — the census claim is correct. There is no precedence contest: the Scholastic UK issue, 'Dog Man #1: Dog Man' (ISBN 9781407140391), is a paperback dated 6 July 2017, nearly a year later. Flag a distinct first-appearance trap that is not a first-edition question: the Dog Man character originated as a comic-within-a-comic drawn by George Beard and Harold Hutchins inside Pilkey's Captain Underpants books before this standalone graphic novel — those Captain Underpants volumes are the character's first appearance but are not editions of Dog Man.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No conventional hardcover book-club edition is documented. The reprint field is instead dominated by Scholastic school book-fair and book-club printings, boxed sets, and the later reissue under ISBN 9781338741032 — all later printings or reissues rather than firsts, and identifiable by a differing ISBN or barcode on the board. Since the title is issued without a jacket, the usual club/fair jacket tells do not apply: place the copy by the number line and the 'First edition, September 2016' statement.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Dog Man a first edition?

A first edition of Dog Man by Dav Pilkey (Graphix / Scholastic) is identified by: First printing: Graphix (Scholastic), New York, 2016, 240 pp., full-colour comic on glossy stock, pictorial laminated boards, issued WITHOUT a dust jacket — 'no jacket as issued', so a copy offered in a jacket is wrong for this title and there is no jacket price point to check.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). US-only true first: Graphix (Scholastic), New York, published late August 2016 (the copyright-page printing line reads September 2016) — the census claim is correct.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No conventional hardcover book-club edition is documented. The reprint field is instead dominated by Scholastic school book-fair and book-club printings, boxed sets, and the later reissue under ISBN 9781338741032 — all later printings or reissues rather than firsts, and identifiable by a differing ISBN or barcode on the board. Since the title is issued without a jacket, the usual club/fair jacket tells do not apply: place the copy by the number line and the 'First edition, September 2016' statem

I have a first edition of Dog Man — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.