Sources
- Instragram Page
- Dark Horse Press Release
- Dark Horse Direct Pre-Order
- Aiden White and Will Carter interview
- Trademark filings
Transcript
This is Aside Manga News for October 10th, 2026.
As part of their New York City Comic-Con announcements, Dark Horse Comics has announced they will be publishing the new manga series Martial War on April 6th, 2027 for English-speaking regions. The story is created by Aidan White and Will Carter and the manga will be drawn by Hiroyuki Takei with art assistance by Jet Kusamura. The English lettering will be done by Steve Dutro with translations by Roy Mashima and Ryan Sinoyama. Hiroyuki Takei is best known for creating the Shaman King manga series and previously working with Stan Lee to create the Ultimo manga series as well. Jet Kusamura has been working with Takei as the lead artist for the spin-off series Shaman King: Red Crimson and Shaman King: Marcos.
The Marial War book, which is labeled as a volume 1 of the series will be 224 pages in length and have the reading-order like traditional Japanese manga. The MSRP is listed at $19.99 USD. The story is focused on a kid named Trash who will use the power of the Tatara stones to battle in the special arena called The Octagon. Both story creators Aidan White and Will Carter are cousins, and related to Dana White, the CEO of UFC, which this manga is being created in collaboration with. As part of their press tour at NYCC, the concept of the manga came during the COVID 2020 lockdown. Back then, they started watching anime and that led to reading manga and the dream of creating their own. In addition to the artwork, Hiroyuki Takei also provided additional story suggestions for the collaborative effort.
The title of Martial War was filed for a trademark in January 2023. The trademark was focused on NFTs, but did include coverage for manga and comics. Filed by Shadows JV LLC, the trademark was then further expanded on October 7th to more clearly define out the usage for films, toys, clothing, and printed materials.
As part of this announcement and early promotion, they also gave away free t-shirts, stickers, and posters signed by Hiroyuki Takei, Aidan White and Will Carter at the NYCC Dark Horse booth. A trailer and additional images for the series are being posted on their official Instagram page.