Dog Man (Dog Man, #1)

Dog Man (2016) is a graphic novel by children’s writer and cartoonist Dav Pilkey. At the time of writing, it is the first of 11 Dog Man books. While later volumes in the series follow a unifying plot, the first Dog Man book is an anthology of loosely connected one-shot stories that follow the adventures of Dog Man, a superhero with the head of a dog and the body of a police officer. Dog Man faces villains such as Petey, “The World’s Most Evilest Cat” (187); a corrupt mayor who controls a robotic police chief; and an army of sentient hot dogs. He uses his human strength, heightened canine senses, and natural intelligence to save the day. The humor in Dog Man presents a combination of meta jokes, cartoon surrealism, and gross-out gags. Like much of Pilkey’s work, this series is an affectionate parody of cape comics (i.e., superhero comics) and a love letter to the homemade comic books Pilkey created as a child.

Dog Man is a spinoff of Pilkey’s acclaimed Captain Underpants and the series that followed. The connection between Dog Man and Captain Underpants is established through a metanarrative framing device. In the texts, these comics are attributed to fictional authors George Beard and Harold Hutchins. George and Harold are best friends who attend fourth grade at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. They share a prankish sense of humor and a love of making comics. Harold draws the art, and George writes the stories. To reflect the fictional authors’ young age, Pilkey draws in a crude, simple style and hand-letters the text in a scribbly font. Throughout Dog Man, George and Harold directly address the reader and discuss the process of making their comics. They also include extra materials, such as flip-books, drawing tips, and notes from their disapproving teachers.

Though it is not as popular as its predecessor Captain Underpants, Dog Man is acclaimed and beloved in its own right. According to Scholastic, 40 million Dog Man books have sold worldwide in 42 languages. In late 2020, production on a Dog Man movie was announced by DreamWorks Studios after the success of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017). Dog Man also produced a spin-off series, Cat Kid Comic Club, which includes four installations at the time of writing.

This guide is based on the Pub HTML5 ebook of Dog Man. All cited page numbers correspond to this edition of the text.

Content Warning: This guide contains scatological humor and cartoon violence.

Plot Summary

Dog Man is divided into a brief prologue and four one-shot stories. In the Prologue, Dog Man’s fictional creators—two fourth graders named George Beard and Harold Hutchins—describe the process of creating Dog Man comics.

Chapter 1, “A Hero Is Unleashed,” presents Dog Man’s origin story. He is a superhero with the head of a police dog and the body of a human cop. On his first adventure, Dog Man is chased by Petey, who attempts to defeat him with a giant vacuum cleaner. Dog Man defeats Petey by leading the vacuum to the beach, where it sucks up too much water and explodes.

Chapter 2, “Robo Chief,” tells the story of an evil mayor who replaces the police chief with a robot, which she controls. Dog Man uses his heightened dog senses to unravel the mayor’s plan and restore the chief to his rightful position. Petey and the mayor, who are both villains, turn against each other in a bid for control of the city.

Chapter 3, “Book ‘Em Dog Man,” is a “retro” Dog Man comic that George and Harold made in first grade. In it, Petey “zaps” all the words out of books around the world, causing everybody to become “supa dumb.” Dog Man foils his plan by finding Petey’s secret stash of books and distributing them to children.

In Chapter 4, “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken,” Petey uses “living spray” to bring a hot dog to life. After Petey refuses to be friends with it, the hot dog raises an army of hot dogs to take over the world. Dog Man defeats the hot dog army by eating it, with the help of several regular dogs.