This time, it’s not clickbait. I actually read them all. I might have to keep up with this series through its end. I’m in too deep.

So I decided to read all the Dog Man books

The most common reference requests I get at the library are probably where to find the Dog Man books and where to find the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. And while I’m young enough to have once been the target audience for Wimpy Kid, I was certainly past that age for Dog Man, a spinoff of Captain Underpants that began in 2017. I started to wonder why kids love these books so much; when the movie came out, our 200-odd copies of the series pretty much disappeared from the shelves. At one point, I swear we only had two copies that weren’t checked out.

As you may know, I recently spent a month rereading the Baby-Sitters Club books, and it was incredibly fun and also deranged. So why not do something even more deranged and binge-read a series that I’m entirely unfamiliar with? Prior to this, I had only ever read one Dav Pilkey book: my cousin’s beaten-up copy of The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, which went out of print a few years back because of racial stereotypes that Pilkey apologized for. Not exactly the best introduction to his work. In comparison, Dog Man is woke AF, and this is literally a series about a police dog.

Dog Man lore you may not know

Dog Man is created when a bomb, fashioned by a villainous talking cat named Petey, blows up a policeman’s head and a dog’s body, so a team of doctors sew the remaining parts (policeman’s body, dog’s head) together into Dog Man. Dog Man and Petey proceed to have a dynamic reminiscent of Perry the Platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. Petey tries to do evil things, often with odd contraptions; Dog Man always arrests him and disables the contraption. Dog Man never speaks and rarely even barks, which I was surprised by. Not sure why Petey can talk and Dog Man can’t; I think it’s a Goofy vs. Pluto situation.

Petey starts to undergo some significant character development as the series progresses, and the story starts to become more about him than about Dog Man himself. (The thing about Dog Man himself is that his character has to be fairly stagnant just because of the nature of the story; the whole shtick is he’s a man and also a dog and will behave like a dog forever.) Early on, Petey clones himself to try to do more evil and ends up with a loving, good-hearted kitten, and “Li’l Petey,” who calls him Papa, slowly but changes Petey’s heart as well. He’s the sweetest and probably my favorite character in the series because of how much he’s willing to see the good in everyone.

From there, you get more and more of a view into Petey’s (incredibly tragic) backstory: His dad left the family, he and his mom became homeless, his mom died, he committed a crime and went to jail, and when he got out of jail, nobody would give him a job, so he had to resort to a life of crime. At some point, probably because of his dad, the tip of his tail got cut off. I truly did not expect this book series to tackle homelessness, childhood trauma, and prison recidivism, but in fact, those aren’t even all the societal issues you’ll hear about. I told you, Dog Man is woke in comparison to Ook and Gluk.

Where did Dog Man come from?

Dog Man actually starts with Captain Underpants. A mini-comic before the beginning of the first book explains that in the Underpants books, these two elementary schoolers named George and Harold loved making comics, and one day, in fourth grade, they turned their school principal into their comic book superhero, Captain Underpants. But once the events of that series ended, George and Harold decided to start drawing more of Dog Man, a character they’d created as kindergartners and abandoned for a while.

I decided to read the last Captain Underpants book to get more context since the intro given in Dog Man (as in, book 1 of the Dog Man series) was pretty minimal. It turns out that George and Harold are two fourth graders with ADHD who like to play pranks; George likes writing and Harold likes drawing! I’m guessing I’d get way more context if I read the whole Underpants series, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do all that; summaries of the series’ events, plus reading the last book in detail, was enough.

Did you know the Captain Underpants books were recently reissued in full color? And also, did you know George and Harold, through time travel, sort of clone themselves, so one version of them at the end of the series is traveling through time to try to save their missing pets while the other version is chilling at home writing Dog Man comics? And also, did you know they travel to the future and find out they become successful cartoonists who’ve published tons of Dog Man books and also Harold is married to a man?

None of that is even really important to the Dog Man books themselves. You can certainly read them without knowing a single thing that happens in Captain Underpants. But I got in too deep and had to share all that.

And so, Dog Man the book series is presented as a collection of George and Harold’s Dog Man comics. They’re initially drawn in a style that evokes the artistic skills and sense of humor of a nine year old (and, at times, a six year old; one of the comics in the first book is presented as an old one from when they were in first grade), but the writing and art style become a little more sophisticated as time goes on and George and Harold age; they’re currently meant to be in sixth grade. The fact that they’re supposed to be the creators of Dog Man becomes less and less relevant as the series goes on; by book 10, they aren’t even introducing themselves in a mini-comic beforehand.

Who’s who in the Dog Man books?

The Dog Man books gradually introduce more and more characters into the mix; while it’s really just Dog Man, Petey, and the police chief at first, it’s now at a point where you need a list of characters to keep them all straight. The books started doing this at book 10; here are some screenshots I grabbed from Libby.

There are plenty of other recurring characters as well, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

If that wasn’t enough, Cat Kid Comic Club also exists

Li’l Petey has his own spinoff series called Cat Kid Comic Club. After the events of Dog Man: Fetch-22, Li’l Petey starts a comic club with Molly, Flippy, and Molly’s frog siblings. There’s five of these books right now, so I read those too. They’re a lot less about crime fighting and tragic backstories and a lot more about how to make comics. Like Dog Man, these are presented as being written and illustrated by George and Harold (at least at first), although, like the later Dog Man books, George and Harold aren’t really relevant at all.

I read The Cartoonists Club, Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud’s newest book, about a month ago, and Cat Kid Comic Club follows a similar concept: A club meets and all learns together how to create comic books, and in the process, a kid reading the book also learns how comics are created. It’s really cute, and because this series follows Li’l Petey, it’s a great introductory point for a kid who’s already devoured all the Dog Man books. I honestly wouldn’t give it to a kid who hasn’t read Dog Man; knowing these characters really helps!

Each Cat Kid Comic Club book includes, within its narrative, multiple comics by all the frogs, who have distinctive, though classic Dav Pilkey, art styles. I’m particularly tickled by the frogs who create comics using photographs of characters they’ve crafted. Pilkey actually makes these little arts and crafts and takes pictures of them. I really loved the part in the first book where the frogs get challenged to create the worst comics possible because it’s genuinely a good strategy for creative work; when I write the worst first draft possible, it still means that I’ve written something down.

It’s actually very touching that these books encouraging artistic expression are so popular among kids now. I have to wonder if there are any current kids who have become the Georges and Harolds of their school (in the sense of making popular cartoons, not in the sense of hypnotizing their principals into becoming underwear-themed superheroes) after reading these books. This was a great way to end my Dog Man marathon; these books are chill, free of villainous conflict, and without so much fraught backstory involved, but they’re very charming and easy to get through.

Summaries and thoughts on every Dog Man book (but not Cat Kid Comic Club since they’re just about teaching kids to draw and write and you’ll just have to trust that I’ve read them)Dog Man

At the start of the book, George and Harold introduce themselves and give a brief summary of Captain Underpants that leads up to what they’re doing now: drawing Dog Man. In the Dog Man comics themselves, we get Dog Man’s origin story (see above explanation; man’s body, dog’s head, bomb). He fights off Petey a bunch of times, each chapter forming a self-contained story. One chapter is a comic that George and Harold made as first graders where the drawing and handwriting are a lot worse. There’s not much to say about this one because it works well as a standalone and doesn’t really follow the plotlines that future books do. Like other Dav Pilkey books, there’s Flip-O-Rama pages, where you quickly flip pages back and forth to create a low-quality animation. I read the e-book of this, and it’s interesting how they do it; they call it Flip-E-Rama and have instructions on what to do depending on what kind of e-reader you’re using.

Dog Man: Unleashed

Unlike the first book, the chapters of this one aren’t so self-contained, and future books also have an overarching plot instead of random standalone chapters. The quality of the artwork also improves quite a bit, no longer looking so much like homemade comics. In this one, Dog Man’s police chief accidentally makes a pet store fish named Flippy become sentient and capable of telekinesis, and Flippy masquerades as Petey to rob the pet store. Meanwhile, Petey creates a dead-looking paper version of himself to escape jail, but the prison guard takes “Flat Petey” to a witch doctor to be “healed” and makes Flat Petey sentient as well. So basically there are three Petey-types running around causing havoc. Flat Petey makes a dinosaur fossil sentient and evil, but Dog Man plays with the fossil’s bones, and it’s all good. Flippy dies when he tries to move his soul to another body and Dog Man plays with his soul like it’s a ball, and then Flat Petey gets cut up by a pair of sentient scissors created by the witch doctor.

When you explain it all like that, the story sounds odd and disturbing, but I guess kids are into odd and disturbing things.

Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties

Apparently this is some sort of spin on A Tale of Two Cities. Petey escapes from jail and clones himself, but the clone is a kitten, so he abandons “Li’l Petey,” who drags himself to the police station. (Li’l Petey also talks, unlike Dog Man.) Dog Man takes him in, then Petey has regrets and makes a machine to find Li’l Petey and takes him back home. Li’l Petey now idolizes Dog Man. Meanwhile, Flippy is revived when scientists turn him into a cyborg and he gets launched into a factory that makes “living spray.” The factory itself also becomes living and starts to make other buildings sentient. Li’l Petey goes and helps Dog Man destroy the buildings, much to Petey’s chagrin. Petey has a heart, though, so when Flippy tries to destroy Li’l Petey, Petey swaps places with him and has Dog Man bring Li’l Petey to safety. Li’l Petey comes up with a plan and draws an adorable picture book about him and Flippy that makes Flippy so sad and guilty that he stops being evil. Petey gets arrested again and then escapes again. Li’l Petey goes to live with Dog Man.

Dog Man and Cat Kid

This book is allegedly based on East of Eden. Dog Man gets a catsitter for Li’l Petey who turns out to be Petey in disguise. At work, a Hollywood director comes and tells Dog Man he’s making a movie about him. Petey takes Li’l Petey to infiltrate the movie set. Dog Man wreaks havoc on the set, as an uncontrollable dog might do. Petey tries to do evil; Li’l Petey defects and helps Dog Man and friends stop Petey. Petey lets Li’l Petey move in with Dog Man. There’s probably more to it, but honestly, these books are starting to follow a bit of a formula, and I’m starting to get fatigued already. This doesn’t bode well.

Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas

I’ve discovered that most of the Dog Man books are dog-related puns on titles of classic novels. Also, I neglected to mention until this point that Li’l Petey has a robot named 80-HD that obeys his every command; it’s very fun. Like the last book, Petey kidnaps Li’l Petey by being in disguise (this time as a rep from Kitty Protective Services saying Petey needs to go to school). Petey explains his childhood backstory and greatly over-exaggerates it (he gets marooned on an island at one point, like in Lord of the Flies); essentially, he betrayed his friends in his scout troop, the FLEAS. One of his friends from then disguised himself as a psychiatrist at the cat jail, but while he was laughing about his evil revenge plans to cause harm to Li’l Petey, Petey stole the disguise and escaped jail to go rescue Li’l Petey. Shenanigans, as always, ensue, this time involving a robot brontosaurus, growing spray, and a shrink ray. Petey is starting to question his evil ways thanks to Li’l Petey’s influence.

Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild

Dog Man gets framed for a bank robbery and gets sent to dog jail, where he has an identity crisis because he doesn’t fit in with dogs or men. Chief and 80-HD break him out of jail, Sarah and an actress named Yolay (seen previously in Dog Man and Cat Kid) find the real culprit (the FLEAS), and Petey and Li’l Petey talk to each other while Petey fixes up an animatronic bee. The movie mentioned a couple books ago has pivoted to claymation with the actors providing voices, and there’s actual pictures of clay people in here. Petey and Li’l Petey eventually save everyone else from a clay taco come to life from a spray that the FLEAS set on it (I think?).

Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls

Dog Man gets distracted by a ball during work, and Li’l Petey and 80-HD decide to help him train to focus better by dunking him in a bath every time he chases a ball or chews a bone. Meanwhile, the FLEAS, still shrunken, hop from Petey to Big Jim’s whiskers (Big Jim is another inmate at the cat jail) when Big Jim hugs Petey goodbye. Petey, now pardoned, comes to collect Li’l Petey and be a proper father to him, eventually agreeing to a custody deal with Dog Man where he gets Li’l Petey during the week and Dog Man gets Li’l Petey on the weekends. Petey reveals that he has daddy issues. Li’l Petey finds Petey’s dad, who he calls Grampa, and he’s evil and steals Petey’s stuff and gets arrested. Meanwhile, the FLEAS hypnotize Big Jim and turn him into a cupcake-themed superhero. Dog Man is now afraid of balls. A villain from book 1, Dr. Scum, makes evil balls to commit burglaries. Dog Man confronts his fears and disables the balls. Big Jim stumbles into being the hero of the day somehow even though all of his heroic doings were happenstance.

Dog Man: Fetch-22

Meta note: George and Harold are in sixth grade now! Grampa escapes cat jail, Dog Man accidentally launches “brain dots” (previously seen in the Flippy saga) into a pond full of tadpoles that turns them evil and gives them psychokinetic powers, and Flippy’s evilness has worn off, so he joins Dog Man’s team to fight the now-evil tadpoles who follow the orders of an evil elderly fairy. Li’l Petey makes friends with one of these tadpoles, Molly, and makes her evilness wear off; the two of them, along with Zuzu (Sarah Hatoff’s dog), figure out an antidote to the brain dots. Big Jim again gets credit for saving the day because he and Petey were standing on a sign that falls onto Grampa and the fairy. Flippy and Molly go back to the other tadpoles who are no longer evil or have superpowers.

Dog Man: Grime and Punishment

Dog Man gets fired by the mayor for being too much of a dog. Off in cat jail, Grampa makes a helmet that turns you huge and exaggerates your main personality traits; it turns Big Jim into Snug, a muscular guy who loves to cuddle. Li’l Petey and 80-HD make a cat mask for Dog Man so he can get rehired by the police; the cops see right through it but they keep him around anyway since they like him and it’s the mayor that’s the problem. Everyone gets arrested when the mayor figures them out. Meanwhile, Petey explains to Li’l Petey that Grampa left the family when Petey’s mom got sick, and then she died. (This is a very bleak kids’ book!) Also, we follow up with the tadpoles, who are now frogs except Molly for some reason. Grampa puts on the helmet and then turns a huge lunch bag sentient. The tadpoles draw on the lunch bag and it runs away because it experienced the power of love? Flippy and Molly break out Dog Man and everyone else, and then Dog Man saves the mayor’s teddy bear from a house fire, and the mayor is cool with him now. At the end of the book, Petey takes Li’l Petey to his mom’s grave, which is a shockingly emotional moment that I did not expect to ever be in this series??? It made me so sad????

Dog Man: Mothering Heights

I have a tote bag from a Scholastic mailing several years ago with an embroidered image of the characters on this cover. It’s an incredibly roomy and durable bag. Genuinely one of my favorite bags. I kind of regret not keeping the books from that mailing; I gave them to my little cousins, who, it turned out, already owned all those books.

Anyway, Dog Man gets injured and has to wear the cone of shame. Li’l Petey and 80-HD make him a new cone, the Cone of Destiny, that turns into a superhero suit. Grampa tries to escape from jail again. The chief has a crush on the nurse. Sarah interviews Petey about how he’s not evil anymore, but they keep getting interrupted by Li’l Petey and Molly singing songs and playing games. Petey eventually explains he became a criminal because after he went to jail once and tried to be good afterwards, no one would hire him, and he had to resort back to a life of crime. Didn’t realize these books would address grief and prison recidivism one after another?? Grampa makes two sippy cups come to life. The sippy cups threaten the hospital, which is the chief’s chance to make an impression on the nurse (he scores a date with her!). Molly saves the day, but Petey’s house is wrecked, so he goes to live with Dog Man.

Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea

The chief and nurse go on a date. Petey tries to rebuild his house, but businesses keep turning him away because he was a criminal. The FLEAS escape tiny jail. Piggy is mad at the other two for not being evil enough. Many convoluted things happen resulting in the whole gang shrinking to microscopic size and falling into Piggy’s pores (again, Piggy is the size of a fly). They figure out how to be regular sized again. Everyone helps Petey rebuild his house through the power of community. Guys, I think the Dog Man books are going to turn the kids woke. They might be our only hope.

Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder

The chief and nurse get married! That moved fast! While he’s on his honeymoon, the interim chief is a police officer who hates Dog Man. Dog Man gets sprayed by a skunk, so they bathe him in tomato juice, but it dyes him red and doesn’t take out the stink. They wash out the stink with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, but he’s still red. Meanwhile, Dr. Scum has made a bunch of AI robots of himself; I guess we’re taking on genAI discourse now too! Scum makes a robot Dog Man, and the gang switches it out for Dog Man himself, but Petey has signed his life away to Dr. Scum in exchange. Scum starts selling AI Buddies to everyone, and they start to run society while people spend all day scrolling on their phones. Dog Man and friends take on new superhero identities with new weapons to battle the AI Buddies. Petey has a dream about his childhood; he moved into a shelter with his mom and met Big Jim (at the time, Little Jim), who was orphaned. He breaks out of Scum’s lab and saves everyone.

Dog Man: Big Jim Begins

Because this book has a lot of flashbacks, the intro has the cast list, as the last few books did, but it’s all these characters when they were little; Dog Man was still Greg the puppy, Chief was little Clarence Bailey, president of the junior detective club. It’s very adorable.

Big Jim tells his origin story. He had a loving mother and father! Grampa reveals he was super into disco as a youngster. Some aliens came and told Jim’s parents he was the chosen one, and he went searching for a ring that would grant him powers or something. He found Clarence and Greg! Then the aliens are shown in the present day, and the chosen one (a little girl, not Jim) hasn’t found the ring yet, so they decide to take over the world. Jim then reveals his parents died in an accident when he was a little kid, which is SO SAD???? Back in the present, there was a big party, and everyone ate cake that made them fall asleep except Dog Man because he can’t have chocolate, and Jim and Grampa show up and have to help because the cake came from the aliens. They save everyone because the aliens are robots who are allergic to hugs. Grampa might not be a bad guy anymore? Then they tease a sequel because there’s a lot of loose ends.

And that’s where we leave off!

I did not expect Dog Man to be what it was! I definitely had the impression that every book was just about Dog Man fighting a bad guy, and while it is true that he does that in most of these books, I got so much more than that. Dav Pilkey might actually be a genius for making a book series that can so easily draw in reluctant readers with its flashy colors and absurd storylines, that also educates kids on real issues that affect us in the real world and encourages them to create their own stories.

All that said, I’d really like to read something now that’s written for people my own age and doesn’t spell “super” as “supa.” There’s only so much of that you can take.