Dog Man

About the Dog Man series

When a police dog and his handler are both critically injured in the same explosion, a well-meaning surgeon panics and sews the dog's head onto the cop's body -- creating Dog Man, a good-hearted, not-especially-bright canine police officer who chases squirrels mid-chase and eats evidence when nobody's looking. Dav Pilkey's graphic novel series (a spin-off from his own Captain Underpants, narrated in-universe as a comic drawn by fourth-graders George and Harold) follows Dog Man as he squares off against the scheming supervillain cat Petey, protects the city from an ever-escalating cast of oddball threats, and slowly develops an actual family when Petey's cloned kitten, Li'l Petey, ends up in his care.

The jokes are broad, silly, and relentlessly paced -- Pilkey packs sight gags, wordplay, and slapstick into every spread -- but underneath the flip-book action sequences and bathroom humor is a real emotional throughline about found family, forgiveness, and Petey's slow, resistant journey from villain to reluctant good guy. It's one of the most effective on-ramps in children's publishing for kids who find prose novels intimidating: heavily illustrated, low text density, high page-turn momentum, and genuinely funny for adults reading along too.

Dog Man is the best-selling graphic novel series in the US and has spun off its own hit animated film, cementing George and Harold's post-Captain-Underpants comic as a franchise in its own right.

How to read this series

Read in publication order starting with Dog Man (2016). The series is heavily serialized -- Petey's arc from villain to father figure, Li'l Petey's growth, and a large ensemble cast all build book to book -- so skipping around will spoil major turns and cause real confusion about who everyone is.

Dog Man itself is a spin-off of Pilkey's earlier Captain Underpants series (both are presented as comics created by the same two boy characters), but you don't need to have read Captain Underpants first; Dog Man stands on its own. The companion series Cat Kid Comic Club, starring Li'l Petey, is best saved until after you've met the character here.