Dog Man

Starred review from May 16, 2016
Dog Man, “a brand-new crime-fighting sensation” created by surgically attaching the head of a police dog to the body of a policeman, gets his own full-color adventure in this terrifically funny spin-off comic from Pilkey (the character’s origins were previously revealed in Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers). Dog Man doesn’t play by the rules, whether it’s the rules about being housebroken or the ones about not giving the police chief slobbery dog kisses. But desperate times require maverick behavior: Petey the cat, one of the loopiest villains in children literature, has four chapters’ worth of evil plots aimed at taking Dog Man down—from destroying all books to make the world “supa dumb” (a tactic that will be familiar to those who read Pilkey’s contribution to Comics Squad: Recess!) to unleashing a “weenie-lution” of oversensitive living hot dogs (“We’re not cute, either! We’re gangsta!” insists their very touchy leader). Jose Garibaldi’s coloring makes every page of this superlative police procedural spoof look as sharp as it is silly, and readers (of any age) will be giggling from start to finish. Ages 7–up.

June 15, 2016
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.Finding a stack of old Dog Man comics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale ("A Hero Is Unleashed"), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a "Robo Chief" and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book ("Book 'Em, Dog Man"), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled "Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken." In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue ("How do you feel, old friend?" "Ruff!") and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel. What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)

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Starred review from July 1, 2016

Gr 1-4-Part canine, part human, Dog Man is a crime-fighting sensation. He fights crime, sniffs out wrongdoing, and battles his doglike tendencies. His nemesis is Petey, a cat who cooks up devilish plans in his secret lab. The pages are filled with bold lines and colorful artwork that has a childlike feel and will delight readers. In an author's note, Pilkey explains that Dog Man is based on a character he created back in second grade, when he longed for silly books, and states that he hopes his title will help children associate reading with fun and even inspire some to craft their own stories. The text contains intentional grammatical errors, so readers should be prepared for misspellings. Panels that feature instructions on how to draw will motivate budding artists. VERDICT A riotously funny and original addition for all elementary school collections.-Lisa Gieskes, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SC

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

signin - one day dog man saw a bomb and it blew up so he went to the doctor and the sew dogs head to cops body witch was called dog man so a cat named petty was trying to destroy dog man with a cleaner and petty said this could suck up almost anything but when dog man herd that word almost he thought about doing this going to the sea so it can suck up the water and be full so then it exploded so then 1 week later they took off the manager of the office and put a robot and one day petty put on invisible spay so then he did bad stuff like stole and the made dog man to go find out so he sniff him and bit him then petty was back to normal and they but him to jail then the next week when he was in jail they gave him food and a box the box was about a spray the makes food to live so if you broke the spray it would be back to normal so he sprayed it on the hot dog and got out of jail so then he sprayed lots of them and a huge taco man and soon he got all the dogs even dog man so the cage had sharps on it and it was getting lower but then petty drop the key and dog man and the other dogs got out so then the taco got dog man but dog man sprayed him and the eye and broke the controller so then all was back to normal so then they celebrated to dog man and said hooray dog man the end.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Grades 1-3 *Starred Review* A policeman and his police dog fail to defuse a bomb, and the ensuing explosion kills the officer's head and the dog's body. The solution? Graft the dog's head onto the man's body to create the world's greatest cop. Dog Man upends a plot to replace the police chief with an evil robot, saves the city when a gangster cat erases words from all the books, turning everyone hopelessly stupid, and stands up to a revolutionary army of hot dogs. If this all sounds like it springs from the mind of an unhinged first grader, that is, in fact, the central conceit. From the doodle-scratch art and jumbled panel borders to crossed-out words with simulated grammar and spelling lapses to the generous helpings of potty humor, the book feels like a frantic message of delirious imagination from one child to another. In truth, it's the work of Pilkey who, in the relentless style of his own Captain Underpants series, has again fired an arrow of joy straight at the fevered childhood psyche of millions of readers. And as with the good captain, this will prove a groaning burden for many adults and an utter, unfettered delight for kids.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)