Dav Pilkey Unleashes DOGMAN

When it comes to funnybook humor, Dav Pilkey has gone to the dogs. Literally.

Introducing DOGMAN, the comic within a comic that's become a comic all its own. Half dog, half man, all cop, Dogman is the brainchild of fourth-graders Harold and George, the creators of Captain Underpants (the character, not the book -- the book was created by Dav Pilkey; metafiction is confusing).

This graphic novel begins by explaining the origins of the DOGMAN comic -- how Harold and George discovered their old comics, created when they were in kindergarten, and began to make them over with their now world-wise fourth-grade educations and experiences with giant robots, world conquerors and superheroes. Naturally, some of that bleeds over into the adventures of Dogman, who never speaks (because he has the head of a dog) who regularly does battle with his arch-enemy, Petey the cat (who does speak, because...uhm...it's a comic book), and his antics that regularly put the city into peril. Like when he uses a special aerosol spray he orders that makes inanimate objects come to life. ("Philly, don't be a gyro" has to be the best "over the heads of the intended audience" line in the entire book, which just goes to show you should let yourself enjoy what your kids are reading.)

DOGMAN is made for kids, and presented as something kids might have written and drawn themselves. That's a good thing. That makes it not only super-accessible to younger readers, but it also gives them the confidence that they, too, might be able to create comics. (My third-grade son has followed the instructions on how to draw Dogman and Petey, thrown them out the window, and moved on to create his own legal-paper-and-staples book of Funny Cat Stories, but that's a review for a different time.) And it's got just the right amount of gross-out, poopy/farty humor to get right to the heart of what kids find funny.

Unleash the humor of DOGMAN on your kids.