Dog Man revolves around the adventures of the titular character, a half-man, half-dog hybrid who works as a police officer.
I found myself in a reading slump and remembered somebody recommended reading the Dog Man graphic novel by Dav Pilkey. Happily I found the first Dog Man comic on the Libby app and devoured it in 2 days. I just had to review it!
If you haven’t read the Dog Man books yet, I really don’t want to spoil them for you but it was so fun to learn the backstory of how Dog Man even came to be. The head of a dog and the body of a man? 😅
I reckon Dav Pilkey was definitely inspired by films like Robocop, Terminator and Batman. The comical ways of Petey, Dog Man’s nemesis remind me much of The Joker’s cheesy antics.
It was interesting to learn that creator Dav Pilkey has ADHD and maybe that’s another reason why I found Dog Man so funny being neurodivergent myself. All in all it reminded me of sitting in my treehouse in the 90s with The Beano comic and a packet of fruit pastilles.
Silly humour galore, great characters and inspired stories plus there’s even some drawing tutorials!
There were some illustrations and repeat jokes that amused me like Dog Man curling up on the Chief’s new sofa or the flip o rama features which worked surprisingly well on an iPad.
Also the trash bag baby – if you know you know! 🤣
It’s been a while since I’ve read anything that’s made me giggle and snort since my Beano and Dandy reading days. If you’ve had some intense reading lately and need a break or you want to try and get back into reading again after a break I highly recommend Dog Man!
Dog Man displayed very nicely on the iPad, but I also imagine it being great to actually hold to read a physical copy and certainly a good gift for 7-12 year olds, not forgetting the bigger kids with a daft sense of humour like myself.
My total reading time was about 33 minutes, which was perfect siesta time reading.
*I use the terms graphic novel and comic interchangeably just coz.
I just learned there’s a Dog Man movie made by Dreamworks that released in January 2025. I think I need to watch it and of course read more comics.
What about you? Have you read any Dog Man comics? 👇
