Your Guide To The Dog Man Graphic Novels And Spin-Offs

Dav Pilkey hit the jackpot when he created the illustrated novel series Captain Underpants. The series was incredibly successful, selling 80 million copies, and spawning an animated film and Netflix series. You’d think it would be tough for Pilkey to top that success, but he has with Dog Man.

Dog Man is a big deal. Since 2016, the series has sold more than 30 million copies. In 2020 alone, it accounted for 13% of all graphic novels sold in US bookstores. That’s a lot of people reading Dog Man!

For those unfamiliar with Dog Man, it’s a graphic novel series starring a hero who is half-man and half-dog, along with a colourful cast of characters. In each story, the titular character saves the day from evil-doers while getting up to mischief of his own. As a result, the Dog Man graphic novels are full of action and humour that kids will love.

Don’t worry if you, or a kid in your life, hasn’t discovered Dog Man yet. This guide will give you all the information you need to know. Read on to find out which graphic novels are part of the series, spin-offs, Dog Man’s connection to Captain Underpants, and more.

Table of contents

• What age group are these graphic novels suitable for?
• Other benefits of Dog Man
• Is there a connection to Captain Underpants?
• Dog Man Graphic Novels
• Do you need to read everything in order?
• Dog Man Boxed Sets
• Cat Kid Comic Club Spin-Off Series
• Where to find Dog Man comics?

What age group are these graphic novels suitable for?

Dog Man publisher Scholastic recommends the graphic novels for ages 7+.

Looking at Common Sense Media, they also recommend the series for age 7+ and notes:

It’s presented as a comic by George and Harold, fourth-grade characters from the Captain Underpants books. The first chapter details how Dog Man was surgically created after a dim-witted police officer and his dog were injured trying to defuse a bomb. There are some misspellings and poor grammar and a lot of juvenile humor involving bodily functions, explosions, and a drawing of a bare bottom. Pilkey shares how illustrated books and humor helped him work through early reading struggles due to dyslexia and led him to become a writer, and he lends cheerful support to kids who might feel out of step with teachers’ expectations.

Other benefits of Dog Man

Dog Man is not only full of fun adventures, but Pilkey uses the graphic novel series to encourage kids in many ways. The cartoonist has a knack for creating stories kids love and want to read, inspiring them to read more. This goes even further by encouraging kids to build their reading confidence through a strip in the back of Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties called “Read To Your Dog, Man”. The strip goes into the details of a 2010 study about how kids can benefit if they read aloud to their dogs, motivates kids to do it, and is backed by the #ReadToYourDogMan hashtag.

The graphic novel series also tries to foster kids’ creativity. Every graphic novel has step-by-step guides on how to draw characters from the book. These are easy to follow and give kids the skills and confidence to create their own characters.

Is there a connection to Captain Underpants?

With Dog Man having a similar style of humour and being created by Dav Pilkey, you might wonder if there is a connection to Captain Underpants. There is a connection, but not in the way you’re expecting. Dog Man and Captain Underpants don’t occupy the same world. Instead, Dog Man is a comic book created by Captain Underpants characters George Beard and Harold Hutchins.

When you read Dog Man, you’re actually reading a comic book made by George and Harold. This is why the graphic novels series has a looser style than Captain Underpants, with hand lettering and the occasional typos. 

Don’t worry if you or your kids are unfamiliar with the Captain Underpants series. Readers get a general sense of George and Harold as they read the graphic novels.

For those who are a fan of Captain Underpants and Dog Man, you’ll want to check out The Adventures of Captain Underpants: 25th and a Half Anniversary Edition. It features the original Captain Underpants and 32 pages of Dog Man comics all in one book.

These Dog Man comic stories will be Captain Underpants Meets Dog Man and Dog Man and the League of Misfits.

Dog Man Graphic Novels

Take a look below at all of the Dog Man graphic novels in the order they were published.

Dog Man
Published in 2016.

Dog Man: Unleashed
Published in 2016.

Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties
Published in 2017.

Dog Man and Cat Kid
Published in 2017.

Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas
Published in 2018.

Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild
Published in 2018.

Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
Published in 2019.

Dog Man: Fetch-22
Published in 2019.

Dog Man: Grime and Punishment
Published in 2020.

Dog Man: Mothering Heights
Published in 2021.

Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under The Sea
To be published on 28th March, 2023.

Buy Dog Man graphic novels on…

Do you need to read everything in order?

The one advantage of reading the Dog Man graphic novels in order is that you see characters grow from book to book. For instance, villains may reform and heroes learn valuable lessons that carry on into future stories.

However, it’s also okay to read Dog Man out of order. The graphic novels have a little section at the front which recaps Dog Man’s origin or introduces readers to the cast. With those few pages, readers are good to go.

The stories are also self-contained. When you read a Dog Man graphic novel, you get a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end that doesn’t require you to have read previous tales to understand.

Dog Man Boxed Sets

If you want more Dog Man for your buck, there are a range of boxed sets available. These come in a variety of different sizes for how much Dog Man you want in your life.

Dog Man: The Epic Collection
Collects: Books 1-3

Dog Man: The Cat Kid Collection
Collects: Books 4-6

Dog Man: The Supa Epic Collection
Collects: Books 1-6

Dog Man: The Supa Buddies Mega Collection
Collects: Books 1-10

Cat Kid Comic Club Spin-Off Series

The Dog Man series also has a widely popular spin-off starring Cat Kid. As you can see from the cover above, Cat Kid Comic Club is an outlet for Pilkey to try new things by mixing media. As a result, the comics are done in the Dog Man style but also incorporate clay figures, origami, and more.

Cat Kid Comic Club
Published in 2020.

Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives
Published in 2021.

Cat Kid Comic Club: On Purpose
Published in 2022.

Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations
Published in 2022.

Where to find Dog Man graphic novels?

Dog Man can be found at bookstores, good comic book shops, online retailers, eBay, and Amazon/Kindle.

You can also find the Dog Man at your local library. Use WorldCat to find which libraries near you have the graphic novels in their collection.

Discover more about where you can find and buy comics/graphic novels in this extensive guide.

Have your say!

Have you found this guide helpful? What other graphic novel guides would you like to see? Share your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Twitter.