Dog Man (Family Comic Friday)

Today's featured graphic novel is the result of a promise. If you are an older parent, grandparent or guardian, you might remember the 1994 Macaulay Culkin film, The Pagemaster. In that movie, Culkin's character promises a trio of books that he'll check them out from his local library. Well, last weekend, I was at a flash sale at a used book store when I saw a run of the first 5 books of the series I am reviewing today. Deciding to let another family own them for an affordable price, I promised that the next time I was at my local library, I would check out the first volume and review it in my Family Comic Friday column.

The book series I am reviewing is Dak Pilkey's Dog Man. A spin-off from Pilkey's Captain Underpants series, Dog Man is a comic book made by the absurd superhero's sidekicks George and Harold. 

At the end of the main Captain Underpants series, George and Harold rediscover an old series they first came up with in Kindergarten- Dog Man. Seeking a new creative direction, the boys decide to retool Dog Man as seen in this series of graphic novels. 

The origin of Dog Man is something only a couple of grade schoolers could come up with. A K-9 cop and a dog are injured in an accident. Only able to save the policeman's body and the dog's head, doctors stitch the two together to form Dog Man!

Dog Man's arch enemy is an orange tabby named Petey. Petey seeks total world domination by conducting a number of mad scientist level schemes such as erasing all the books in the world in order to make people dumb. Unfortunately, for Petey, his schemes work too well as when the populace lose their intelligence, they become really, really stupid!

Along with the comic stories made by George and Harold, little pieces of the Captain Underpants universe pop up in the books. Letters of disapproval from the boy's teacher, Miss Ribble and other paraphernalia from Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. Look closely, and you'll even find a blurb from Captain Underpants' alter-ego! 

I tore through this 240-page book in maybe 30 minutes. But it was extremely fun. It was also a little bit elementary. There's some toilet humor. Situations get kinda oddball if not down right surreal. But it's the type of graphic novel readers aged 7-12 will love. Especially boys!

With 10 books in the series, this is a series that kids will devour as part of a Summer reading challenge. And since this is a graphic novel about kids who make a comic book series, this series might inspire the next generation of comic book writers and artists.

And parents, if the stories your kids make involve boogers or explosions or mean people, don't freak out! Realize that they're trying to make sense of their world while using their imagination. If you're not a fan, that's okay. This type of project isn't about you. Just smile, praise and be ready to provide some more paper, pens and pencils for their next volume of work.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.