Everything to Know About Dav Pilkey's Dog Man Book Series
Pilkey's book series is the inspiration for DreamWorks' upcoming animated feature film, Dog Man.
Author Dav Pilkey is most well known for the endlessly popular illustrated children’s book series Captain Underpants and its animalian spinoff Dog Man. Following the success of the feature film adaptation Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Pilkey’s elementary adventures are getting the big screen treatment again in the upcoming animated superhero comedy Dog Man, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures.
The movie features vocal performances from Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live), Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Isla Fisher (Wolf Like Me), Poppy Liu (Hacks), Stephen Root (Barry), Billy Boyd (Seed of Chucky), and Ricky Gervais (The Office). Director Peter Hastings returns to the franchise following his work on The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, an animated series which ran for four seasons from July 2018 to December 2020. Hastings also provides barks, howls, yips, and other non-speaking vocals for the titular character.
RELATED: Dog Man: Captain Underpants Spinoff Starring Pete Davidson Fetches First Tail-Wagging Trailer
Dog Man tells the fantastical story of Officer Knight (a human) and his K9 partner Greg (a dog). When both are injured in the line of duty, an experimental surgery combines them into the adolescent equivalent of RoboCop, a half-man, half-dog crimefighter called Dog Man.
Who is Dav Pilkey, author of Dog Man, Captain Underpants, and more?
Born David Murray Pilkey Jr., Pilkey got his pen name while working at Pizza Hut. The “e” was accidentally left off his "Dave" nametag and the moniker stuck. Pilkey’s father was a reverend, and his mother played the church organ, but his religious upbringing didn’t prevent Pilkey from getting into trouble.
His stories are at least a little bit autobiographical. Pilkey was diagnosed with ADD (now ADHD) as a child, a condition his young Captain Underpants protagonists share. Like the fictional George and Harold, a young Pilkey was considered so “disruptive” that teachers put his desk out in the hall. He was left there, largely unsupervised, with his imagination and a pencil. That’s where Captain Underpants was born.
RELATED: Dog Man: Everything to Know About New DreamWorks Animation Film Starring Pete Davidson
A prolific writer, in addition to Captain Underpants and Dog Man, Pilkey has penned five books in the Dragon series, 10 books in the Rickey Ricotta’s Mighty Robot series, four books in the Big Dog & Little Dog series, four books in the Dumb Bunnies series (under the pseudonym Sue Denim), and more than a dozen standalone books.
As a child, Pilkey won the 1986 National Written and Illustrated by… Awards Contest for students aged 14 to 19, for his novel World War Won. He’s also won the Caldecott Honor Award, Disney Adventures Kids’ Choice Award, Publishers Weekly’s Person of the Year Award, and more.
Everything to know about Dog Man before you see the movie
The story of Dog Man begins within the pages of Captain Underpants, which follows the misadventures of elementary students George Beard and Harold Hutchins. Together, George and Harold create a comic book called Captain Underpants, loosely based on their curmudgeonly principal, Mr. Krupp.
Their fictional superhero jumps off the page and into their world when the adolescent duo accidentally hypnotizes Mr. Krupp, transforming him into a barely clothed superhero. Captain Underpants ended after 12 books, but the adventures of George and Harold continue in Dog Man.
How many Dog Man books are there?
There are 13 Dog Man installments so far, with a 14th book scheduled for release in the fall of 2025.
Is Dog Man a spinoff of Captain Underpants?
Dog Man first appeared in the 9th Captain Underpants book, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers. In a flashback to kindergarten, George and Harold are sent to detention where they create their first comic book, The Adventures of Dog Man.
Years later, following the events of Captain Underpants, George and Harold return to their tree house and find their old Dog Man comics, triggering an entirely new story. It begins with the human-dog crimefighting duo Officer Knight and Greg the Dog, responding to a bomb threat at a nearby park. They cut the wrong wire (owing to Greg being colorblind) and are nearly killed, becoming Dog Man in the process. Over the course of 14 books and counting, Dog Man fights the evil Petey the Cat, violent robots, dinosaur skeletons, talking toilets, giant vacuums, and more!
Catch Dog Man in theaters everywhere January 31.
