George and Harold have created a new breed of justice. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound digs into deception, claws after crooks, rolls over robbers, and scampers after squirrels. Will he be able to resist the call of the wild to answer the call of duty? Find out in Dog Man!
The behind the scenes foreword is a recap of the entire Captain Underpants series, from when George and Harold first met when they were small and to their creation of Captain Underpants and the misadventures that follow, leading up to the point where everything is back to normal. George and Harold wake up to find that their doubles from the slight future, Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold along with Tony, Orlando, and Dawn, are gone. They search in their tree house, but find some of their old Dog Man comics and have a good laugh. Harold feels that he and George should make another Captain Underpants comic book, but George decides that he and Harold should do a comic book featuring Dog Man, hence this book.
Chapter 1: The Origin of Dog Man
At the police station, Chief's new couch arrives and gets placed in his office. He wants to sit in it first, but he sees Officer Knight and Greg the Dog slouching on it before him. Angrily, he sends them outside, while Petey watches the two officers wander around sadly. He and his butler go downstairs, listing their strengths and weaknesses. Petey decides to place a bomb in the park and shouts for Knight and Greg to come and defuse it. Luckily, they hurry and open up the bomb. Unluckily, Knight cut the wrong wire, due to Greg being color blind and the duo ends up making the bomb explode.
The doctor sadly tells the duo that Knight's head and Greg's body are both dying. Then, Nurse Lady figures out an idea that saves them both and that is the sew Greg's head onto Knight's body. Miraculously, her idea actually works, thus Dog Man is born. Petey is mad when he finds out that he unwittingly created Dog Man. Everyone agrees that he is the world's greatest cop and the next day is interviewed by Chief to see if he can join the cops.
Petey is watching him and goes downstairs to test out his giant vacuum cleaner, as dogs are afraid of them. He chases Dog Man around the city, until Petey says "...and the bag expands, so it can suck up almost anything!" When Dog Man hears "almost", he decides to race through the ocean and lets the vacuum cleaner suck up all the water, until the bag explodes. Petey nearly drowns in the tidal wave, but Dog Man saves him, but only to arrest him. The other officers celebrate his victory and throw Dog Man up into the air multiple times.
Chapter 2: Robo-Chief
One day, when Chief is on the way to the police station, he has bird feces on his hat, being splashed by water and getting tripped over by Dog Man, simply because he isn't watching where he was going. When Dog Man sees Chief, he jumps and prances on him, which makes Chief's day even worse. But his anger gets even more filled when he sees his slippers mangled, urine on the floor and tissue debris. He summons the officers, questioning who had done all the things in his office. Of course, everyone looks at Dog Man and gets in trouble. Before Chief could punish Dog Man, the Mayor enters his office and gives him bad news. Chief has become lazy and not taking care of crime, such as letting Petey escape and is also considered the most hated person, according to a poll. He either has to straighten up, or be replaced with a robot. Dog Man cheers up Chief, until he hears the mayor's conversation about an evil plan to take over the city.
Dog Man followed Mayor to a factory called Robo-Time Industries. The Mayor asks a green scientist named Dr. Scum about the robot that Chief is being replaced with. She sends a package to Petey, which contains invisible spray. He applies the spray on his body, rendering him completely invisible. He calls for the guard, who believes that Petey has escaped. He opens the cell, allowing him to actually escape. He walks out of Cat Jail and then begins his schemes. The police soon find out and, as a result, Chief is fired. Robo-Chief enters his office and now Mayor can run the town her way. Dog Man tries to warn Chief that the Mayor is planning to destroy the town, but Chief reminds him that he is fired and that Dog Man should go on without him.
Soon, Dr. Scum and his crew build a bunch of stores related to robbery, grand theft auto, and black market products. The robot orders the officers to stay away from the mayor's new stores or else they are fired. But, Petey is not happy with the changes and wants the customers to think that the stores are haunted. So, he enters the stores and pulls down the customers' pants. Soon, everyone flees from them and no-one enters them anymore, thanks to Petey. The Mayor then finds out that Petey is scaring the customers away and instructs the robot to destroy him. The job becomes hard, as Petey is invisible, but he draws his attention by shouting out. He enters the stores and calls for the robot. The robot shoots a missile, giving Petey the moment to run away from it, causing the store to be destroyed instead. He repeats this method until every store that Dr. Scum had made was gone. Petey then runs towards the corkscrew slide. The robot, frustrated, shoots a missile one final time. The missile follow the curvature in the slide and pops out the opposite end, shooting the robot in the head and obliterating it.
Dr. Scum informs the Mayor about the incident. Mayor becomes furious and drives to the police station, asking Dog Man to stop Petey. He runs around, sniffing him out. Dog Man attempts to bite him, but Petey just sprints away. Petey then teases Dog Man about the fact that he will never find him because he's never washing off the spray. Dog Man then gets a good idea. He jumps in a nearby baby pool and shakes his body to fling the water everywhere. The droplets lands on Petey and wash off the spray, allowing Dog Man to see and arrest him.
Dog Man gets rewarded for arresting Petey again. The other officers ask Dog Man to give a speech, but due Dog Man's lack of speaking English, he decides to show a video of the Mayor talking with Dr. Scum. The Mayor is then arrested and taken to Mayor Jail for the rest of her life.
A week later, a New Mayor arrives. The mayor decides to appoint a new chief. Dog Man snatches the cap out of his hands and gives it to Chief. Now Chief is receives his old job back, and everything turns out normal.
Chapter 3: Book 'Em, Dog Man!
Petey sits in his cell sad, contemplating how Dog Man always gets the best of him. So Petey escapes by sitting on a seesaw and having Big Jim jump onto it, flinging Petey out of the jail, and now he has to find out how Dog Man is smart enough to capture him. He sneaked to his house, to find Dog Man reading a book. Petey grabbed his smart-o-meter, seeing that Dog Man was getting smarter by the second. Seeing this, Petey now comes up with a plan to make people stupid by destroying all books.
A week later, Petey has finished his new invention: Word-B-Gone 2000™. He tests it on a book, and it erases all the words in it. So Petey tests it out on stop signs, bookstores, schools and libraries. Soon, Petey attaches his invention to an airplane and erases all the words in every book in the world. Soon, everyone doesn't read and, just like Petey predicts, they become stupid.
Two weeks later, according to the Smartometer, the world becomes 'Supa Dumb'. Petey wants to see how stupid they became, so he goes to the car lot. He demanded for a car, which Petey fools the manager into letting him have it for free immediately. At the bank, Petey gets "free" money and at the electronics store he gets a "free" flat-screen TV.
At the Police Station, a police officer runs to Chief with poop in his hand, saying someone pooped in his office. Chief tells Dog Man to solve the crime, but since Dog Man is now dumb, he can't, even though he tries his best.
Petey is having trouble too, as all the T.V. shows are run by stupid people. His car is ruined thanks to his mechanics literally filling up the car with petrol. He can't even live well in his lab because his butler is stupid. When Petey tells him to take out the trash, the butler takes it on a date. Petey hates being the only smart person on the planet.
Petey wants to get some donuts, but Dippy,the cashier keeps messing up his order. She keeps saying that they sold them by the dozen, even though Petey asked for twelve. Then, she says that they only sell them by sixteen. She understands but says to the baker "sixteen bagels". Petey tells her straight, but she just asks him if he wants mustard for his bagels. Petey is furious and shouts at the cashier, "I DON'T WANT BAGELS! I DON'T WANT MUSTARD! I JUST WANT DONUTS! DONUTS!! DONUTS!!!" All the cashier does after that is give Petey a lecture and some bagels. Angry, Petey goes back to his lab's library, which contains the only informative books left on Earth.
2 weeks later, Petey has become depressed, and his lan has become unhygienic. Meanwhile, Dog Man is still attempting to solve the case. Suddenly, Dog Man smells the mess in Petey's lab. He finds the books and reads all of them, gaining more knowledge. He then passes them out to the school. The kids read the books and become smart again. Petey finds his library empty, then finds a trail of books leading to the school. The bell ring to signal recess for the children. They come pouring out, stomping and running on Petey, causing him to drop his books. Petey tries to get the books back, only to get hurt by all the playing children. After the effort to try and collect books scattered near the playground furniture, Petey is arrested. Dog Man reverses the Word-B-Gone 2000 and zaps all the books in the world back to normal. Soon, everyone gets their knowledge back and cheer for Dog Man.
Soon after, the cops find out Dog Man pooed in Chief's office. After seeing Dog Man in the security footage, Chief screams and chases Dog Man.
Chapter 4: Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken
The chapter starts in Cat Jail, where the guard is passing out mail to the cats. Petey gets a package from "Mad Scientists-R-Us" with a can of living spray inside. (Warning: Contents under pressure. Keep away from flames and stuff.) When it's lunch time, Petey decides to use the spray on his hot dog, causing the hot dog to grow arms and legs and a face, bringing him to life. Petey makes it bring the keys to his jail cell, setting him free. The hot dog suggests to Petey if they can be friends, followed by him making fun of him for wanting to be friends. The hot dog finds the living spray can on the floor, and starts to laugh a sinister way.
Meanwhile, Chief returns to the police station, only to get jumped on and licked by Dog Man. Chief gets angry at him, and goes to his couch, finding a warm spot next to some drool and dog hairs. Chief blames Dog Man for it.
Suddenly, Dog Man's ears heard a noise, leading him outside.
Petey, holding a dog whistle and a megaphone, rounds up all the dogs in town including Dog Man himself. He brings them all to a cage with a spiky roof.
In the Cat Jail, the hot dog thinks of how he can revenge on Petey. He goes into the kitchen, only to find a lot of hot dogs, bringing them all to life with the Living Spray. They follow their leader outside to start a revolution.
Sarah Hatoff, the news reporter, is at the place where Petey rounded up the dogs. Petey pushes a button, causing the spiky roof to come down. Sarah says that Dog Man will save them, only to be informed that Dog Man is in the cage as well.
The hot dogs were still trying to start a revolution, except that the humans find them cute and aren't afraid of them. The Leader Hot Dog decides that he needs some more strength, only to find Philly, a giant cheesesteak restaurant mascot. The hot dog sprays living spray on it, giving him life.
Philly and the hot dogs burst into the news, only to be called cute ANOTHER time by Sarah. The hotdog, now mad asks about what he needs to do to get respect, asking, "Do I have to destroy EVERYTHING?" Dog Man pulls out a bone and throws it at Philly. He keeps throwing bones, with the hotdog warning him. When the last bone hits Philly, the hot dog sees that the bones are coming from the cage, ordering Philly to destroy the cage, setting all of the dogs free.
However, Philly lifts up Dog Man into the air. The Leader Hot Dog talks with him about his revenge on him, only to be killed by Dog Man. However, in the process, the living spray can explodes.
Causing Philly to explode as well as causing Petey and Dog Man fly into different direction The remaining hot dogs find themselves surrounded by dogs, and are later eaten up by them.
Petey lands back in the cat jail, right on time for supper. He ends up getting a hot dog, making him burst into tears. Dog Man crashes into the police station, right on to Chief's couch. Chief goes to Dog Man, finding him safe and sound.
Reprint
In December 2021, a reprint of the first Dog Man book was released with a cover when it moves the book, it changes Dog Man to The Bark Knight. However, The Bark Knight wasn't released until Dog Man and Cat Kid.
Trivia
Goofs/Errors
On Page 16, when Knight asked Greg which wire to cut and Greg growled, Greg's body was blue. This was likely because the colorist forgot that it was Greg, not Dog Man, it can also be noted this error was fixed in future reprints.
On Page 27, the stripes on Petey are missing like on page 38 where the stripes on his tail are also missing.
On page 76, the old mayor says "it's good to be the king!". This is inaccurate as the old mayor is female, so she would have said "queen" instead. However, this could be looked at as Dav Pilkey's partially failed attempt of humour.
On page 194, when Dog Man got the idea of throwing those bones, his hat is missing. This could be intentional, as Dog Man's ears are sticking straight up.
Chief’s hat and badge got removed. Even know he did not get his badge token.
Greg the Dog's body is blue.
Petey's missing stripes on his arm.
The stripes on Petey's tail are missing.
Dog Man's hat is missing.
General Trivia
This is the only book to:
Not have a content page.
Not have a chapter called "A Buncha Stuff That Happened Next".
Have an "Express Yourself" bonus in the How 2 Draw.
Feature an old comic made by George Beard and Harold Hutchins as a chapter, Book 'Em, Dog Man! This comic is also featured in Comics Squad: Recess!, which was released before Dog Man.
Have Jerome Horwitz Elementary School letters inside the book.
Have less than 12 to 16 chapters.
It came out around the same time as when Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants was in full color.
Various dogs from Dav's other books appear in Chapter 4: Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken, such as Big Dog and Little Dog.
In the 'How 2 Draw' section, Invisible Petey is included. However, it is not counted as a drawing because if Petey is invisible, it is just a white blank.
Petey was also previously in Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers as an antagonist.
The Refocus Form on page 221 was different in older versions. On the part where it asks how Harold's behaviour caused other students and teachers to feel, it originally answered with "spaz out", but this was censored to "freak out" in newer versions due to "spaz" (or "spastic") meaning a slur for people with cerebral palsy in the United Kingdom.
In the Scholastic Asia reprint, the prototype cover of Dog Man Unleashed in its included sneak peek is replaced with the main cover.
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