34 pages • 1 hour read
Dav PilkeyDog Man
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1: “A Hero Is Unleashed” Summary
Chapter 1 opens with a splash panel of Dog Man surfing. The story begins with a new couch being delivered to the chief of police’s office. He’s excited to “be the first one to sit on it” (14) but finds that Officer Knight and Greg the Dog are already sleeping on it when he walks into the room. He berates them for being “the worst cops ever” (16), and they leave feeling dejected. Officer Knight tells Greg that he wishes they could impress the chief with an act of heroism.
Meanwhile, Petey spies on Knight and Greg from afar. He tells his butler that the two are no threat to him: “Officer Knight is a tough cop…but he ain’t got no brains! And Greg the Dog is smart…but his body is his weakness!” (17-18). The butler points out that Greg and Knight could work together, so Petey plants a bomb nearby. Greg and Knight find it, and it explodes; they are both rushed to the hospital.
In a scene that is played for laughs, the doctor tells Greg that his “body is dying” and informs Knight, “Your head is dying too, cop” (21). To save their lives, the medical team sews Greg’s head to Knight’s body, thus creating Dog Man. Dog Man reports to the chief, who regards him sternly. Dog Man licks his face affectionately, and the chief yells at him.
Petey reads about Dog Man’s birth in the newspaper and exclaims, “Rats!!! I unwittingly created the greatest cop ever!!!!!” (24). He builds a giant superpowered vacuum cleaner to defeat Dog Man because dogs are afraid of vacuums. Petey rides the vacuum into the street and chases Dog Man with it.
Dog Man leads Petey to the beach and dives into the water. The vacuum inhales Dog Man—and a surfboard—but also sucks up a huge amount of water. Its bag reaches maximum capacity. Petey tries to flee before the bag explodes, but his claws rip the bag. He almost drowns, but Dog Man floats by on the surfboard and rescues him.
The rest of the cops arrive on the beach to arrest Petey. They cheer for Dog Man. The chief praises Dog Man and offers him a handshake but becomes enraged when Dog Man licks his hand instead of shaking it.
Chapter 2: “Robo-Chief” Summary
Chapter 2 opens with a splash panel of Dog Man and the chief staring up at a giant robot. It has spikes, huge fists, and a cap labeled “Chief,” just like the human chief.
The story begins with the chief having an unpleasant commute to work. When he arrives at the station, Dog Man affectionately tackles him and licks his face. He yells, “GET OFF! BAD DOGGY! BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD DOG MAN! Why do you always have to do that? GRRRRR!” (54) while Dog Man hangs his head sadly.
The chief walks into his office and finds it trashed. He interrogates all the cops in the station: “Alright, which one of you chewed up my tissues and ate my slippers and peed on my floor?” (56). He identifies Dog Man as the culprit. He yells that Dog Man is in “big trouble,” but his tirade is cut short when the mayor enters. The mayor berates the chief for his poor job performance: “You are in big trouble, Chief! You better straighten up… …or I’ll replace you with a robot!” (60). She leaves in a huff, and Dog Man comforts the chief.
In the parking lot, Dog Man hears the mayor bragging about her “evil plan” and follows her car to a robot factory. At the factory, she greets a scientist named Dr. Scum, who is helping her take over the city. She announces, “My evil plan will begin in 33 seconds!” (65). The next panel is captioned “33 seconds later….” (65) and shows Petey in jail. He gets a package that contains “invisible spray” from the mayor, sprays himself, becomes invisible, and escapes into town. The mayor uses Petey’s prison break to justify firing the chief and replacing him with Robo-Chief, a giant robot that she controls.
The city becomes corrupt under the mayor’s control. She tells Dr. Scum to build “a bunch of rotten businesses” (79) that attract evil patrons. Invisible Petey is frustrated that the mayor “muscled in” on his territory. He sabotages her rotten businesses by posing as a ghost and scaring the customers away. The mayor realizes what he’s doing and sends Robo-Chief to “destroy” him. Invisible Petey tricks Robo-Chief into destroying all the rotten businesses. Then he tricks Robo-Chief into blowing himself up.
The mayor sics Dog Man on Petey. Dog Man realizes that he’ll never be able to catch Petey while he’s invisible, so he soaks his fur and shakes the water off in Petey’s direction. The water washes the invisible spray off, allowing Dog Man to catch him.
The mayor honors Dog Man’s heroism with a public ceremony. Instead of giving a speech, Dog Man plays an incriminating video of the mayor discussing her evil plans with Dr. Scum. She is arrested and replaced with a new mayor, who reinstates the original chief.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Like Captain Underpants, Dog Man is filled with nods and references to mainstream superhero comics like Batman and Superman, which are also called cape comics. Dog Man is filled with cape comic tropes, including giant monster and robot battles; fantastical sci-fi gadgets such as Petey’s spray-can plot devices, inventions, and secret lab; Dog Man’s unique origin story; and Dog Man’s constant efforts to save a city that is under siege from villains of the week, political corruption, infrastructure issues, and constant prison breaks. Dog Man also contains visual motifs and elements that are commonly found in cape comics, such as omniscient narration in text boxes, action poses, splash pages, and onomatopoetic sound effects—“kablooey!”; “wham!”; “zip!”; “swish”; and “pow!”. These elements reflect George and Harold’s love of superhero comics. Dog Man is a loving parody of their favorite media; it is also an earnest mimicry of these works. These are the types of comics that Pilkey created when he was George and Harold’s age; Dog Man is his homage to the comics he grew up on and his childhood attempts to recreate them. Moreover, because the Dog Man series is drawn directly from his childhood interests, it is naturally in step with what Pilkey’s target audience—children—finds interesting and engaging.
Harold and George refer to their comics’ plots as “ridiculously convoluted.” This is an intentional feature that also echoes superhero comics, which are known for their melodrama, drawn-out storylines, confusing plot convulsions, and frequent use of retroactive continuity, or retcons—providing new information later in the series that provides new context and may alter the character’s narrative or extended plotlines. Dog Man’s convolution is also a reference to the often surreal and extemporaneous nature of stories penned by children. Amateur comics and stories that children write are prone to losing the coherence of their plots; these creations are made purely for the fun of the process and involve limited outlining, planning, and revisions.
Pilkey relies on surreal humor and elaborate storylines to mimic the unrestrained and improvisational nature of children’s art. However, in order for Dog Man to be comprehensible, especially to an audience of young readers, its storylines actually require a great deal of clarity and intentionality. For example, in “A Hero Is Unleashed,” Pilkey includes what initially appears to be a throwaway gag wherein the giant vacuum sucks up a surfboard. Later in the story, the surfboard becomes a tool that Dog Man uses to save the day; this is highlighted in the splash page at the beginning of the chapter. These elements may initially seem to be incidental and disconnected, but their resurgence demonstrates that they are the product of careful planning.
Related Titles
By Dav Pilkey
