Dog Man

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2016

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Value of Creativity

Dog Man, like many of Pilkey’s books, champions the value of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Creativity yields the Dog Man series—that of George and Harold in the fictional construct of Dog Man and that of Pilkey in reality. In interviews and in his writing, Pilkey adamantly encourages children to become involved in making art. The frame story of two children writing a comic book together shows the intended reading audience, elementary school students, that children like themselves can make books. The book’s intentionally simple and homemade art style suggests that the reader can easily create their own comic, too. The joy and pride George and Harold take in making their comics present the creative process as appealing and fun.

Pilkey is particularly supportive of comic books as an outlet for creativity and a legitimate form of art and literature. He presents the boys’ fictional teacher, Ms. Construde, as a straw man who presents anti-comics rhetoric:

The assignment was to create a WRITTEN public service message to promote reading. Your son and his friend, Harold Hutchins […] were specifically told NOT to make a comic book for this assignment. As usual, they did exactly what they were told not to do (see attached comic book). When I confronted George about his disobedience, he claimed that this was not a comic book, but a “graphic novella” (117).

Pilkey uses this letter and the events of “Book ‘Em Dog Man” to stress that reading a graphic novel counts as reading a book, and writing a comic counts as legitimate writing and artistry.

The book’s authority figures Ms. Construde and Principal Krupp—and Pilkey’s real-life teachers who discouraged him from making “silly books”—overtly reject creativity and comics as frivolous, dangerous, and anti-intellectual. Pilkey positions Dog Man as a refutation of that attitude. He presents these disapproving authority figures as unthreatening and comical, but they represent stringency and suppression of creativity in schools and other institutions. In this way, the theme of creativity’s value is tied to Dog Man’s celebration of mischief and antiauthoritarianism.

The stories in Dog Man represent creativity as highly valuable. Dog Man includes a running motif wherein Dog Man faces seemingly impossible odds, only to have a “good idea” that saves the day. These good ideas lead to elaborate and unusual solutions to his problems. Implicitly, Dog Man’s greatest ability isn’t his strength or his heightened canine senses; rather, it is his intelligence and creativity.

Nostalgic Joy

Dog Man is an inherently nostalgic publication. Both its content and the circumstances of its creation hearken to positive childhood memories and the revisitation of old creative projects. Dog Man is a character Pilkey created as a child, and George and Harold are based on Pilkey in his elementary school days. Dog Man’s framing device—in which George and Harold rediscover their old Dog Man comics—mirrors Pilkey’s revisitation of his childhood creations as an adult. The experience of revisiting and rebooting one’s older works is depicted as overwhelmingly positive, productive, and fun.

The joy of rediscovering one’s old projects lies at the core of Pilkey’s depiction of the iterative process in writing and art. He poses revisions and drafting as a joyful experience: “And together, the two friends wrote and drew and laughed all afternoon. George tried to spell more better…Harold tried to draw more simpler… …and thus, Dog Man was reborn anewish! [sic]” (11). George and Harold also proudly display their Dog Man comics from first grade. Revisiting one’s prior art and writing is sometimes thought of as embarrassing; likewise, conducting extensive revisions can be a frustrating process. However, Pilkey depicts returning to one’s prior work to improve it as a nostalgic and pleasant experience.

In Dog Man, Pilkey warmly recalls childhood experiences. Harold and George are Pilkey’s self-described “alter-egos”; they are based heavily on his behavior and personality as a child. Like them, Pilkey was good-hearted, creative, and intelligent in his childhood, but he also had behavioral problems. George and Harold are presented as positive figures in Dog Man; they’re confident, friendly, and entertaining characters.

Pilkey’s warmth toward his younger self translates to empathy for his young reader base. He remembers what entertained him when he was young and reproduces these elements in his comics. As he writes for and about himself as a child, his work is naturally tailored to young readers. The storytelling, structure, and humor of Dog Man are designed to be appealing and accessible to children.

Celebrating Mischief and Challenging Authority

In Dog Man, authority takes two forms: overly strict but ultimately well-meaning, like the chief, and maliciously oppressive, like the mayor and Ms. Construde. Pilkey portrays creativity and humor as inherently challenging to authority; this challenge is framed as healthy and laudable.

The most overt manifestations of this theme take the form of George and Harold’s proud disobedience of their teacher, who outright forbids creativity in the classroom. Ms. Construde classifies creativity as “disruptive behavior” that needs to be “cured” through psychiatric intervention. While this is played for laughs, Ms. Construde’s desire to control her nonconforming students with medications echoes authoritarianism in schools, institutions, and homes. Her antagonism is depicted as cartoonish and nonthreatening, but it has a more negative real-life analog.

The humor throughout Dog Man is intentionally crude and childish. This highlights George and Harold’s youth and appeals to Dog Man’s intended audience of elementary-aged children. However, when Dog Man’s gross-out humor is placed alongside Ms. Construde’s letter to George’s parents, these scatological jokes are reframed as defiance of authority.

In each of his adventures, Dog Man aggravates and challenges his direct authority figure, the chief. Unlike those of the pranksters George and Harold, however, Dog Man’s transgressions are always the product of typical dog behavior—getting on the couch, shedding, failures in housebreaking, being overly affectionate. Dog Man’s transgressions are framed as funny and harmless. Likewise, the chief’s anger is portrayed as comically overreactive, although it also makes Dog Man visibly ashamed and upset. He clearly wants to be well-behaved and make the chief happy.

Dog Man does not intentionally challenge authority; rather, he does it by his nature. His odd and aggravating behavior is a product of his canine instincts, the same traits that make him kind and creative. At the end of the fourth chapter, the chief appears to accept Dog Man’s disruptive behavior as the essence of what makes him special. The chief grows to genuinely care for Dog Man and responds to the challenges he presents by becoming more patient and empathetic.

As the author’s biography indicates, Dog Man’s celebration of challenging authority is based on Pilkey’s childhood experiences: “Dav was so disruptive in class that his teachers made him sit out in the hall every day. Luckily, Pilkey loved to draw and make up stories. He spent his time in the hallway creating his own original comic books” (235). Choosing to make comics despite being discouraged by his teachers led Pilkey to become a famous children’s author; his childhood rebellion led to his long-term success. He uses his personal experiences as an example for his readers and encourages them to follow their dreams with conviction.