Publishers Weekly Review
| Dog Man, "a brand-new crime-fighting sensation" created by surgically attaching the head of a police dog to the body of a policeman, gets his own full-color adventure in this terrifically funny spin-off comic from Pilkey (the character's origins were previously revealed in Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers). Dog Man doesn't play by the rules, whether it's the rules about being housebroken or the ones about not giving the police chief slobbery dog kisses. But desperate times require maverick behavior: Petey the cat, one of the loopiest villains in children literature, has four chapters' worth of evil plots aimed at taking Dog Man down-from destroying all books to make the world "supa dumb" (a tactic that will be familiar to those who read Pilkey's contribution to Comics Squad: Recess!) to unleashing a "weenie-lution" of oversensitive living hot dogs ("We're not cute, either! We're gangsta!" insists their very touchy leader). Jose Garibaldi's coloring makes every page of this superlative police procedural spoof look as sharp as it is silly, and readers (of any age) will be giggling from start to finish. Ages 7-up. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. |
School Library Journal Review
| Gr 1-4-Part canine, part human, Dog Man is a crime-fighting sensation. He fights crime, sniffs out wrongdoing, and battles his doglike tendencies. His nemesis is Petey, a cat who cooks up devilish plans in his secret lab. The pages are filled with bold lines and colorful artwork that has a childlike feel and will delight readers. In an author's note, Pilkey explains that Dog Man is based on a character he created back in second grade, when he longed for silly books, and states that he hopes his title will help children associate reading with fun and even inspire some to craft their own stories. The text contains intentional grammatical errors, so readers should be prepared for misspellings. Panels that feature instructions on how to draw will motivate budding artists. VERDICT A riotously funny and original addition for all elementary school collections.-Lisa Gieskes, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
Booklist Review
| *Starred Review* A policeman and his police dog fail to defuse a bomb, and the ensuing explosion kills the officer's head and the dog's body. The solution? Graft the dog's head onto the man's body to create the world's greatest cop. Dog Man upends a plot to replace the police chief with an evil robot, saves the city when a gangster cat erases words from all the books, turning everyone hopelessly stupid, and stands up to a revolutionary army of hot dogs. If this all sounds like it springs from the mind of an unhinged first grader, that is, in fact, the central conceit. From the doodle-scratch art and jumbled panel borders to crossed-out words with simulated grammar and spelling lapses to the generous helpings of potty humor, the book feels like a frantic message of delirious imagination from one child to another. In truth, it's the work of Pilkey who, in the relentless style of his own Captain Underpants series, has again fired an arrow of joy straight at the fevered childhood psyche of millions of readers. And as with the good captain, this will prove a groaning burden for many adults and an utter, unfettered delight for kids.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2016 Booklist |
Horn Book Review
| Color by Jose Garibaldi. George and Harold (of Captain Underpants fame) return to create a new comic book, with childlike illustrations, handwriting, and humor, as well as "flip-o-ramas" and angry teacher intrusions. After a bombing gone awry, an operation--a canine head sewn onto a cop's body--renders the ultimate crime-fighter. This unlikely premise provides excellent fodder, and the book operates smoothly within its own logic. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
