DOG MAN (TEAM BLIND · REVIEW A)
A dog-headed cop, a bad cat, and a lot of potty jokes.
The Worldview
DOG MAN is a moral story without a religious one. Good beats evil four times over, and it beats it the honest way: the hero is brave, loyal and endlessly kind, and the villains — a scheming cat, a crooked mayor and her scientist — end up in jail. The police are the good guys. The book also loves reading: when Petey erases every word in the world, everyone turns "supa dumb," and the cure is handing out books at a school. That is a value worth cheering.
What is missing is God. Nobody prays, nobody thanks anyone, and the book's wisdom is book-learning rather than reverence. When your child laughs at the chapter about a world without books, you have an open door to talk about where wisdom actually comes from.
Two things mar the moral picture. The humor is bathroom-first — poop, pee and underwear are the punchlines — and the book reproduces a teacher's note home that suggests medication for George's "creative streak," which trains a child to smirk at a teacher who is only asking him to do his work. Neither is outright rebellion; both are worth naming.
Under it all is something lovely: a creature nobody planned for and nobody wanted, who wins a whole police station by refusing to stop being kind. Scripture names the love behind that: "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses" (Proverbs 10:12).
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESGeorge and Harold, the fourth-grade comic artists behind Captain Underpants, dig out the comics they drew back in first grade and hand you one of them.
In it, a police officer named Knight and his dog Greg rush to defuse a bomb planted by Petey, the world's most evilest cat. The bomb goes off, and the doctors can save only half of each man and dog: Knight's body and Greg's head. Sewn together, they become Dog Man — a cop with a dog's nose, a dog's manners, and no idea how to stay off the chief's couch.
Can a dog-headed policeman outwit a cat with a laboratory?
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own reader.
- Chapter 1, "A Hero Is Unleashed" A bomb explodes under Officer Knight and Greg the dog; the doctor says the man's head and the dog's body are dying, and a nurse sews the dog's head onto the man's body.
- Chapter 1, "A Hero Is Unleashed" Petey's giant vacuum sucks up the ocean and bursts in a tidal wave that nearly drowns Petey before Dog Man saves and arrests him.
- Chapter 2, "Robo-Chief" A bird poops on the chief's hat; the chief finds urine on his office floor and is fired; the mayor installs a robot chief so she can run her rackets.
- Chapter 2, "Robo-Chief" Invisible Petey pulls down shoppers' pants so the panels show people in their underwear; missiles destroy the stores, and a final missile blows the robot apart.
- Chapter 3, "Book 'Em, Dog Man" An officer carries a handful of poop into the chief's office; Dog Man lie-detects a jar of pee; a sketch artist draws a bare bottom; one panel jokes about going "boom boom" in her panties.
- Chapter 4, "Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken" Petey lowers a spiked roof onto a cage holding the town's dogs, Dog Man included; a giant mascot explodes; the living hot dogs are eaten by the dogs.
- Back matter and reproduced school paperwork A teacher's note home about George's comics suggests medication for his "creative streak," and a school "Refocus Form" is printed for laughs.
A locator so a parent can pre-read the scenes that matter instead of the whole book.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Moral worldview extols loyalty, kindness, patience, forgiveness, courage and the value of reading, with police as heroes and every villain jailed, marred by constant potty humor and a teacher's note played for laughs. There is no God, prayer, church or Scripture anywhere in the story; the cure for a foolish world is books, not faith.
Foul Language
No foul language, and no misuse of God's or Jesus' name. The rudeness is name-calling, mostly from the villain: "stupid," "dumb," "duh," "jerk," "who cares," "who asked you," and a threat about a "raging inferno of death."
Violence
Light cartoon violence and slapstick, with no blood. A bomb explodes under Officer Knight and his dog, and the doctor says the man's head and the dog's body are dying before a nurse sews the dog's head onto the man's body; a giant vacuum sucks up the ocean and bursts in a tidal wave; a robot fires missiles that wreck stores before a missile hits it in the head and blows it apart; a spiked roof lowers onto a cage of penned dogs, Dog Man included; a giant cheesesteak mascot explodes; the living hot dogs are eaten by dogs; Petey is stomped by a stampede of children. Nothing is gory, but the hospital scene and the caged dogs may startle a 5- or 6-year-old.
Sex
No sex. The "romance" promised on the back cover is a running gag about a dog sniffing another dog's rear end. Dog Man gives the chief slobbery dog kisses and the chief eventually hugs him back; that is affection, not romance.
Nudity
Light. In the "Robo-Chief" chapter, invisible Petey pulls down shoppers' pants to make the mayor's new stores look haunted, and the panels show the customers in their underwear, one of them a girl. Later a police sketch artist draws a bare bottom for Dog Man's case file.
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use.
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drug use shown. One parent-review site notes a single passing mention of a cigar; it could not be confirmed in the book, and no character is shown smoking.
Miscellaneous Immorality
Constant crude behavior: a bird poops on the chief's hat, Dog Man makes messes on the chief's office floor and is later revealed to have pooped there, an officer carries a handful of poop to the chief, Dog Man lie-detects a jar of pee, one panel jokes about going "boom boom" in her panties, and Petey pulls down shoppers' pants. Petey lies, steals a car, money and a television, and the mayor is a crook who is arrested. Dog Man's messes are treated as dog nature rather than wrongdoing, and the chief yells at him and blames him. Authority is mixed: the police are heroes and the crooked mayor is jailed, but a teacher's discipline note is reproduced for laughs, and the back pages include a school "Refocus Form."
Is the Writing Any Good?
Four stars. DOG MAN looks like a fourth-grader drew it on purpose — wobbly lettering, misspelled words, uneven panels — and that disguise is the trick that makes it work. A brand-new reader opens it and thinks, "I could draw this."
The craft underneath is real. Four stories instead of one long plot means four easy victories for a slow reader. The gags are timed like a cartoon: Flip-O-Rama pages you wiggle to animate, a vacuum that swallows the ocean, a book-erasing ray called the Word-B-Gone 2000, and an army of hot dogs under the banner "Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken." Dog Man himself is the best thing in it: a hero who cannot speak English, cannot stop licking people, and keeps showing up for a boss who blames him for everything.
The weakness is that the four stories are strung together rather than built, and the potty jokes carry too much of the load. Back pages teach kids to draw the cast, and a sneak peek sells the next book.
Talk About It
Four questions for the dinner table, the car, or a parent and teen reading it together.
The funniest jokes in this book are bathroom jokes, and Dog Man's messes are played for laughs. Why do those jokes make us laugh — and when should they stop being funny at our house?
Ephesians 4:29 · Colossians 4:6When Petey erases every word in the world, everyone turns "supa dumb," and the cure is handing out books at a school. Why does God care what we put into our minds, and what are you feeding yours?
Proverbs 2:1–6 · Philippians 4:8Dog Man keeps being kind to a chief who yells at him and blames him for everything. How does the chief change by the end, and who in your life is hard to be kind to?
Romans 12:21 · 1 Peter 3:9The book prints a teacher's note that treats George's comics as a problem and suggests medicine for his "creative streak." When is it right to obey a teacher, and how should you talk to one you disagree with?
Romans 13:1–2 · Hebrews 13:17The Final Word
DOG MAN is a funny, big-hearted comic with a hero worth liking, and the price of admission is potty humor — a great deal of it — plus a gag at a teacher's expense. Read the first chapter yourself and you will know whether it belongs in your house. If it does, hand it to your 7-to-10-year-old with a smile and a talk about bathroom jokes. Our answer: worth reading — ages 7 and up.
