Dog Man

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).