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Dog Man: Scarlet Shedder is out now - here's how to read Dog Man (and all of Dav Pilkey's books) in order!

Celebrate the announcement of the 12th book in the series with this guide to the... 30 earlier titles in the canon...? (Math is hard)

Features by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Tue Mar 19 2024

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You really can’t keep a good superhero down — especially when they’re also a very good boy. Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series just released its twelfth installment — Dog Man: Scarlet Shedder - hot off the heels of Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers, a 2023 Dog Man spinoff. It’s Dog Man’s world, we’re just lucky enough to live in it.

But wait, you might be asking yourself: I’ve never even read one Dog Man book, never mind 11. And what is the Cat Kid Comic Club? How am I going to catch up with all of this stuff by next March, anyway? The first place to start is by checking out our explainer on the new book and the Dog Man mythos, which gives you a solid basis for checking out the books themselves and just diving in. You know what would help with that, though? A list of all the Dog Man books to help you know how to read the Dog Man series (and more!) in order.

How to read the Dog Man books in order

There are twelve official books in the Dog Man series to date, and they are:

In terms of chronological order, it’s a very straightforward series: Book 2 takes place after Book 1, and so on. See? Simple! Unlike…

How to read the entire Dog Man universe in order

…Okay, here’s where things get a little more complicated. Dog Man actually debuted in the ninth book of the Captain Underpants series, as the creation of George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who go on to appear in the Dog Man series proper. So… does that make Captain Underpants part of the larger Dog Man mythology…? It would appear so, but that’s not the only complication: Dog Man doesn’t just have a spin-off series — Cat Kid Comic Club — but it’s a spin-off series that features the son/clone of one of Dog Man’s antagonists, who happens to have first appeared in an entirely different Captain Underpants series.

The whole Dog Man universe, then, is something surprisingly complex and sizable. Be warned — this is how you’d get to read the whole thing:

For those curious: Dog Man and the League of Misfits FCBD Edition is the new story included in the recent 25 1/2th anniversary edition of The Adventures of Captain Underpants, which is being released as a standalone single issue on Free Comic Book Day 2023, and Wally’s World is a Dog Man-related free 16-page comic, as created by Lil Petey from the Dog Man and Cat Kid Comic Club series.

And if you’re wondering what The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby and The Adventures of Ook and Gluk are, they’re standalone books that are, like Dog Man, canonical creations of George and Harold; moreover, Super Diaper Baby introduces Petey, who’s one of Dog Man’s nemeses, and also the clone-father of L’il Petey, AKA Cat Kid. As Jack Kirby put it in the '70s, 'don’t ask, just buy it.'

What’s the newest Dog Man?

The most recent official Dog Man book is this year’s Dog Man: Scarlet Shedder, which you can read all about in our Scarlet Shedder guide. The book introduces an all-new team of SupaBuddies and is the twelfth entry into the bestselliing series.

Dog Man: Scarlet Shedder is on sale now.

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.