12 books like Dog Man
If the appeal of Dog Man is silly heroics, speech bubbles and a joke every other panel, these are the books that keep that going. Some are full-colour comics, some are doodle-strewn chapter books that nudge the reading level up a notch without losing the daftness.
Updated September 2026
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Animal crimefighters in comic panels
The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey 2015
Animal characters bungling their way through heroic missions with the same rapid panel-to-panel gags, but the humour comes from crooks trying to go straight rather than a police dog doing his duty.
InvestiGators: Case Files by John Patrick Green 2020
Two animal agents, endless visual jokes and a fondness for toilet humour, with more actual detective plotting to follow than Dog Man usually bothers with.
Real Pigeons Fight Crime by Andrew McDonald 2018
Crime-solving animals played entirely for laughs; the format is a short illustrated chapter book with cartoons throughout instead of full comic pages.
Full-colour comics with superpowers and mayhem
Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Judd Winick 2015
Bright colour, loud sound effects and a hero who punches first and thinks later, with a proper ongoing story arc across the series.
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke 2011
Comic-book action and odd sidekicks with a warm heart under the silliness, but the tone leans adventurous rather than gag-driven.
Bunny vs. Monkey by Jamie Smart 2012
Short comic strips built around ridiculous inventions and escalating chaos, British woodland setting and all — the storytelling comes in bite-sized bursts instead of one long caper.
Doodle-packed chapter books for readers stepping up
Stick Dog by Tom Watson 2013
A dog protagonist and deliberately scruffy drawings on nearly every page; there's more prose between the pictures, which makes it a gentle step beyond comics.
The 13-Storey Treehouse: Colour Edition by Andy Griffiths 2011
Cartoons and text tangled together with the same anything-goes invention, though the joke is two friends making up the story as they go.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 2007
Stick-figure drawings and a laugh on every spread, but the comedy is everyday embarrassment at school rather than crime-fighting.
Class clowns and comic-strip mischief
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar 1978
Absurd logic and short, self-contained chapters that end on a punchline; it's almost all words, so it suits a reader ready to try less illustration.
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce 2010
A troublemaker hero, comic-strip panels and doodles mixed into the text, with jokes pitched at slightly older readers.
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson 1987
Newspaper-strip pacing and a boy with a wild imagination in place of a homemade superhero, plus quieter, more thoughtful moments between the slapstick.
If you also liked…
- Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
Questions
- Is any of this too rude for a young reader?
- InvestiGators and Diary of a Wimpy Kid both do bodily-function jokes, at about the level Dog Man does. Nothing here goes further than that.
- My child will only read comics — which of these are actual graphic novels?
- The Bad Guys, InvestiGators, Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth, Zita the Spacegirl, Bunny vs Monkey and Calvin and Hobbes are all told in panels.
- Which one is the best bridge to books with more words?
- Stick Dog keeps the drawings coming while adding more prose, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School is nearly all text but so short and funny per chapter that it rarely feels like hard work.