Hair-larious fun.
A group of hairdresser superheroes face off against their wiggiest villain yet.
Flealix the dog and the aptly named, uber-hirsute Unruly HairThing—both members of the Snips—are enjoying a sunny day in the park. But things turn hair-rowing when a bigwig baddie known as the Wigmaster shows up with his army of “wignions” (people he’s hypnotized to do his bidding) to steal Flealix’s watch, just the tool he needs to enact his wig-a-licious plan. At Tijera Tower—the Snips’ scissors-shaped headquarters—Flealix and the Unruly HairThing, joined by team members Patty Pomada, Nubes Cloudhead, Letty Lentes, and Casco Hardhat, prep for the annual Snipseum Gala, with this year’s celebration centered on the history of wigs. Enter the Wigmaster, who marshals his growing number of wignions and his newly acquired watch to crash the fiesta and steal the Snips’ wigs, kidnap the Unruly HairThing, and enact his plan for complete domination of Scissor City and beyond. Along the way, the Wigmaster even manages to brainwash and recruit Patty, Nubes, and Letty. Now, Casco and Flealix must level up their hair game to save the day. Like their previous, laugh-out-loud outing, the Snips’ latest adventure cuts through the noise with thrilling action, pun-worthy giggles, and a wacky cast of heroes and villains alike. Raúl the Third keeps Scissor City a colorful comic-book oasis, peppered with the occasional Spanish word or phrase, meta interjections from the author, and a much tighter plot than the earlier book, delivering spectacular antics befitting his charismatic, racially diverse heroes.
Hair-larious fun. (Graphic fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9780316528955
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Little, Brown Ink
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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