A SUPA Epic Time with Dav Pilkey

Dav Pilkey at The Rabbit hOle on February 15, 2025.

As part of an international tour, more than 1000 kids and families came to The Rabbit hOle to meet best-selling author Dav Pilkey and celebrate his newest book, Dog Man: Big Jim Begins on Saturday, February 15, 2025.

In two presentations, Dav shared four important things that his mother taught him: positivity, practice, persistence, and purpose. As a kid, Dav was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. Regularly sent to the hallway by his teachers for being disruptive, he learned to think about how to turn a bad situation (being in the hallway) into something good (using that time to create his own original comic books.)

Dav’s tour, Celebrating Heroes Around the World, is inspired by a recurring theme in the Dog Man series: ordinary people can do extraordinarily good deeds.

“It doesn’t matter who we are, or how small we are, we all have the ability to make this whole world a better place by our attitude, by the things that we do, by being kind, and by being helpers,” Dav said.

Dav signed more than 1200 books!

Attendees looked awesome in their Dogman costumes, shirts and more.

The Rabbit hOle's paint team created all sort of Pilkey decor for the event.

In the windows to the print shop our paint team recreated Pilkey comics.

Attendees could enjoy them on their way to their seats.

Volunteers wore blue capes, and at least one wore underpants over their pants!

Everyone getting seated.

Dav takes the stage.

We hosted two presentations each with 400 people.

Dav talked a lot of his mom and how much her encouragement meant.

Listening intently.

During the presentation Dav drew different characters while attendees guessed who he was drawing.

Eight lucky winners got Dog Man goodie bags during the trivia portion.

Dav showing some of the very first Dog Man comics he created as a kid.

Many attendees brought drawings, art and notes to share with Dav.

Meet and greet with Dav.

Attendees of all ages were a little starstruck!

Posing with the newest Dog Man book.

Sharing Dog Man artwork with Dav.

Dav meets Dog Man!

After the meet and greet attendees got Dog Man masks.

Don't they look great?

In the cafe area there was another epic photo opp.

The cafe also housed our pop-up Pilkey store with more of his books and plushies.

Getting all the Pilkey goodies.

Happy customers.

After the presentations, attendees had a chance to meet Dav and take a picture together. Many expressed how much his books have meant to them, and some even shared their own comics and art.

Another special surprise awaited everyone when they left the meet-and-greet: Dogman himself! 

"When kids came through the door and saw Dog Man wiggling his ears and shaking with excitement to see them, they just lost it,” said Rabbit hOle co-director Deb Pettid. “So many shrieks of joy!"

Dav Pilkey with The Turbo Toilet 2000 that lives in the first floor restrooms at The Rabbit hOle.

This was Dav’s first visit to The Rabbit hOle, and he was able to meet The Turbo Toilet 2000 that resides in our first floor restrooms. It’s a fitting tribute to Dav’s Captain Underpants series and his stalwart support of the museum over the years. Decades ago Dav first visited The Reading Reptile and got to know our co-directors Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin.

“Dav was just starting then, and he was making these really strange and funny picture books, like Dog Breath!, Kat Kong and Dogzilla. I think he was touring a book called The Dumb Bunnies at that time and it was cool because we rarely met authors our age. They were always older," Cowdin said. "That sort formed an instant bond at the time and although we wouldn’t see Dav again for several years, when we did, it was easy to pick right back up with him. He and his wife, Sayuri, came to visit us when we began working on The Rabbit hOle, back in 2017, and they instantly got it and became important supporters and advocates of the project.”

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Dav and his team, Sayuri Pilkey, Scholastic, our staff and volunteers, and everyone who joined us.