Dav Pilkey

David "Dav" Murray Pilkey Jr. is an American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series Captain Underpants and the children's graphic novel series Dog Man.

Pilkey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 4, 1966, to the Reverend David Pilkey, Sr., and Barbara, the church organist. He has one older sister. Pilkey was brought up in a conservative Christian household and went to Christian schools throughout his life.

Pilkey was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia as a child. In elementary school in Elyria, Ohio, Pilkey was frequently reprimanded for his behavior in class and thus usually sat at a desk in the school hallway, where he created the Captain Underpants character. In 1987, Pilkey wrote his first book, World War Won, an allegorical fable inspired by the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, in a national competition for student authors and won in his age category. The book's publication in 1987 was included in the award.

The atypical spelling of his first name came when the "e" in "Dave" was left off his name tag while working at Pizza Hut. Pilkey graduated from Kent State University. He married Sayuri Pilkey in 2005. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby was published in 2002 and was Pilkey's first full complete graphic novel. It appeared at No. 6 on the USA Today bestseller list for all adult and children's books and was also a New York Times bestselling book for Children's Middle grades. The first Super Diaper Baby graphic novel was published with Scholastic years before Scholastic created the Graphix imprint.

Pilkey took a break from writing for a few years to care for his terminally ill father (who died on November 13, 2008), but in 2009 agreed with Scholastic to publish four new books. The first two are graphic novels: The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen From the Future, released on August 10, 2010, and Super Diaper Baby 2: Invasion of the Potty Snatchers, released on June 28, 2011. Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers was released on August 28, 2012, and Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers was released in January 2013.

Pilkey and his wife live on Bainbridge Island, Washington. On March 25, 2021, Dav Pilkey announced on his YouTube channel that he and Scholastic will cease further publication of the book The Adventures of Ook and Gluk and will remove it from retailers and libraries due to some stereotyping of the characters in the book. Pilkey stated that he intended to showcase the diversity, equality, and non-violent conflict resolution. He also stated that even unintentional and passive stereotypes are harmful to everyone. Pilkey will donate his entire advance, past, and future royalties from the book to organizations promoting diversity that are designed to stop violence against Asians.