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Dav Pilkey‘s name may not be familiar, but his most famous creation, Captain Underpants, has become a household name — even in households that don’t have kids. But that’s what 80 million books sold, a movie and a Netflix series will get you.

The literary superstar of the elementary school set will be in San Jose Friday where he’ll entertain more than 1,600 people at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, the latest stop on a multi-city tour across North America.

But here’s a little secret. Pilkey’s “Howl with Laughter” tour — with all of its drawings and capes and moments that will make third-graders erupt in side-splitting laughter — is really a literacy event in disguise.

“I think literacy is one of the things that elevates all of us,” Pilkey said by phone this week. “Being literate makes us better people.”

About 1,600 people are expected at Friday night’s big event, which has been sold out for weeks and has a lengthy waiting list. A copy of Pilkey’s latest book, “Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas,” is included in the ticket price, but all along the tour, Pilkey and his publisher, Scholastic Books, have made a special effort to make sure the books get into the hands of kids who could use them most.

Hicklebee’s Children’s Bookstore in Willow Glen and the San Jose Public Library Foundation worked together to raise money so about 400 children from low-income schools in the San Jose Unified School District, along with students from Franklin-McKinley Elementary School next door to the fairgrounds, could attend free. Pilkey is underwriting the cost of the buses that will transport the students to and from the event.

Pilkey, 52, is one of those seeming overnight sensations who has actually been on the children’s book scene for more 30 years. (His first name is pronounced “Dave,” but the unusual spelling stems from his days working at a Pizza Hut in his youth. The “e” on the label maker used to create name tags didn’t work. He eventually got a new job but kept the quirky spelling.)

Pilkey’s early work included the “Dragon” and “Big Dog and Little Dog” series, but the writer and illustrator’s career really took off with “The Adventures of Captain Underpants.”  The 1997 book introduced George and Harold, a pair of mischievous fourth graders who hypnotize their principal into believing he is a superhero in a red cape and tighty-whities. It spawned a series of 11 more books with titles like “The Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants” and “The Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot,” along with the 2017 movie and the Netflix series that launched this year.

His current “Dog Man” series started as a spinoff of Captain Underpants, and the canine crusader has five books under his collar, with a sixth, “Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild,” due for release in December. Scholastic increased the initial print run of “Lord of the Fleas” from 1 million to 3 million copies. Pilkey said the success has a lot to do with the way kids identify with the characters.

“One of the things kids love about ‘Captain Underpants’ is that the two main characters are powerful kids, and kids don’t have a lot of power in the real world,” he said.

Hicklebee’s owner Valerie Lewis has met Pilkey on his many visits to the store and says his interaction with his fans is amazing to watch. “When he’s out here with the kids, all it takes is a child to say ‘I drew this picture for you’ or ‘I made this coloring book,’ and he’ll stop and he’ll look at every page and he’ll talk to them about it,” she said.

Pilkey — who says he came up with the Captain Underpants and Dog Man characters when he was in elementary school — said he’s energized by seeing kids who are inspired by his work to create their own.

“I always love going on the road and connecting with my readers,” Pilkey said. “It’s so nice to get friends together to celebrate literacy.”