In the present work, we establish a simple relation between the Dirac equation with a scalar and an electromagnetic potential in a two-dimensional case and a pair of decoupled Vekua equations. In general, these Vekua equations are bicomplex. However, we show that the whole theory of pseudoanalytic functions without modifications can be applied to these equations under a certain nonrestrictive condition. As an example we formulate the similarity principle which is the central reason why a pseudoanalytic function and as a consequence a spinor field depending on two space variables share many of the properties of analytic functions. One of the surprising consequences of the established relation with pseudoanalytic functions consists in the following result. Consider the Dirac equation with a scalar potential depending on one variable with fixed energy and mass. In general, this equation cannot be solved explicitly even if one looks for wavefunctions of one variable. Nevertheless, for such Dirac equation, we obtain an algorithmically simple procedure for constructing in explicit form a complete system of exact solutions (depending on two variables). These solutions generalize the system of powers 1, z, z², ... in complex analysis and are called formal powers. With their aid any regular solution of the Dirac equation can be represented by its Taylor series in formal powers.