Michael Fry to teach online course on character creation

Over the Hedge co-creator Michael Fry and former Dilbert Head of Licensing Jeanette Smith will be teaching an online course on creating great characters for comics, novels, or animation. The course, entitled “Building Character: How to Cash In On Your Characters Without Losing Your Soul” is divided into three 2-hour classes. The course begins October 15 with the topic “Commercial Character Development, Publication and Promotion” followed by “Brand Building, Leveraging Available Media and Understanding Licensing Contracts” on the 16th and wrapping up with “How I got two comic strips you never heard of made into a TV series and a feature animated film” on the 17th.

Here’s the description:

They say content is king. But the truth is that viewers and readers fall in love with characters, not content. Whether it’s a novel, graphic novel, comic strip, web comic or web animation, characters are what attract loyal fans. And licensors. Audiences want to own and share a piece of what they love, whether it’s a T-shirt, a plush toy or a major motion picture. But how do you get your character from the page or screen to the store or theater? Build an audience and licensors will come, right? Yes, that’s part of it. But there’s more – a lot more to making sure your characters get the best shot at becoming household names.

Please join the co-creator and writer of the Over the Hedge comic strip, Michael Fry and former Dilbert Head of Licensing Jeanette Smith for a 6 hour seminar over three days that will guide you through the intersection between art and commerce to best develop and market your characters to their maximum potential. The audio seminar includes an extensive downloadable powerpoint presentation that outlines each step in the process from creation to publication to brand building to promotion to licensing for television and film.