By Kim Hilsenecbk.
Writer/author, cartoonist, artist, illustrator, entrepreneur, movie producer … Mike Fry has what you might call creative schizophrenia. He’s been evolving and reinventing himself for the past 30 years.
So you do what? The answer was clear as mud.
“I’m a writer and cartoonist. Little bit of a film maker, I can say that now,” Fry said in a recent interview at his Buda home. "I’m like Mike Fry 5.0.”
Fry is the owner and president of Ringtales, a media company that animates popular comic strips such as “Dilbert” and editorial cartoons from The New Yorker.
He is also the creator of “Over the Hedge,” a comic strip that was the concept for the 2006 DreamWorks movie of the same name. The film featured the lead voices of Bruce Willis, William Shatner, Garry Shandling and Steve Carell, among other well-known actors.
And Fry knows most kids have seen the movie. In fact, on his Kickstarter webpage for a new project, Fry wrote, “Yes, the same Over the Hedge that inspired the DreamWorks Animation feature that your kids have watched 738 times. I feel really bad about that. I do.”
Fry has been working on “Over the Hedge” since 1995. On that project, he is the writer and his partner, T. Lewis, does the artwork.
Get your Odd Squad autographed If you would like author Mike Fry to sign copies of The Odd Squad, bring the books to the Hays Free Press office in Kyle. Fry will sign them and then the owners can pick them up at a later date. |
Over his 30-plus year career, Fry has created or co-created four international comic strips. “Over the Hedge,” arguably his best known, runs in more than 150 newspapers worldwide. In 2006, it was nominated for Best Comic Strip by the National Cartoonist Society Rueben Awards.
Fry started his career as an editorial cartoonist for the Baylor University newspaper, The Lariat, back in the 1980s. He later switched schools and ended up doing the same thing for the University of Texas at Austin’s The Daily Texan.
A post-graduation job with the Houston Post where he was living at the time lasted several years. That’s when he created the comic strip, “Scotty.”
“Cheverwood” was his first syndicated comic strip. He also created “When I was short.”
His next stint was at the Houston Press where he wrote and drew “Committed,” which also went into syndication.
How did “Over the Hedge” become the basis for a major movie?
“Jim Cox contacted us in 1996,” Fry recalled. “He said, ‘You want to make a movie?’ I mean, that’s literally what he said.”
Ten years and two Hollywood studios later, “Over the Hedge” finally hit theaters.
Writer and cartoonist Mike Fry of Buda works out of his home to create characters for his syndicated comic strip, “Over the Hedge” and a new series of books, “The Odd Squad” about a middle-schooler tormented by a bully. The former was the basis for the 2006 DreamWorks animated film, Over the Hedge. Fry’s latest project is a short film called “New Soul” he said should be complete in the next few months. (photo by Kim Hilsenbeck) |
Fry lent some insight into why it took so long to get from idea to silver screen.
“It takes forever to get a contract – about nine months,” he said. “That bleeds all the excitement and enthusiasm out of the project.”
Fox was the first movie production company to option the movie, but after several years and as many writers, “It just lost steam,” Fry said.
“It’s amazing any movie gets made; it’s a miracle any of them are any good,” he joked. Sort of.
“The turning point was when Jeffery Katzenberg (of DreamWorks) got the movie in what’s called turnaround,” Fry said. “That was 2001. I remember flying two weeks after 9/11 on a mostly empty plane to meet with them.”
From there, he said it took another five years of writing and production, and by that time, the story changed from the original pitch.
“It became a different story than the one (he and T. Lewis) wrote,” Fry said. “We didn’t write screen play, but we were consultants on the film.”
Of the overall movie making process, he said, “You have to trust that they know what they’re doing.”
And DreamWorks did know what it was doing. Over the Hedge grossed $336,002,996 worldwide. With a modest $80 million budget, it was a commercial success. The film received some critical acclaim as well.
Ken Fox of TVGuide.com called it “A sly satire of American ‘enough is never enough’ consumerism and blind progress at the expense of the environment. It’s also very funny, and the little woodland critters that make up the cast are a kiddie-pleasing bunch.”
These days, Fry is promoting his newest endeavor, The Odd Squad, a three-book series (so far) about Nick, the shortest kid in seventh grade. Fry said the target reader is age 10 up to about age 12.
In the books, Nick is the target of a school bully. The first book, Bully Bait, which came out last February, is the first in the series. Next up is Zero Tolerance.
Fry said the books are doing well. One Amazon reader, Carol Swanson, posted this review:
“This is a great book. SO much better than (dare I say it?) Diary of a wimpy kid. I’ve worked in school libraries for 8 years and raised 4 children before that. I’ve seen a lot of youth literature. This book is great. It challenges the imagination, the illustrations are great, the story line is true to life, and it just makes me laugh out loud. It’s so easy to read and it doesn’t ‘talk down’ to the reader. Thanks Mike Fry, for a great book !”
Fry said he’s heard from some adults who have read the book and liked it as much as, and in some cases, more than, their children.
Is the character Nick based on Fry’s real life? To some extent, it is.
“I know what it’s like to be an outsider, because I went to 12 different schools in 17 years,” he said.
Through a combination of being a military brat and going through his parents’ divorce when he was younger, Fry never stayed in one place for more than a few years.
“You learn a few things. The first kid who comes up to be your friend, you don’t want to be that kid’s friend because nobody was that kid’s friend. It’s sad, but it’s true.”
He said he mostly tried to lay low, but in sixth through eighth grade, he had a few experiences with bullies.
“There were a couple of fights and stuff,” he said.
With the holidays coming up, The Odd Squad may be a good option for any tweens, ages 10-12. Gift buyers can buy the books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookpeople in Austin.
Fry’s next project is to finish a short film called New Soul starring Larry Miller. The film, based on a short story by Matt Minson, is a live-action/animated short about a new human soul, before it’s born, sitting for an exit interview with an advisor (Miller).
Fry described the short film on the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter, something like this: Charged with choosing his fate, the new soul must decide its future gender, level of intelligence, beauty and wealth all while racing the ticking clock of its impending birth.
His goal was to raise $10,000 to help complete the film, which will be about ten minutes long. His hope is to enter it at film festivals such as Toronto and Sundance.
The Kickstarter campaign exceeded its goal by more than $1,600. Fry said he and Minson each already contributed their own money to the project, but this last infusion of cash should help them complete New Soul in a few months.
“I think we’ve got a good chance of getting into a festival,” he said. “Not a great chance of winning, because comedies never win.”
But he said they avoided what is commonly called “trailer trap,” where movie trailers give away all the funniest or most powerful parts of the story.
“We did not do that with this,” Fry said. “It has a nice little surprise ending.”
