Dav Pilkey Teams Up with MerryMakers for Dog Man Licensing, TheaterWorksUSA for Musical

Dav Pilkey, creator of Captain Underpants and other best-selling kids books, teamed up with MerryMakers Inc. for an exclusive international licensing program for Dog Man. The Dog Man series has more than 23 million copies in print since its publication in August 2016 by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic. The licensing program features Dog Man and his band of friends and arch enemies, Petey, Cat Kid, 80-HD, and others. The news comes alongside the development of Dog Man: The Musical from TheaterWorksUSA.

MerryMakers is offering the property to licensees immediately, with negotiations already underway for toys, games, figurines, apparel, accessories, and bags, with plans to fast-track product for fall.

Dog Man: The Musical is written by Kevin Del Aguila and Brad Alexander, and directed by Jen Wineman. It will premiere in New York City this summer.

About the author

James Zahn

James Zahn, AKA The Rock Father, is Editor-in-Chief of The Toy Book, a Senior Editor at The Toy Insider and The Pop Insider, and Editor of The Toy Report, The Toy Book‘s weekly industry newsletter. As a pop culture and toy industry expert, Zahn has appeared as a panelist and guest at events including Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) Wizard World Chicago, and the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy. Zahn has more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment, retail, and publishing industries, and is frequently called upon to offer expert commentary for publications such as Forbes, Marketwatch, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, and more. James has appeared on History Channel’s Modern Marvels, was interviewed by Larry King and Anderson Cooper, and has been seen on Yahoo! Finance, CNN, CNBC, FOX Business, NBC, ABC, CBS, WGN, The CW, and more. Zahn joined the Adventure Media & Events family in 2016, initially serving as a member of the Parent Advisory Board after penning articles for the Netflix Stream Team, Fandango Family, PBS KIDS, Sprout Parents (now Universal Kids), PopSugar, and Chicago Parent. He eventually joined the company full time as a Senior Editor and moved up the ranks to Deputy Editor and Editor-in-Chief.