Emily and the gang take on corporate corruption and record company sleazeballs, and a mysterious case of stray cat overload in the charming opening issue of what looks to be another winning arc. Read our review to find out more.
Written by Rob Reger & Mariah Huehner
Illustrated by Cat FarrisEmily — and her new band, the Strangers — won the battle of the bands and received a record contract with Awesomely Awesome Records, but can the girl who just figured out how to get along with her friends manage dealing with a major corporation?
There seems to be a high frequency of high quality subculture overlap between garage bands and comics. Influential comics like “Scott Pilgrim” and Mike Allred’s “Madman” frequently touched on this culture, if not submersed themselves in it entirely. Rob Reger takes his “Emily the Strange” character and applies her to “Emily and the Strangers”, which is very much in the same good-natured punky spirit as those aforementioned titles, but it’s also super innocent and kid-friendly to boot. It’s no surprise that it was optioned for a film adaptation, because it’s the type of colorful and stylish thing that should get kids in the theaters.
So Emily’s been around for a while and she’s had a lot of success, but how is her latest comic adventure? It’s more of the same good-natured, irreverent, just-satirical-enough fun that we’ve come to expect from Reger. Since Emily and the Strangers finally made their impression last time around, a sleazy record executive has come calling, offering them the latest in instrumental and recording technology, a state of the art studio to play around in, and something that I’m pretty sure is just another version of the all-syrup squishy from The Simpsons.
Of course, this all seems too good to be true, and the ever-pragmatic Emily seems to be the only skeptical one. It’s a tried and true method for comedy and a strong central hero – she’s the smartest in the room, and the rest of the characters can be the funny ones. Reger gets some comedic mileage out of his version of what the worst of the worst record executives must be like and really has some fun laying the smarminess down. Adults will better understand the type of trope that he’s going for with the character, but kids will get that the deal couldn’t possibly be true. Yet this isn’t a story with hidden jokes for adults – it’s just a decent story, told straightforward and earnestly, with enough good humor to make it worth your while.
Cat Ferris joins the Emily creative stable with art duties on issue #1 and she fits in as well as you’d hope. Ferris captures the right tone by mixing the offbeat and dark fashion sense of the central character with a colorful cast and a vibrant world around her. More than even the story itself has, the art presents Emily as visually different, yet not as an outcast. Yes, her moniker is “Emily the Strange”, but the series is a subtle reminder that being strange is okay, and maybe a good portion of the time the status quo isn’t the right choice.
Ferris’ style definitely lies on the deceptively simple, cartoony end of the spectrum – pleasing to the eye and filled with interesting design work. Each character is packed with unique visual details and personality. Beyond the appropriately cartoony style, Ferris does some impressive stuff with her environments, especially once the group gets to the record studio. The place feels enormous, and is filled with colorful musical objects and wonderful trappings, yet it still feels too big, sterile, and somehow emptier than it appears, like Willy Wonka’s factory without the children drowning and the nightmare fuel gondola ride. It’s a wonderful commentary choice on Ferris’ part about the promises being made to Emily and her friends and the reality of what this record company really is: a soulless conglomerate.
It’s nice to have “Emily and the Strangers” back, though it doesn’t really feel like it ever left. It’s been said that there is a dearth of all-ages comics on the shelves, but that’s really been improving at a remarkable rate. Between the cartoon properties split between Boom! and IDW, and Marvel and DC’s scant all-ages efforts, with something like “Emily and the Strangers” at Dark Horse there’s plenty to choose from in the mainstream. If you go a little deeper, there’s plenty more; that said, if you want as good an entry point as any, “Emily and the Strangers – Breaking the Record” #1 is a terrific place to start.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy, but you’ll enjoy it more if you read it to a kid.
