Emily and the Strangers #1

Writer:

Rob Reger

Mariah Heuhner

Artist:

Emily Ivie

Cover Artist:

Emily Ivie

Buzz Parker

Publisher:

Dark Horse

Price:

US$3.99/£2.43

A counter culture icon that nevertheless has her own media and merchandising empire behind her, Emily Strange started as a goth girl on skateboards, but has in time become a character in her own right. Being very much the anti Disney Princess, she likes rock and roll, maths, engineering and lots of other traditionally 'boys only' stuff.

This short mini series was thought up close to the time that Reger, the creator of Emily, ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to make a single and music video for Emily and her band, the Strangers. In part the comic is successful, but it still seems to me that the character isn't able to fully break the bonds of her origins.

Part of this is due to the concept I think. Emily has always been more of an icon than an actual person, so even though there's a lot of effort to make her come across as engaging, there's a sort of PG13 blandness to the character in an attempt to make her as accessible as possible. Nothing wrong with that of course, but as lover of rock and punk, I sort of hoped that some of that energy would have rubbed off on the character herself, especially considering many of the artists of this comic have roots in underground scenes.

Still, its early days yet and there's a whole series to go, so perhaps I'm just expecting things to move too fast. What is certain though, that where the story is lacking, the art more than makes up for it. Ivie's art conveys a real sense of fun and mischievousness amongst the darkness. Alongside that, the ambition of each page is stunning. Along with some phenomenal larger images, there's a great amount of detail put into each of the panels. Even after reading through the comic it a few times my eyes kept falling upon new things. The R. Black designed poster included is great as well. I even believe its a variant cover thats being released, so be on the look out for that if you like his work.

In the end, Emily and the Strangers #1 is quite fun. Not a mandatory purchase yet, but if you are a fan already, or ever wanted to see what all the fuss was about, this would be a good starting point.

Emily and the Strangers #1 is out now. You can buy it from Dark Horse or your local comic book store. You can check out the 'bands' first music video for the sort of sythy pop-punk song “Calling all Guitars” here.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer. He was listening to Misfits albums whilst writing this. Yes, even the Jerry Only stuff. He's on twitter @ReecemJones