NYCC Interview with Emily the Strange Creator Rob Reger

I admit it. I'm out of the target audience age range, but I love Emily the Strange. She's tough, she's goth, she's cute and she's got 4 black cats. How can anyone resist? Emily has been seen on the TV show NCIS, MTV and in pretty much every Hot Topic in the world. She has 4 stores, the most recent opening in Athens, Greece with a view of the Acropolis! I have prowled the Hot Topic racks for the past few years trying to find the sweatshirt I had a few years back with the cat ears on it. Sue me. And today at New York Comic Con, while waiting to speak to creator Rob Reger, I spied a bag shaped like a speaker, where the dials go to 13! (Not 11...) Haven't seen that in Hot Topic either. Just saying.

Rob Reger created Emily 15 years ago and she'd going strong. He told me about the novel being released later this year, the movie (which Dark Horse Comics President Mike Richardson is set to direct), an animated television series and his surprise casting choice.




Tell me a little bit about the history of Emily the Strange.

She started out as a skateboard design actually. My friend Nathan designed skateboards...I started putting that design on t-shirts, and that kind of grew into another design, and several more designs. Eventually I showed it to Hot Topic, and they were the ones that really pushed me to do more and more. They said, oh we need more of this Emily stuff and I said, alright, whatever you want. I'll keep doing it. And it kind of started taking on a life of it's own...all the designs, all the t-shirts would describe a little bit more about Emily. It started giving us a real picture of who she was, what her cats were called...we put a book together and I pitched it to Chronicle Books, and they liked the idea. And after they published the book it helped grow her name in the United States a little bit more. We took that into accessories and then it turned into fashion, the US turned into Italy and the UK and Germany and Japan...

Are her cats based on real live cats?

Yes! They are. Can't say that about Emily. Emily's based upon a million people, including myself but the cats...I had a cat named Sabbath. It was an adorable little kitty. Rest his soul. And one of my collaborators, Jessica has a cat named Miles. That's where Miles came from. And Nee-chee is based on a real guy...

Yeah, I've heard of him.

(laughs) We spell it a little easier. But there's a famous German nihilist that we're all fans of.




Can you tell me a little about the movie?

Yeah, I can tell you that it's based loosely on the first novel that's coming out in June from HaperCollins. It's an amnesia story and it's a diary. The book itself is a diary from Emily's perspective. Everything you're reading in the book is about what Emily's thinking in the moment. It turns out Emily has amnesia and she doesn't know why...she's trying to find out about herself. It's the first time you actually get a look into Emily's mind. We're always describing what she thinks, and what she is and pinning her down. This is really the first time you get to hear what she thinks. She introduces herself to herself. It should be a pretty fun plot to turn into a screenplay.

Would you do live-action or animated?

I truly want to do both. It's slotted now for a live-action film and I'm going to slip a little animation in there. I've developed a TV show that's animated as well.

Who would you like to see play Emily?

You know, I've really been considering Jack Black for the role.

(laughs) He'd probably do it.

We have a few people in mind but I can't say who yet. As long as Jack Black's in there, I'm cool.

Would you actually want to cast him in another role?

Yeah, absolutely.



Why is Emily's birthday on the fall equinox? 9/23?

Yeah, we like 9/23 because if you look at 9/23 in the mirror, it's ESP.

What do you think Emily's appeal is?

There's a lot of reasons but one of them is that I think a lot of people can identify with a time in their life where they felt a little awkward and Emily says, hey man, it's OK to be on your own. It's OK to do it yourself. You can be yourself and you don't have to be in with a crowd and people identify with that. I think that people are attracted to the rebellious quality of her too. They want to be bad and Emily is cute enough to be bad without being an asshole. And people like cats. People like rock and roll. And all of that stuff comes with Emily.

One fun fact about Emily that few people know.

OK. She has a crush on Eddie Van Halen.

Really?

Well she used to. She used to have a crush on Eddie Van Halen. Back in the 80's.