You Thought We Wouldn't Notice

You Thought We Wouldn't Notice does a fine job of uncovering, discovering, and recovering similarities that would otherwise not be known.

This bit is about Emily The Strange, or rather, Rosamond:

So last night I was at my aunt’s for Thanksgiving. She has two little boys, and their library books were laying around. I’m an art student studying illustration, so I’m always interested in kids’ books. I noticed one of them was an old favorite of mine, Nate the Great and the Lost List, which I had all but forgotten about:

I had loved the Nate the Great books as a kid so it was great to be reunited with it. However, I couldn’t shake the weird feeling I had about Rosamond, the girl in the window. She has long black hair, a short black dress, white mary janes, and four black cats. She is repeatedly described as “strange”.

That’s when it hit me.

WHOA. BACK UP. SERIOUSLY? Yes. The top image is a page from Nate the Great Goes Undercover, complete with text. This book was published in 1978. The bottom image is one of the first images of Emily the Strange ever made publicly available–it was sold, WITH THAT TEXT INCLUDED, as a bumper sticker.

If you’ve ever walked into a Hot Topic, you are somewhat familiar with Emily, but on the off-chance that you haven’t, you can get aquainted with her at her big fat website. She was designed in 1991, according to creator Rob Reger, as an image for use on skateboarding merchandise. Since then, she has morphed into a kind of goth pop icon. At first she was just a mouthpiece for typical Hot Topic tee slogans (”I WANT YOU to go away,” “Problem Child,” etc. etc.) but since has moved to full-fledged characterdom, with her own comic book series and a film slated for 2010.

Google searching for any information on this rip has yielded a tiny handful of bemused observers (this one offering the most analysis), but as far as I can tell no real action has been taken. I doubt that neither Marjorie Weinman Sharmat nor Marc Simont (the author and illustrator of the Nate the Great books, respectively) is aware of the appropriation of their character. I plan to send a letter to each c/o of their publishers as soon as possible. I really do think something should be done. This stolen character has already made millions for its “creator” and the fact that she will have her own film is clear testament of how big she’s gotten.

P.S., check out this interview with Rob Reger. High points:

“What artists influenced the artwork in the Chronicle Books series?

“Good Nightmares” is the name of the book where you‘ll notice our influences the most. We actually made a conscious decision that the book would be about 13 specific nightmares Emily had. We loosely based each nightmare in the style of some of our favorite art or artists. So you have Dr. Seuss, a spread based on the Hokusai woodcuts, Escher, Rube Goldberg, Albrecht Durer, and Maurice Sendak. It’s also got Yellow Submarine stuff, art from the psychedelic ‘60s era, and some punk rock stuff.”

(Hmmm…Marc Simont is curiously absent from that list!)

“What sort of message are you trying to send your audience with “Emily the Strange”?

That’s really the most important thing alongside the art itself. Emily is often misinterpreted as a negative or plain old bad girl. To me, she’s more of an icon for the think-for-yourself, do-it-yourself movement.”

(Think for yourself. Right.)