Twenty years is an awful long time for anyone or anything for that matter to be in existence and for this it has to go to advertising mascot character created by Cosmic Debris Etc. Inc. and creator Rob Reger... Emily The Strange! But wait who is this you ask? Well you may have seen her plastered around the internet or at your local shopping center or perhaps even library?!?!
Yes Emily The Strange is that one young gal with the black hair, black dress, and white ghostly appearance with her black cats at her side. She's known to be in black/white with red in her backdrop at times and now that twenty years can be put under her name she has expanded ever so further with a book series, comic series, live action full-length film from Universal and even her new musical project a band! Emily and The Strangers is the latest newest creation from Rob Reger himself and he has got even further plans once the music is unleashed. Take the Metalocalpyse experience with Dethklok creator Brendon Small for instance.
Rob Reger himself decided to discuss the beginning with Emily and how far she has actually come and what she has up her sleeves next. Because he himself has been involved in his creativity for many years now and since Emily The Strange's creation he has built upon that developing his own ways and imaginary with not just her creation but other projects as well. There is no stopping or telling where Emily and her Strangeness will be heading next.
1. Emily The Strange has been around for 20 years did you ever see this day to come, what runs through your mind when you look back at the very first time or day you thought of this creation up until this exact moment?
Rob: In the beginning I really had no idea that it would take off like this. There was a certain point though, when I realized that the stores that carried the same 5 or 6 Emily T-shirts for years, with constant re-orders, I realized that I could develop the character and world around her more. I built a team of people to help me develop my ideas regarding Emily. Initially it was me and Brian Brooks and soon my longtime pal Buzz Parker joined in. I look back to the days of hand printing shirts in my garage and it sure has been a long strange trip since then.
2. Out of everything you have accomplished or done with the Emily The Strange character what more could you possible do or want to do? Like how far do you think this character can go?
Rob: I am currently working really hard to create her band, Emily and the Strangers, as a legitimate band, albeit animated, that can tour and entertain and thrill the public with a stage performance... And I'm not stopping until there is an Emily theme park attraction - an interactive world full of entertainment, surprise, rides, puzzles, and much more strange activity!3. Will we ever be seeing Emily in an animated cartoon series like a webisode or full on thirty minute episode ordeal?
Rob: I am sure that we will get to do some episodic cartoon story telling... Since I am working on a feature film with Universal now, it is their preference that we create this phase of Emily after we have made the film. That is also a reason I am interested in creating short animated music videos - so we can mean while see her world come to life.
4. You plan to take Emily to the big screen but wanted to go with using people as opposed to animation, why go in this direction and do you think the people role can pull her character off the right way? How do you think the fans take will be on this?
Rob: When I decided to work with Mike Richardson, President and Producer for Dark Horse Comics and Entertainment, it was clear I was going to be working with someone who really understood story telling and could take a comic book and make a live action movie while retaining the look, feel, and essence of what the comic books started out as. I am very confident that the team I am working with at Dark Horse and Universal will stay true to my vision. I also believe we will create a movie that, through live action actors, can engage and personally connect with the audience in a way that perhaps animation might not be able to.
5. Why does Emily wear the same black dress every day? Why did you want her to love math and science out of all the subjects in school?
Rob: She wears the same dress so that she doesn't have to think about what to war everyday. That way she can concentrate on her creativity, math, and science more. Really, I just wanted to stick with one thing myself to help her become easily recognizable someday. Math and science simply help Emily bring her creations to life. She is quite the genius in all subjects though.
6. What about her pet cats, why does she have four of them, and how does their personalities similar to her own? Are there 2 girls and 2 boys or whats the deal with the 4-piece?
Rob: Her 4 cats actually do represent 4 parts of her personality... First off, the cat, and its independence and love of the night are closely related to how Emily is as well. Mystery, Miles, NeeChee, and Sabbath.
7. Having published 18 comic books and 4 young adult novels do you ever see these to ever come together in one mega set, not the novels and comics but having all of the comics into one giant set and then the same for the novels. Does each series differ or do they follow or lead into one another in one way, shape, or form?
Rob: The comics really started out as one-offs, not serializing into one another... The last 2 series have though, and we will continue to collect them into mini series. I am sure that once we have all 3 series of Emily and the Strangers completed, we might collect those into a bigger volume... I don't see the novels being combined, but they do work nicely when read in order.
8. Why did you want to call this character Emily The Strange? Does her name "Emily" refer to a real person in your life or in general or no?
Rob: I liked the name Emily since my grandmother was named Emily. The initial idea for "the Strange" came from a parody of "Andre the Giant has a posse" sticker we did. Emily's cats were referred to as Emily's Posse after that as well!
9. As many do, Emily loves music and for her newest comic book created a band called Emily and the Strangers, where did the band's name come from?
Rob: Initially I was going to call the band "The Emilys" in the vein of "the Ramones" and "the Donnas"... and all the members would be Emily herself (cloned)... But then I realized this was a good opportunity to introduce NEW characters into her world, and the first was named Evan Stranger... so "the Strangers" naturally evolved from that.10. What type of band is it?
Rob: An eclectic rockin band of misfits!
11. Can you introduce the band and who has what role in it?
Emily: vocals, gadgets, guitar
Evan (Stranger): guitars
Trilogy (Stranger): keys
Winston: bass
Willow: horns, harp, vocals
Raven: Stix
12. What are the songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Rob: Cats, having fun, experiments gone wrong, attitude, dreams / nightmares, cats, staying up all night, sleeping in the day, other me, cats, carnivorous plants, outer space, cats, etc.
13. Does she write her own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Rob: Yeah... she writes her own songs... with input and melodies from the band... often the tunes come to her in her sleep and she records the first demos via her Dream Recorder.
14. Who are her musical influences?Rob: Everything. She's a sponge for creativity - pulling inspiration from everything... including the telephone pole with lots of staples on it and the dandelion growing through a crack in the sidewalk.
15. Can you tell me about the new single, "Calling All Guitars" and what the song is about?
Rob: It's about her "coming to life" by being animated - and her imagination being the source of that and the coming to life of all her creations... is it all in her mind????
16. You had a Kickstarter to get the money to get the single and if more is raised a full EP release, did you see your goal to be reached? Why did you want to use Kickstarter?
Rob: We used Kickstarter because I didn't have the money to do it on my own, and I was tired of waiting for labels and other people to get off their butts to make it happen. It was a lot more work to hustle a campaign like that than imagined, but I am happy we are "doing it ourselves".
17. If this band does do well how far do you plan to take it? Like you may be familiar or maybe not but another animated series known as Metalocalypse with the band Dethklok created by Brendon Small, took that from an animated series to albums to even live showcases with tours etc. Would you see doing that with this project or consider bringing the two together for a tour?
Rob: Yeah, like I said above, I really look forward to taking this to live shows... I have a lot of cool ideas of how we can make her live show an experience to remember... I would love to go on tour with the guys from Metalocalypse (they are great)!18. You have an extensive collection of Emily items, are all of those items every single item ever released or just a good handful? Which items out of all that has been released or that you have seen would you say is your favorite?
Rob: I love the guitar. I love the stories (comics and novels). I love this animated music video and song (such a new experience!). I also really like our Nintendo DS game. I liked the chocolate bars we did with Dark Horse (they included booger bits, and worm pieces, and screws, and teeth). Those are some of the faves... I have at least 1 of everything in my collection.
19. What other projects aside from Emily The Strange do you have or have you been working on? Where can we check out your other work or work in general?
Rob: I am always working in the garden, and playing music too... Thuja is an experimental band I was in for years- a lot of that instrumental music can be found online... I am always creating and just finished an exhibition at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. People can see a lot of my creations on Facebook.com/RobReger and robreger.com (although I have not updated my personal website in a long time).
20. Do you ever look back or think of regretting creating this character in anyway?
Rob: No way!
21. Does Emily have any hidden secrets or anything you have not told about her yet?
Rob: Yes. I can't tell you though!
22. Why is she purely white skin? Why give her this look and feel?
Rob: Her skin is white by default of having only 1 color to print with (black) in the early days... I never considered it to be a race, or "pale skin" although that is what a lot of people think...23. What else do you have planned for the rest of this year overall?
Rob: Comic Con, 20th anniversary party for Emily in San Francisco next month in September, more art, more music.
24. Anything else you'd like to say to the fans out there?
Rob: Stay Strange, and BE all you CAN'T be!
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