Emily and the Strangers Volume 1: Battle of the Bands

Emily the Strange (Dark Horse Comics Book single issues) #13-15

by Rob Reger, Mariah Huehner, Jim Gibbons (Editor)

In order to win a legendary haunted guitar, Emily is determined to create the most rockin' song the world has ever known! But can she do it solo? Emily isn't known for playing well with others, but she's going to have to rely on the help of some strangers if she's going to succeed on her musical journey to the true heart of rock 'n' roll! Emily the Strange creator Rob Reger teams up with co-writer Mariah Huehner (True Blood, Angel) and artist Emily Ivie (The Locked Maze, Rotsterarsil) for a brand-new, full-color Emily the Strange mini-series full of troublemaking cats, mad science, new friends, and killer guitar riffs!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Supernatural

80 pages, Hardcover

First published May 6, 2014

About the author

Reger's friend Nathan Carrico designed Emily in 1991 for a skateboard company in Santa Cruz, where Cosmic Debris was born. In his Santa Cruz garage (and later an artist warehouse in San Francisco) Reger created the designs, and with Matt Reed brought them into the fashion world by creating t-shirt designs that captured the essence of this mysterious young girl with 4 black cats. Since then, Cosmic Debris has grown into a multi-million dollar firm with dozens of employees.

Cosmic Debris has most recently moved its operations to Berkeley, California, and plans to open an Emily retail store there soon. With the momentum of mainstream success, several comics about Emily have also been made. Key creative people over the years (designers, graphic artists, illustrators), who have worked with Reger's Cosmic Debris design house are Buzz Parker, Brian Brooks, Grace Fontaine, Liz Baca, Noel Tolentino, Fawn Gehweiler, Jessica Gruner, Adele Pedersen and Nicomi "Nix" Turner. Rob Reger remains the key creative force behind the brand, and Buzz Parker is the key illustrator for the comic books and website.

Reviews

[Rebecca Fung · Rating 3 out of 5]

A predictable story for Emily - "respect the strengths of your team, you are better united than separated" "learn how to play nice with others" etc.

Emilyu is a great character but it is usually the more offbeat weirdness that is great about her and this story, while fun, seemed to try for a story that was a little too predictable and had a lot about conforming to social norms then tried to add in a bit of Emily's weirdness in eg throw in a weird guitar and a lot of "zorking". That's fun and we love Emily but it kind of misses the essential Emily-ness - that being really weird and different is utterly cool.

Still, I enjoyed visiting the Emily world again and seeing her with her cats and and her weird bits and pieces. I prefer a more weird Emily story though.

[Kenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

quick and easy read! i feel like almost anyone would enjoy this; kids, ya, adults
its just so good and shows the true meaning of friendship.
everyone has their own skills and once they worked together? they were unbeatable, stronger than ever

time to walk over and grab the next, i love relaxing at the library

[Khol Ellsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a hard to find Emily the Strange graphic novel/lore and I love it. I got it for Christmas and it was an autographed copy which was super cool. Definitely a fun story and you can tell there is a lot of love put into this trilogy of graphic novels.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading Emily the Strange since I was a teen. This volume was cute, but definitely not my favorite.

[Dragana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting characters. I found it more fun once they did that seance. It finally started to make more sense of where the story was supposed to go.

[Sophie Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where was this franchise when i was a kid? Very cute very inspiring goth girl comic, definitely what i was all about as a teenager. Such and adorable smart goth girl character.

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome artwork and great story!

For more of my review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/5WEqvgGHnYQ

Enjoy!

[Niche · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was rather bland. I suppose it was decent enough as a "learn to work together" children's book with visually appealing artwork, but there didn't feel like much of a quirky/weird/eldritch-oddness adventure and the character interactions weren't particularly entertaining.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emily the Strange gets her own comic mini-series, and it's not bad. 'Emily and the Strangers Volume 1' gives us some more background about Emily. She's a mad inventor, she hates pink, she has a menagerie of cats, and she's antisocial enough not to want to play well with others. Unfortunately, she's going to have to learn to.

When one of Emily's favorite musicians, Professa Kraken, dies. She finds out about a contest where she can when his guitar, a strange steampunk invention with multiple necks and things growing out of it. She submits a tape and wins the contest, or so she thinks. The small print says she also has to win a battle of the bands. She finds herself in a band full of people who have their own ideas of what music should be. Is it classical, punk, jazz or rock? Will this band of misfits gel as a band in time to win the contest?

It's not a bad story, but perhaps a bit too predictable. The lessons about getting along with others and playing to their strengths is good. It wasn't what I would have expected from this character, but it didn't seem out of type for her. Emily Ivie does a great job with art and there is lots of supplemental material in back, including Ivie's wallpaper designs for the book.

I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Bruce Gargoyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review at http://thebookshelfgargoyle.wordpress...

I received a digital copy of this graphic novel for review from the publisher via Netgalley.

Ten Second Synopsis:
Emily yearns to win the haunted guitar of the late, great Professor Kraken, but in order to achieve her dream she has to conquer her greatest challenge....working with others!

What a fun read! This is the first Emily comic that I've tried, having previously read the novels featuring the character. The art in this format greatly adds to the experience and I found myself continuously stopping to have a better look at the complex and enticing artwork.

Emily is such a great protagonist - she's smart, confident and a problem-solving pro and as such is the perfect role model for young female readers. Add to that the bizarre challenges that pop up in her adventures and you've got the perfect combination for a really enjoyable and quick read.

I would highly recommend this graphic novel to any readers of YA (but especially those in the YA age bracket!) who aren't afraid to give a different format of reading a go, or who are looking for a change to their regular reading choices. They could do far worse than this visually creative and funny read.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy! Off first impressions, I thought this story sounded really cute and something fun, light, and easy to read. The plot was one that intrigued me and I was excited. I was thoroughly enjoying seeing Emily give her best efforts to win a contest - the prize being a guitar previously owned by the late rock god, Professa Kraken. It was a shame that after I got about 1/4 through, everything went downhill from there. I found it hard to get into, felt confused at times, and was too easily distracted by outside sources. In my opinion, the whole thing was just a bit messy. On a positive note, the illustrations were great. I especially enjoyed the band members' looks but other than that, it just didn't do it for me. It definitely had potential but just couldn't quite make it there. Although with the overall message the story projects and cute aspects (ie: all the cats, band members' looks), I think this volume will be enjoyed by a much younger audience that isn't expecting much.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Emily Strange is a quite interesting character, especially on her novels. I fell in love with her due to the creativity of the concepts and the skill of the writer and I hoped some of it would have transferred into this GN.

However, this book just falls painfully short. It's a small story about how Emily decides to create a band (all colour-coded for convenience), but the story basically is resumed to: Emily gathers a bunch of strangers to make a band, the band doesn't work, she summons the spirit of a super musician that lives in her guitar, he gives advice, they summon the final (orange) member and proceed to win the battle of the bands.

And that's it. It's painfully short, painfully trite, and doesn't do justice to Emily at all, instead, shoving a bunch of boring and flat characters in an attempt, I don't know, make her more markeatable? Maybe this would be interesting for band fans and music geeks, but even then...

Gets one extra star because of the awesome designs and art, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

[Aliya Schwerner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you, Netgalley, for allowing me to preview and review Emily and the Strangers. Emily is back!! Feeling slightly "off" and unsatisfied with many of her creations, Emily decides the only way she can get her mojo back is if she wins a guitar once owned by the late Professa Kraken. Of course, Emily wins, however, one small caveat to the contest is that she must participate in a battle of the bands. Problems arise when Emily, used to working by herself, must work with others in order to keep the guitar.
In this story, we are introduced to some new and memorable characters, and an old character reappears, much to he delight of die-hard Emily fans. Readers of Emily books will not be disappointed and will be anxiously awaiting the next installment in the series in which questions that arise in this book will hopefully be answered.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read. Emily has aspirations of being a rock star. When she hears that the guitar from one of her idols is being given away as a prize for a song writing contest, she decides to enter. As Emily writes the song her cats create some chaos & she thinks all is lost. She later discovers, as she's listening to the radio, that her song has been submitted after all & she has won. In order to keep the guitar however she now needs to win the battle of the bands. She meets Evan, an intern at the radio station, & decides to become part of his band to try to win the battle. We meet the band & go along with them on their hi-jinx to win. Do they win? You'll just have to read to see.


I was provided with an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Lucie Paris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the character of Emily Strange and it is with great pleasure that I immersed myself in this comic.
The synopsis looked fun and promising. The cover was beautifully illustrated so, I was hoping to have a good time.

Unfortunately, I was soon disappointed by the story. Too messy! Too much confusion and bickering that show Emily as very bossy and inflexible woman.

It's a shame that the story is confusing because the moral is that we need others to succeed and that some project can not be done alone.
But the plot failed to capture my interest.

Nevertheless, the illustrations are interesting, colorful and graphically very nice to follow and appreciate.

Lucie
http://newbooksonmyselves.blogspot.fr...

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emily loves cats, improbable inventions and rock music, and she prefers to do everything on her own.
Will she join a group of "strangers", to play rock together and create the most wonderful sound in the world?

A nice comic book, for youngsters and fans of Emily the Strange.

Thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the preview!

***

Emily adora i gatti, le invenzioni strampalate e la musica rock, e preferisce fare tutto per conto suo.
Deciderà di unirsi a un gruppo di "stranieri" per suonare insieme e creare la più bella musica di tutti i tempi?

Un fumetto simpatico, per ragazzini e i fan di Emily the Strange.

Grazie a Netgalley e Diamond Book Distributors per l'anteprima!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest drawback with the book is that Emily is kind of a pill, and yet part of her journey in the book is kind of learning to be less of a pill, and be able to play with others, literally, in a band.

I adore the artwork. They sets create effective atmosphere, generally with muted colors but popping when it needs to. I like the Escher influence, and I love how everything is crawling with cats. At first I was trying to figure out the significance of why more cats kept turning up, and I think it was just so there would always be cats.

The story could be stronger, but the art is amazing, and there is actually a recording of the song out that, and it works really well too.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily is back and better then ever! The artwork in this new look at Emily the Strange is fantastic. The story is interesting and easy to follow.

I wish this was around when I was a kid and first introduced to Emily. I have always been a huge fan. As a reluctant reader this book would have had me hooked and wanting to read more.

This Emily book reminds me of the old Sabrina the teenage witch comics. Emily's the bad girls Sabrina.

A fantastic read. I can't wait fit the next one.

*I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea what this is besides a hot mess. They've taken Emily from being a dark, quiet, and intelligent girl to being some kind of steampunk inventor wrapped up in cheap bossiness cliches. Who is the target audience for this? The moralistic lessons about teamwork would fit in better in a children's easy reader, since only the most devoted Emily-loving teen would give this more than the first issue. The whole thing feels like a cheap way to make a buck off a familiar character while copying and pasting a story from a bad issue of Archie.

[Black Tea Lady ☕️📚 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the drawings and her new look but I missed the way like she was back in the first comic books. Now there are more colors than ever. A little too colorful for my taste.... Looked like a little too Rainbow Brite-ish at the end. I missed her strange interviews with dark pop culture idols like Marilyn Manson or Elvira Mistress of the Dark, etc. Not Lost , Dark or Bored anymore. Emily not that strange anymore....

[Aleap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is beautifully colored but the storyline felt a bit scattered throughout the three issues that comprised the volume, not just in terms of overall feel and cohesiveness but also in terms of panel and bubble layout. With that said, I can see young teens really enjoying this graphic novel, so it is highly likely my library will be purchasing it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute, fun comic with just a bit of darkness. I liked Emily a lot as a character. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to read the original run or to continue with this reboot, but I'd probably buy them if I came across them. Received from NetGalley.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story and illustrations, for children and lovers of Emily.

Storia e disegni carini, per bambini e per gli amanti di Emily.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY DIAMOND BOOK DISTRIBUTORS FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Hyzenthlay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected more.

[Mersini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic art. Bland story line; the moral is there, but not told very well. And the characters fall into stereotypes.

Received from Netgalley.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/30/14 Review tk.

5/14/14 http://www.iwantmytwodollars.com/2014...

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2015...