Emily the Rip-Off
Emily the Strange [en.wikipedia.org] is fictional character whose introverted and disdainful personality has made her something of a countercultural icon (and a great way to sell marketable products to the trendy). Her franchise has churned out a lot of merchandise (clothes, toys, books, etc.)
But the character itself is almost an exact copy of another (less desperately nonconformist) character, Rosamond, from the children’s book series “Nate the Great”. Emily the Strange, according to the wikipedia page, was “created” in 1991 to promote the Cosmic Debris clothing line. The Nate the Great series was first published in 1978 and continue on into the 80’s.
Emily the Strange is a young, slim girl with long, straight, black hair and wears a short black dress. She has four cats (named Mystery, Miles, Sabbath, and Nee-Chee).
Rosamond (who predates Emily by a decade) is a young, slim girl with long, straight, black hair and wears a short dress. She has four cats (named Super Hex, Big Hex, Plain Hex, and Little Hex).
Emily’s cats now have distinguishing features, but originally they differed only in their sizes (exactly like Rosamond’s cats).
Pictures of Emily:
Pictures of Rosamond:
Pictures of general Emily the Strange merchandise:
I think the renewal of previously “commercially successful” merchandise and the like is extremely prevalent in today’s world. Just look at Fox’s T.V Show Family Guy. Remind you of something? The Simpsons perhaps? Just think about it. A fat, slob of a husband with an unstable job supporting a wife he doesnt deserve, an outcast daughter, a good for nothing son, and a suprisingly sophisticated infant child.
It doesnt really matter. It’s just a though.
Comment on May 25, 2007 @ 5:21 am
Thanks for posting this. Being an artist, there was always something a little wonky in my mind about the easy of take-off on the emily character. I never liked it, it felt secondary. It wasn’t till I was reading a Nate the great book to my 4 year old son that I went BAM there’s the reason I didn’t like Emily, she’s a total rip-off. The book I have has such a typical emily pose picture in it with Rosamond, complete with the same type of background and pose of cats, not to mention that at the end of the page with the pic it even calls Rosemond “strange”. It’s all to obvious. If someone doesn’t sue, they sure should since they’ve made a hell of a lot of money ripping someone else off.
Comment on September 8, 2008 @ 9:32 pm