EmiTown Volume 1

From the whimsical to the tragic, EMI LENOX brings you into her world with superb cartooning, a brilliant cast of characters, and an innocent perspective often left on the cutting room floor of other diary comics. With a broad range of styles, everyday is an adventure from the morning breakfast burrito to metaphoric tales of superheroes and battlefields of love. Emi proves that life is never dull in her first annual collection of EmiTown!

Based out of her hometown, Portland, Oregon, Emi has spent the last year doodling everyday in her diary sketchbook and taking on internships within the comics community. Having been raised on manga (via her Japanese mother) she has dreamed about becoming a cartoonist at a young age. In her early twenties the works of Jeff Smith, Adrian Tomine, and Craig Thompson entered her life and super inspiration struck! This is Emi’s first published work.

Introduction by JAMIE S. RICH.

"EmiTown is the rare and charming comic that doesn't resort to nudity and misanthropy for it's entertainment. It's just adorable" - David Hahn (Bite Club, Fables)

"Emi can draw like nobody's business. Her style is fabulous!" - Jamie S. Rich (You Have Killed Me, Spell Checkers)

"Some of the nicest cartooning I've discovered in a long time" - Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)

"Emi Lenox misrepresented herself to me as someone who doesn't draw, when in fact she does. Really well too. Good narcissism!" - Jeff Parker (Underground, Agents of Atlas, X-Men: First Class)

In Emitown, Lenox provides a whimsical illustrated account of a year in her life, joining the growing legion of 20-something female cartoonist autobiographers (Julia Wertz, Erica Moen, and many others). Living in Portland, Ore., and dreaming of a career in comics, Lenox chronicles nights out drinking, her love of her pets, the tedium of her day job, and her social set's adventures around the Northwest. While based in day-to-day reality, Lenox's world is also populated by a fantasy army of cats and the superhero Ocean Girl, both helping her navigate emotionally difficult territory. Song lyrics swirl through the pages, and each month begins with a playlist informing readers of their origins. The pages are emotionally revealing, but mercifully circumspect when it comes to the author's romantic life; in the age of the tell-all, Lenox keeps much to herself. As likable as it all is, at over 400 pages it's way too much minutiae, and the days become repetitive despite Lenox's considerable talents as an artist. But her struggle to escape a desk job for creative fulfillment will ring true to many people who have survived their 20s. (Jan.)
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