Emily The Strange #1: The Boring Issue

For more than 10 years, pop culture cultists have revered and adored a mysterious, brooding 13 year-old girl named Emily the Strange. Nobody knows much about the young girl with a porcelain face and huge eyes framed by black bangs, and her ever-present brood of black cats only adds to the intrigue - but that hasn't stopped a generation of rabid fans from letting Emily put her spell upon them. Now, for the first time ever, Emily fans will be welcomed into her dark and, well, strange world - a place where kitty friends talk, the ghosts of famous weirdos come out to play, reality is never quite what it seems, and - above all - a place where anyone who's ever been considered a little "strange" themselves will be made to feel right at home. Dark Horse Comics and the creative minds behind Cosmic Debris are thrilled to present the first-ever Emily comic books, published as deluxe single issues with all new stories and art. Each issue of Emily comics will feature 48 pages of black, white, and red art (with the occasional outburst of full-color freakouts!), illustrating a wacky range of Emily stories.

Gr. 9-12. In this graphic novel, Emily, a brooding girl in black with a posse of sinister cats, takes on the issue of boredom. Six short interludes depict her tackling tedium in venues such as the school lunchroom, where she spices things up with Strange Sauce, and in the graveyard with her friends. The fun doesn't stop there, as between vignettes Emily gives readers helpful hints on curing boredom at home, including "Thirteen Uses for Wire Hangers." The surface packaging seems targeted to a young crowd, but Emily's sharp, flippant humor will be best appreciated by older teens. With artwork in stark black, white, and red, and written in almost stream-of-consciousness style, this comic will appeal to the angst-ridden outsider in many teens. Librarians will want to deep-six the book's two pages of stickers. Tina Coleman
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