In response to my recent Rosamunde/Emily Strange post, Rob Reger posted:
Dear Emily the Strange Friends and Foes,
I’ve been made aware of this blog and some similar ones with inquiries regarding the origination and creation of the Emily the Strange character. As you may be aware by what has been noted in many interviews and on Wikipedia, Nathan Carrico first conceived of and used Emily as a character for a skateboard design back in 1991. After seeing a sticker of the design, I thought the quirky “looks strange” design was in line with other tees Cosmic Debris was doing, and that it might resonate well with the crew I was selling to. I asked and received permission to use the design from Nathan. We then began creating Emily’s gothic, nonconformist, dark world by using a variety of original expressions (”I want you to leave me alone”, “Teacher’s Pest”, “Emily doesn’t search to belong…” etc.) and unique Emily designs on our t-shirts and other products. Several years thereafter, the character of Rosamond from the children’s book series Nate the Great was brought to my attention for the first time.
Although the designs and worlds of Rosamond and Emily are different and readily distinguishable, and although we never received any complaints from the author, the artist, or the publisher, we phased out the original skateboard design upon learning of the Rosamond character, and worked with the creative team to further distinguish Emily and her universe. Regarding copyright law, there is legally nothing wrong with sharing or implementing a unique variation on a concept. I have never drawn inspiration from the Nate the Great series or Rosamond. In fact, we at Cosmic Debris have always moved to individualize the idea of Emily the Strange and her universe, which are original to Cosmic Debris.
Today Cosmic Debris prides itself on what it has become over the years: the creative design house that is responsible for providing consumers with strong messages about feminism, empowerment and individualism. Through years of development, Emily the Strange has grown from simple graphics into a concept that reaches far beyond design. Through our fan forum, I have learned that Emily has comforted the suicidal, helped people accept their sexuality, and get through very taxing personal situations. This is all in addition to making everyone know it is okay, and even better, to be different. I am very proud of this, because that was and is my goal: to make the world feel more comfortable in its own skin.
We applaud your interest and hope you continue to stand up for what you believe— that’s what Emily would do.
Sincerely, Rob Reger
It looks like Rob has posted an identical letter in the comments section of Chelsea’s post on YouThoughtWeWouldntNotice.com (where I first found out about this) as well.
I’m impressed that Rob has responded so quickly; I can imagine many others would have ignored the controversy and hoped it would go away.
I also appreciate the clarification. It does seem as if Cosmic Debris and Rob phased out the original skateboard design as soon as they found out about the Nate The Great character. I still find it odd that Nathan Carrico is still given all the credit for designing Emily, with no credit given to the original author/illustrator or acknowledgement of how much he was influenced by the Nate The Great series.
The Wikipedia entry that Rob mentions does refer to Nate The Great and that people have noticed an overlap, but only as follows:
Although the Emily the Strange character dates from 1991, the 1978 children’s book Nate the Great and the Lost List features a similar young girl named Rosamond. Like Emily, Rosamond has long black hair and a short black dress, white mary jane shoes, four black cats, and is frequently described as “strange.” Multiple sources have noted this overlap, but no official statements have been issued by any of the copyright holders involved
From Nate The Great Goes Undercover, published in 1978:
Rosamunde did not look
hungry or sleepy.
She looked like she always looks.
Strange.
From an early Emily The Strange bumper sticker:
Emily didn’t look
tired or happy.
She looked like
she always looks.
Strange.
Rob says: “I have never drawn inspiration from the Nate the Great series or Rosamond.” That may be true, but then it seems to me that someone at the company did.
It’s entirely possible that Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Marc Simont may not want to get publicly involved at this point. Ms. Sharmat would be 81 and Mr. Simont would be about 93 today and if they haven’t posted their views on the issue by now, chances are good that they likely won’t.
But whether or not they publicly object, it still seems wrong to me that their creative influence in Emily’s origins are rarely acknowledged in text or interviews.
An excerpt from the EmilyStrange.com’s Terms of Use:
BPE and Cosmic respect the intellectual property of others, and ask that you and other users do the same.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
At least he’s an honest businessman and is willing to defend his creation and understand the similarities. All too often people borrow heavily from others and deny doing so by changing one little thing and saying that it is nothing like the original.
Kudos all around!!
This statement doesn’t excuse the fact that the two images in question are almost the same. The background is almost an exact copy reversed. The text has the same number of words, with only three fairly minor variations.
Sounds to me like Nathan Carrico “concieved” by stealing the idea all together, with minor modifications. He then didn’t bother to tell this to Rob who then went on to start making boffo bucks off of the character. Then a few years later someone said “Hey… these are the same.” and he went “OH SHIT!” and started to change them, hoping he wouldn’t eventually get caught. Ans although, as he “never drawn inspiration from the Nate the Great series or Rosamond.” the person he took the original concept from did.
And as for “Regarding copyright law, there is legally nothing wrong with sharing or implementing a unique variation on a concept.” Yes, but the original creator didn’t “share” it with you, and changing the name of the character and her cats is hardly “a unique variation”.
I love to see the actual copyright holder sue this guy’s ass because he obviously didn’t bother to get approval once the infringement came to light and hoped it would just go away.
At least, the above is all my opinion. If you believe original artists should get credit where credit is due, you may agree also.
Copyright protects expressions and not ideas. Unfortunately for this guy, he copied the expression in addition to the idea.
It’s just a little too much to think that Mr. Nathan Carrico somehow failed to read a series of books with his name in the title as a child. If someone published “MacKenzie the Great”, I know I’d read it.
Okay.. so “there is legally nothing wrong” with what was done. How about ethically and morally?
“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
I agree with “Me”. It was Nate that ripped it off, etc. I also agree with “Lamp”. If I was the artist even with no lawsuit. I’d get a big ole check of dinero and send it the original author and artist as a thanks for the inspiration gift. It would be the RIGHT THING TO DO.
“Today Cosmic Debris prides itself on what it has become over the years: the creative design house that is responsible for providing consumers with strong messages about feminism, empowerment and individualism.”
I guess individualism means “stealing and then pretending like you didn’t” or “trying to put a nice face on ripping off others”.
http://www.youngeomall.com/bemarket/shop/index.php?pageurl=page_goodsdetail&uid=2725
http://www.youngeomall.com/bemarket/imgs/save/upload/bookpage/kizC01_tardy_1.jpg
How can you say THIS looks like Emily the Strange? You cannot copyright a girl with bangs and cats.
Because that seems to be the only similarity. Why not look at every other girl with bangs or cats and say they should be sued for a character with Rosamond traits?
She bares no resemblance. OBVIOUSLY she has changed since that drawing.
In agreement with “Me” and “Laura”; when Rob Reger discovered “several years later” that the permission given to him by Nathan Carrico was for a drawing copied from the Nate the Great books, he made intentional business choices: to continue working on content that knew he never rightfully owned, to hide the most incriminating examples by discontinuing production of the exact copies, and to continually answer in interviews that the origin of the character is Nathan Carrico. His claim that he never gained inspiration from Nate the Great amounts to laundering of the intellectual property of Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Marc Simont.
I’m not a lawyer, and Rob Reger may have the right to his success as a businessman, but in this matter he has no right any claim of integrity.
Are you serious Cecil? Do you know this man? Than do no question his integrity. Why isnt anyone blaming Nate Carrico? It’s not the creators drawing so why rub his face in mud when he is not deserving of it?
“?”, I believe people have been quite open in assigning blame to Carrico, but Reger’s slippery attempt to elide responsibility for an act of plagiarism that has proven very lucrative for him is not redolent of the integrity you claim the man possesses. Particularly since comments very similar to yours appear post Reger’s response on all sites discussing this issue. No doubt it is entirely coiincidental.
I know Rob Reger, Cosmic Debris and many of the numerous artists that he employed over the last many years. Many of these artists were paid well and given a huge platform to launch their independent artistic careers from. Rob is a person with integrity and someone I am proud to have worked with. Everyone that has worked with Cosmic Debris that I had the pleasure of meeting were individuals of unique and talented qualities. The Emily the Strange brand enabled numerous persons to provide forthemselves while gaining enormous industry experience (artists, designers and professionals alike). This hate mongering is really sad and disgusting. What Emily’s origins may have been, they certainly were not and are not what Rob and his creative staff have crafted Emily to be. Rob has provided a vehical that is meaningful to many many people and those who are entertained by the darkness of this issue really need to look hard at their own self before wishing such ill on the Emily brand and Mr. Regar. I am forever his loyal and devoted champion. I believe in his message and his goals. AND FOR THE RECORD, he is not a multi-millionaire as those of you might think. I hope all you mud ruckers can find other things to keep you entertained.
Both carrico and Reger are just of bunch of illiterate thieves and liars ..
They make money out of the “gothic people” by selling them fancy items for big bucks. The story is that the items are manufactured in China where poor workers are exploited and all the creatives have been stolen. Those two assholes should be put to jail before they escape to Israel … Shame on YOU
I find the comment ‘mud ruckers’ hilarious. Aside from the fact that I believe the correct term is ‘muck rakers’, there is, as far as I can see, no ‘muck raking’ going on here. Just showing the facts as clear as day, as far as I’m concerned. I do not believe for one minute that the creator of Emily The Strange did not know about the existence of the character from Nate the Great. Anyone with any intelligence can see very quickly where this concept orignated. This is not muck-raking. It’s justice, plain and simple. I hope this story continues to get the attention it deserves, and that the creators of Nate The Great get justice in the blatant copying of their creation.