by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Have you seen this girl? She’s 13, rake thin with classic Goth hair, white Mary Janes, a black dress and four kitties to match, also known as her “posse.” She was last seen armed with a slingshot and an arsenal of wicked quips, and she tends to cast a long, feline shadow.

Chances are you’ve spotted Emily somewhere or other, in a boutique, a bookstore, a movie theatre or on T-shirts of trendy passersby. She’s been called “the anti-Hello Kitty,” “Eloise meets Edward Gorey,” “part Wednesday Addams, part riot grrrl,” a devilish outsider heroine for Goth teens, college kids, celebrities and grown-ups alike - and look out, babies, “Emiwee,” the toddler, is on the way.

Apart from being an “extra” in films like Vanilla Sky and TV shows like Mad TV, Emily has graced the chests of movie stars and musicians, from Julia Roberts to Britney Spears to Björk, and through her own clothes, comix, posters, buttons, books, bags, stickers and skateboards, Ms. Strange has become a celebrity in her own right, albeit in the Garbo mould (“I Want You!” reads one Emily design, “To Leave Me Alone.”)

But before all the press and the high profile product placement, Emily was just a face on a sticker, a freebie distributed at concerts, record stores and skate shops to promote Cosmic Debris, the clothing line founded by skateboarder Rob Reger and racecar driver Matt Reed. Reger designed Emily in 1992 for a skateboard company in Santa Cruz, where Cosmic Debris was born - in Reger’s garage, specifically. Since then, it’s blown up into a multi-million dollar firm with 21 employees, a warehouse in Oakland, a boutique in San Francisco and an all-Emily store in Tokyo called Emily’s Hideout. The company’s jaunt in Japan is no surprise, as all of its designs - Emily, Bon Bon, Yum Pop, Oopsy Daisy and 11:11 - bear the influence of minimal, cutesy Japanese graphics.

“We certainly hope that this will lead to more stores in Japan and elsewhere in the world,” says Reger by e-mail (with the holidays looming, he’s busy as all hell). “We’re also doing a lot of Emily Buildouts in our best retail outlets. They’re like mini stores within stores, built in a very Emily style.”

Montrealers can stock up at boutiques such as Scarlett O’Hara, Fly, Off the Hook, Vertige, Meg™me and Haus, but Hot Topic is the U.S. chain that provides Americans with Emily swag - in fact, a Hot Topic division called Torrid even offers quadruple extra large tees and hoodies for the morbid, morbidly obese. But not all Americans are thrilled with Cosmic Debris’ eye candy.

“Once, a store stopped carrying our products because there were DEVIL HORNS on a character,” says Reger. “Occasionally, we get written up as a ‘negative influence’ type of company, but much more often we have articles written about our kick ass design team and how cool it is that we promote being yourself, questioning authority and making fun of silly things.”

Punk rock roots

Cosmic Debris’ punk rock roots ring loud and clear through Emily’s vengeful trickery and agro-creepy catch-phrases (“My problem is you,” “Emily isn’t crazy, she’s mad”), Oopsy Daisy’s bizarre faux-pas (“Oopsy, I said the F-word,” “Ouchy! Heavy metal hurts!”), and Bon Bon’s guitar-smashing mod antics (“Who’s next?”).

“Your roots are always with you,” says Reger. “I still rely on the dry wit and sarcastic humour I found from skating with punks in high school. Buzz (our Web site designer and poster artist) still rips up pools and parks everywhere. Also, we have a few shredding girls who we sponsor – TEAM ESP. Check ’em out on the site. Skate Strange!”

Apart from its huge selection of merch, the sprawling Emily Web site, www.emilystrange.com, lets us into Emily’s nocturnal world, a solitary place apart from her cats Mystery, NeeChee, Sabbath and Miles. It’s also highly interactive, featuring games, “Ghoul School” - where you can submit your own photos and stories for demerit badges - and the “Time-out” machine, where you can suggest historical hot-spots for Emily to visit - some highlights so far include her standing in the audience at an early ’80s punk show and taking the place of Jesus in “The Last Supper.” The site also features an optional soundtrack to your surfing, some shadowy post-rock by Reger’s band Thuja, as well as links to purchase discs by a handful of other acts.

“Many are friends’ bands, like the Lies and the Fucking Champs,” says Reger. “Some are fave bands like the Damned, but all have a sensibility that Emily would appreciate.”

The only Emily-related music release so far is the Lies’ 2001 seven-inch single featuring a cover of Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play,” backed by “When Emily Cries” by the Knit Separates. However, Emily’s move into multiple mediums has only begun.

Books, TV, movies

“Emily’s second book, Emily’s Secret Book of Strange, hits the shelves in a couple of months. It’s a much deeper look into Emily’s world, with more personal facts,” says Reger of the follow-up to Emily: The Strange, both products of Chronicle Books.

Inevitably, Reger has also been plied with TV and movie proposals, some of which suggest sober, animated vignettes in the Pink Panther tradition, while one dared to write Emily as a 16-year-old with a boyfriend.

“I’m currently working on a story for a movie, but it’s too early to see how it’ll all go down,” says Reger. “It’s my dream to have a feature using a variety of animation styles and ideas.”

Regardless of what she does and where she goes, Reger will always keep a tight reign on his creation. Though he has no kids of his own, just a girlfriend and, of course, “a very loveable cat,” the 33-year-old has an undeniable bond to “Mommy’s little monster.”

“I pretty much am the father of Emily,” he says. “I’m always making sure everything is okay with her and steering her in the right directions. But it would be great to have a kid like Emily. She’s a girl who can stand up for herself, knows what she wants, is funny, intelligent, tough and cute all at once. Sounds like the dream kid to me.” :