BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO
Maybe THE PULSE should do a Fight Club Friday featuring Emily the Strange versus Nate The Great's Rosamond, as the two are the subject of a court battle now. According to the Courthouse News Service, Emily the Strange's Cosmic Debris Etc. has filed suit against Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont over their "Nate the Great" copyrights. According to the article: "Cosmic Debris asks that the defendants be restrained from recovering damages regarding Emily, and that they be prohibited from claiming that Emily infringes on their work."

This debate over those two characters' similarity is one that has been dissected on several blogs and websites for over two years. One of the first articles appeared on Coffeeghost.net in 2006. Coffeehouse Ghost posted an article called "Emily the rip-off," which posed that Emily the Strange, a character created in 1991, was a blatant rip-off of Rosamond, a supporting player in the popular Nate the Great children's book series, created in 1978. The article noted the similarities in their look, demeanor and tastes in pets, since each had four black cats.

It was this image that seemed to get the internet abuzz, with claims that Emily was a blatant rip-off of Rosamond. Both characters are kind of in the same pose, both characters are surrounded by their cats, and the accompanying text is almost too close to be just a coincidence.

Almost two years later The Laughing Squid revisited the subject matter, and posted their own speculation about the similarities between the two properties. They posted the text below from the Cosmic Debris Website, which had CD founder and Emily co-creator Rob Reger acknowledging the Rosamond connection.





Reger wrote:

Quote:
"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."


However, it seems as if the creators of Nate The Great, Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont have heard of Emily the Strange, and are none too happy about the similarities. Although neither Rosamond or Emily are the original Goth girls -- there was Vampira, Morticia and Wednesday Addams, to name a trio created before the Silver Age -- the likeness between these two characters is uncanny. There was no initial response from the Nate The Great copyright owners, because the duo, (who are in their eighties and nineties) according to The Laughing Squid were unaware of Emily the Strange.

Possibly until The Laughing Squid contacted Simont for a comment about Emily. Simont responded, "Thank you for your interest in the Emily the Strange caper, which I just learned about a few days ago. Marjorie Sharmat, the author, and I have referred it to the legal department of the publisher. We have not had any contact with Cosmic Debris. Marjorie has the rights to the text and I have the rights to the illustrations. The illustrations are copyrighted in my name."

It appears as if their legal department is now involved. Those interested in the details of the suit can read a PDF from a link at The Courthouse News


Those of you familiar with both properties, what do you think of this?