How I became an Emily Strange artist

I first met artist Rob Reger when he was the teaching assistant for my Etching II class with Larry Thomas at the San Francisco Art Institute. We bonded over a shared backgrounds of going to punk shows and love of Frank Zappa.

After earning my BFA in Printmaking, I applied to schools in New England to study graphic design, and moved to Boston, where I worked temp jobs at printing presses before landing a stint as a clerk at the tiny Grolier Poetry Bookshop (wiki, website).

I spent countless hours in every bookstore I could find (including my favorites in Cambridge: The Coop, Harvard Bookstore), which led me to discover—and become a devoted fan of—Edward Tufte (wiki, website) and his classics: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Envisioning Information.

I received an acceptance letter and enrolled myself to attend the inaugural class in Design at School Of Visual Arts in New York City. I made trips into Manhattan, for the interview, and then to look for housing. I happened to have friends from SFAI living there, Vanessa, and Jibz. I house sat for them and was able to spend time exploring the city searching for For Rent signs. There was no internet to browse listings, no school housing to fall back on. In hindsight, I guess I should have used an agency.

I was super anxious, but excited, for what would come next. But that soon turned to despair as I couldn’t find a place to live, in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I finally found one in Queens, but it was far, and I’d be sharing a space with too many dudes.

The loans I was about to take out were existential, unreal. I couldn’t find a job I wanted – so I was about to go into debt – to perhaps find a job I wanted?  What was I getting myself into?

Rob had been calling me throughout the year—he kept wanting to let me know: Skip the school, skip the loans, come learn on the job, get paid, and let’s make something big. This was coming from someone who had just gone through graduate school. He was building his team, and he had a vision.

At the same time, I had an offer for a room in a flat where my band was living in Oakland, just across the Bay from San Francisco. My band were my buddies from Phoenix, Shane and Andrew. We all met at Central High School. Shane and I got to know each other while hanging out at Tracks In Wax record store on Central Avenue.

Shane was a fellow artist and we hit it off immediately and began collaborating on drawings and soon, music. We formed Stop That Please, which turned into Psychic Coffee, which is when Andrew entered the picture. We then became Breakfast With Idiots and we began playing out and recording. Andrew went away to college, and Shane and I continued to play our “rock” shows with other guys on bass. We were a blend of art rock, comedy rock, stadium rock, glam and goth.

Shane and I agreed to apply to art schools and only go to the one we both got in. That turned out to be the San Francisco Art Institute. SFAI was dedicated to fine art. There wasn’t even a computer on the campus, that I was aware of. The school did get a computer lab the year after I left. It didn’t take long for me to discover the Printmaking Department, and in particular screen printing, that is what I really fell for. I enjoyed the process.

At the San Francisco Art Institute, I met a number of hugely influential figures, mostly within the student population. They were everywhere.

One friend was Vanessa Contessa Salle. Vanessa’s mother had a cat named Mystery. This cat is now forever intertwined with Emily The Strange.

Another was Jibz Cameron (now known as Dynasty Handbag). Jibz had a character named Spy Girl. Spy Girl was a series of stickers. The similarities to Emily Strange were a coincidence. Rob already had Emily designs going on. Years later while working with Cosmic, I made it a point to stay away from Spy Girl vibes. But the simplicity and interplay of character and words must have had an impression.

Andrea The Giant has a Possee was becoming a thing with national attention. Sticker art was one way of getting your art out there. I made stickers, but I was bad at the sticking them around town part.

At this time psychedelic posters were just coming back into fashion thanks single handedly to artist Frank Kozik. His subject matter, mixed cartoony violence with children’s book illustration, using bright day-glo colors and coloring book-simple illustrations. Very up my alley.

Adrea the Giant and Frank Kozik, were inspirations of the time, artists getting their work out there into mainstream was the name of the game, outside of ‘the art world’ and outside of the comic book shops.

Another was Gerald Hawk. I lived with artist Gerald Hawk for a year. He was from Michigan, but had moved out to Phoenix and embedded himself into the art scene there, before attending SFAI. We spent a summer together in Phoenix as well. He taught me how to have events, how to write a press release, how to be creepy, and how to be weirder. Two of his albums were released on the Sun City Girls record label Abduction Records.

It was during my time with Gerald that I began creating coloring book zines and artwork dedicated to Paul McCartney which lead to my first cease & desist letter from Paul’s lawyer.

Over my years with Emily The Strange, we would receive cease & desist letters from: Van Halen, Peter Max, and New York City.

Another was Derek Martin. He pushed me further and further, and helped me question everything even more, and then even more.

Emily Strange History

Emily first appeared as a skateboard graphic for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the early 1990s.

As a gig, Rob Reger, was a screen printer and began selling shirts out of his van to local shops. As his catalog of designs expanded he teamed up with a UC Santa Cruz alum named Lyndon who helped Rob screen print the shirts.

Rob moved up to SF to attend the San Francisco Art Institute and get a graduate degree in Printmaking. Rob found a room in a warehouse south of Market, and as luck would have it, soon took over two huge rooms after his house mates moved out and he was able to get his name on the lease. This space became the home base for Cosmic Debris.

Lyndon made the move up to SF.

Rob convinced a buddy Matt Reed to move up to SF as well to help him turn Cosmic Debris into something big. Matt had recently been part of a skateboard T-shirt company Stoopid. Rob would take care of the art, Matt would take care of the business. Cosmic Debris Etc., Inc. was born.

The Cosmic Debris Art Department Pre-Brian (1996-1999)

Another alum of Santa Cruz, Noël Tolentino, began helping Rob with the art and laying out the catalog. Noël was a talented graphic designer, and knew publishing, typography, history.

Noël was known in the zine world as the creator of Bunnyhop magazine.  What set Bunnyhop apart, was that it was more like a full on magazine with national distribution. You could get them at your local Tower Records.

Noël would soon have his own clothing lines under the Cosmic Debris banner: Yum Pop, and later with Bon Bon.

Rob had been working with various illustrators on new Emily designs.

Other Illustrators Cosmic had worked with recently included Amy Davis and Fawn Gehweiler.

Rob as well, continued to have series of one-night pop up art shows at local bars and restaurants, inviting all of his artist friends to show their art, and meet each other. I participated a couple of events.

I was working temp jobs, and felt burned out on living in the Tenderloin with no plans for success. After graduation, the loss of the school and facilities, I lost what I had been doing for 3 years, screenprinting. My medium switched to the photo copy machine, and my format was printed zines. I didn’t see myself going far in my current situation.

I had zero desire to become a gallery artist. I had a feeling my little zines would lead the way.

As part of my independent studies I decided to keep reading, I decided upon reading the beat poets. I had been attracted to San Francisco through the psychedelic posters renaissance from the Family Dog, and Fillmore poster advertisements of the 1960s, I figured I would learn where the hippie movement had been inspired by, the beats. What the heck did they say that inspired another movement?

I”m not sure I figured it out, but immediately after I read On The Road by Jack Kerouac,  I knew I had to push myself out the door and across the country for a new adventure. You have to do something, if you want to be something, I thought.

I decided to leave SF and get myself to the east coast where my folks were from, and where my brother Andy was in Boston, having just finished BU.

I had my stuff shipped to Boston, and flew home to Phoenix where I stayed with Mom for a month, before continuing on to start a new life. The plan was to apply to schools and go live in Boston while I awaited the decisions from the schools.

Mom helped me write my letter. Mom and I also had time to hang out and on one occasion we found ourselves at Metrocenter, one of the malls we used to frequent in the 70s and 80s. As we walked through Hot Topic, I had my first sighting of Emily Strange ‘in the wild’. a notebook with an Emily screenprinted on the cover. It was on the wall behind the counter, I felt so proud to point it out to mom and say “I know the guy that did that!”.

This was earlier Hot Topic, they had not yet gone full Hot Topic.

Emily Strange wasn’t well known yet, but was starting to get known in the Bay Area and up and down the California coast, as Matt or Rob would drive the shirts down the coast to deliver them. They were starting to be consistently in regional boutique retailers and skate shops that would keep Emily shirts and sticker in stock.