Review of Emitown Volume Two

Cover of Emitown: A Sketch Diary
Volume Two. Art by Emi Lenox.

What happens when you combine cute art, autobiographies, and a love of animals? Emi Lenox’s Emitown, of course! The second mammoth anthology collects Lenox’s daily pages from May 2010 to April 2011, and follows Emi as she falls in and out of love, her life as a comic creator, and her unending fear of bears.  Following on from the brilliantly fun volume one where Emi was floundering in a world of uncertainty, comics, the fun of Medicine Friday (which is something I really want to try with my friends!) and the never-ending battlefield of love, Emi goes through another year of change, and her art style continues to grow and mature. Lenox brings together a fun writing/recounting style with frankly adorable artwork to create quite possibly one of the most honest and refreshing autobio comics to date. 

Lenox’s writing style is incredibly unique, and in the telling of her life, she is able to reveal enough about she and her friends that you feel an emotional attachment straight away, but only enough that not too much is given away! Combine this with a flurry of familiar names in the comics world (in particular Jeff Lemire, whom Lenox did a selection of guest strips for his fantastic series Sweet Tooth) and you get the complicated patchwork of friends that makes up the background of Emitown. Lenox often reveals her deepest and darkest fears, loves and very relatable worries in a distinct way; referring to her love life troubles through her Army Cats and White Heart/Black Heart mini-strips entwined carefully within Emitown, makes it a truly believable and loveable series. While in some places It feels like it has literally been torn from Lenox’s private diary, that is the exact intention, and it is this sense of undeniable honesty that makes it so brilliant, and it is the sheer honesty of the strips that makes it feel so realistic and emotional. 

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Furthermore, her art style has matured and grown so much from the previous volume; while already enjoyable, adorable and detailed, she raises the bar in volume two, crafting the world around her in a familiar glow, making it seems as if you’ve been around Portland with Emi herself millions of times before. The visible journey her art takes is just as spectacular and fun as the journey that Emi herself takes throughout this volume, including her relationship with Tim, her progress into the world of comics, and her time at conventions. 

Emitown is cute, quirky and fun, just like creator Emi Lenox, and the simply well-crafted storytelling make this book more than worth the read. 

You can find Emi Lenox’s work on her site here. 

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