True confession time: I’m not, nor have I ever been, a teenage girl--which is why I suspect some of the charms of Emiko Superstar may have been lost on me. Still, it’s a testament to the substantial charms of the book that I was able to find something to enjoy in this story of a teenage girl who tries to find of own unique snowflake of specialness during a transformative summer.

Scotch-Japanese-Canadian Emiko (Emi) lost her job at a corporate coffee place but gained another job babysitting for a troubled couple--just when the malaise of summer begins to creep in. She doesn’t have many friends--having drifted away from her fellow geeks. Se doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself, or even who she wants to be. Worst of all, she’s bored, bored, bored!

Now . . . this next part will determine whether you’ll be able to go along with the story or if Emiko Superstar is not the book for you: By chance, Emi comes across a flyer advertising a creative collective at a Warholian Factory on the outskirts of town, and then (also by chance) she discovers a diary that allows her to find (or at least co-opt) a creative voice.

Writer Mariko Tamaki is in danger of making her protagonist a Mary Sue--almost everyone is interested in Emi, and things keep happening to her (very few of them bad). However, the fine touches in the story are what keeps it from being overly cute and bogged down in happenstance. Whereas Emi's mother could be the shrill harpy that fiction expects of its Asian moms, Emi’s mother is just kind of high-strung and anxious.

On the other hand, Emi's dad is presented as an almost-Zen Scotsman who knows something is up with his daughter--but he would never dare to pry.

Emi's kind-of sort-of love interest, Henry, wants to protect her while she figures out what kind of artist she wants to be. Indeed, Emi's search for identity is reflected in her dialog and the narration. Emi's speech is halting when she talks to other characters--fearful and evasive, most of the time, as she tries to work her way out of her shell.

At the same time, she’s curious and thoughtful in her narration (maybe a little too thoughtful with her frequent and slightly distracting music cues). At the beginning of the book, Emi's in kind of a nowhere place--a crossroads where she’s still trying to determine her identity and place in the world.

Steve Rolston’s clean and expressive art gives us a world that is crammed with background detail and lovely clutter. There’s some payoff between panels as background characters you weren’t paying attention to move to the forefront of the story in a way that warrants presenting this story in the comics medium. Many of the characters are also heavily detailed with many distinct body types and faces. Emi stands out the most with her slightly pudgy, squat frame, and freckled back nose, and shoulders.

If the book has one major failing it’s that it can’t decide how deep and dark into crisis it wants Emi to fall. The narrative touches upon infidelity as well as semi-parallel stories of longing and divorce, extreme art scenes, and uncomfortable sexual borders. However, before Emi can get too close to any of these elements, Tamaki pulls her back. In a couple of instances, the writer has Emi literally run away from danger.

Combined with the sanitized language (characters are obviously dropping f-bombs in the original script), the book has the sense of having gone through too much tinkering to smooth out the rough edges. Still, the glossy finish that remains is appealing and worth checking out.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins

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