Jem and the Holograms

This week at Comixology, IDW has launched a big sale on their all-ages titles, and folks, if you have been waiting for the opportunity to jump onto the epic, ongoing saga that is Angry Birds (written by Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin, for real!), now is your opportunity. But even if your interest goes beyond flinging birds at pigs, there's plenty in there to check out, including Top Shelf titles from James Kochalka, Aaron Renier's Spiral Bound, and of course, their massively successful My Little Pony comics. But mixed in with the rest of the books, there's one title that stands out as the unquestionable star of the show: The first volume of Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell's Jem and the Holograms, which is not only one of ComicsAlliance's favorite ongoing titles, but may actually be the best possible adaptation of Jem - and you can grab it today for only four bucks.

Jem and the Holograms is about an all-woman glitter rock band and their quest to rise from the ranks of the Sufficiently Outrageous to become Truly Outrageous. The group has run into a problem: the lead singer, Jerrica, is terrified of singing in public. Thanks to Jerrica’s deceased father, though, they also have a solution: a holographic supercomputer that helps Jerrica create a stage persona that lets her get over her phobia. There would be a lot of resonant storytelling with me if it just stopped there, since I know a thing or two about how a persona you can put on and take off can make things easier –- and harder. Like Jerrica, I also have a secret identity. However, sometimes solutions just free you up to tackle new problems, and the new problem that plagues Jem and the Holograms is their rival band, the Misfits, who claim that their songs are better and that they are going to get her.

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

Jem and the Holograms has been one of the best comics on the stands ever since its debut, and one of the things that really makes it work is how it expands on the original cartoon in ways that make perfect sense. Jerrica's stage fright, Stormer and Kimber's super-cute relationship, and the recasting of Rio as a music reporter put off by Jem's standoffish nature, have all helped to build Kelly Thompson, Sophie Campbell and Emma Vieceli's story into a great, fleshed-out world. Now, with "Dark Jem" kicking off this week, they're turning that world upside-down. The Misfits have lost a lead singer, the Holograms are going dark, and something's wrong with Synergy. To find out more, ComicsAlliance spoke with Thompson about the direction for the next arc, the challenge of making Pizzazz and the Misfits sympathetic, and why the current arc has an awful lot to do with The Karate Kid.

Our judges have adjudicated; our readers have voted. We’re proud to present to you the best teen comic of 2015 — and four great runners up.

Our judges have adjudicated; our readers have voted. We're proud to present to you the best first issue of 2015 — and five great runners up.

The weekend is here! Put down your paperwork, throw your stationery out of the window, and do a victory spin in your office chair, because it’s time to catch up on that greatest of all media: comics! What’s been going on this week? There’s so much comics that there’s no way anybody can keep up with all of it — so Weekender is here to catch you up on some of the stories you may have missed, and some of the best writing about comics from the past few days.

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

Y'all know about Techrat, right? He's the single most ludicrous character in the entire Jem and the Holograms franchise, and considering that the baseline for weirdness in that show included a record executive with a completely unnecessary secret identity and a group of punked-up glam rockers who tried to murder their enemies on several occasions, including throwing them into an active volcano once, that's saying something. Techrat, on the other hand, is a full-on evil genius supervillain, and by that, I mean he's the character who invented a working time machine on the show. So needless to say, I've been waiting for him to show up and make an impact ever since the new series launched at IDW. Now, thanks to Kelly Thompson and Emma Vieceli, he's not only appearing, he's appearing in a disguise that's a reference to The Karate Kid, so it looks like we've got another strong contender for the best single issue of the year. Check out a preview and watch the Misfits crashing Jem's Halloween party below!

I'm already about a week into celebrating Christmas, but even I think that it might be a little too early to start thinking about Valentine's Day. But for those of you looking past pretty lights on the tree and a New Year's Eve kiss, IDW is already plotting to help you celebrate your romance with a series of variant covers that can double as valentines to your sweetheart.