On The Cheap: Get ‘Jem And The Holograms’ Volume 1 For Four Bucks Today

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.

As someone who became a fan of the Jem and the Holograms cartoon as an adult, the comic version fixes what might be my only problem with the original series, which is that Jerrica Benton had no real reason to keep her identity as the world's most popular glam rocker a secret. Here, though, Thompson and Campbell recast Jerrica as a singer with severe stage fright who gets to live out all of her outsized dreams --- specifically the dream of being seven feet tall with eight feet of hot pink hair --- through the power of holograms.

Because of that, the rest of the show falls into place. As Jem, Jerrica's shyness becomes an aloof coldness that makes her seem like a diva who's never around for rehearsals, and rather than being a creep who's dating two women who happen to be the same woman without ever really mentioning it to each other, Rio reacts to Jem with suspicion for seemingly not pulling her weight.

And the Misfits?

Well, the Misfits are great.

The story is full of action, romance, and even at least one of the cartoon's signature attempted murders, and between Thompson's razor-sharp characterization and Campbell's beautiful, ever-changing designs, it's ended up as one of the best comics on the stands. If for some reason you haven't picked it up yet, four bucks is a steal.