Patrick:
My pick this week is the penultimate issue in the first arc of IDW’s “Jem and the Holograms #5” written by Kelly Thompson and art by Sophie Campbell. I guess in retrospect I enjoyed the previous issues, but this one really stood out, as we got multiple plot threads and a lot of the action coming to a crescendo. The slow play of the duality of Jerrica/Jem identity catching up with her, and the star-crossed love story between Kimber and Stormer moving along, this issue has a whole lot of great moments.
So much happens in this issue that it is hard to recap, but we finally get to the Battle of the Bands like competition, and we get resolved the cliffhanger from issue 4. We get more of Synergy, more of the Misfits, and more of the relationship the sister’s share. It really is a case of too much to sum up in a review, so just pick it up and read it today. What I will say of Kelly’s writing is that it is really well paced, and this issue feels like the 4th act of a one hour TV show. Her dialogue remains her s
strongest asset, with Aja and Kimber getting a lot to say in this issue.
Jem and the Holograms really carried me through this week’s comic pulls, and stood out as my favorite, despite there being some competition. It is hard to think back to a time when not only did I not know a thing about Jem, but I was pretty sure that I didn’t like it. It was a cartoon that my sister’s watched, along with My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite. While I have obviously changed my tune on MLP in our episode where we discovered that the new show is amazing, I am now just waiting on that gritty Rainbow Brite reboot and I will be living like a 12 year old girl in my dude 30’s. Speaking of MLP, it makes me happy that the Carnivals of the JatH universe have an amazing stock of Pony stuffed animals.
I wanted to take some more time to praise Sophie Campbell’s art in this book. She must enjoy the costume and hair changes that the band members go through, because they are really well detailed and presented, and it fits really well in the story as these are musicians in a world that seems very visually focused. The character design in this book is perfect, with the Jems all given a unique style that grows out through the series. The punkish Misfits too are really well defined, and in this issue we get to see more of them, including a down-time Pizazz playing with her cat – a scene that humanized her more than anything else. I also really wanted to point out the colors in this book M. Victoria Robado are amazing. It is a beautiful bubblegum world that really captures the spirit of the book and the cartoon source well. There are few books that pop as much as this one, and Sophie’s cover this week is one of my favorites so far of this run.
If you like fun books, dear lord why aren’t you reading this already? Pick this up, read, and enjoy Jem and the Holograms #5 are out today.
Myles:
I decided that maybe I shouldn’t be the only to continually gush over Jem. It’s just as well that Patrick borrowed the mic from my soapbox because it gives me the opportunity to continue my praise for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
While you can trace the spark back to Afterlife with Archie, 2015 will undoubtedly be known as the Year of Archie. Archie vs Predator, Sabrina, and the Mark Waid/Fiona Staples relaunch of the core Archie title have both completely reinvigorated the company creatively and brought media and critical attention to the Archie brand it hasn’t known in decades, possibly ever. And we still have Betty & Veronica and Jughead still coming out this year!
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #4 picks up with last month’s cliffhanger: Harvey Kinkle, Sabrina’s beloved boyfriend, stumbled upon the coven’s ancient coming of age ritual for Sabrina, and is now being targeted for death.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacas, Robert Hack, and Jack Morelli never waver from the overall melancholy tone they’ve brought to the character. What’s fascinating about Sabrina is how torn she is. You’ve seen her in dark apathy as a witch who is clearly above the mere mortals that attend her high school, yet you’ve also seen a passionate fifteen year old girl who genuinely cares about her boyfriend and companions. It’s a difficult juxtaposition to juggle and the team consistently handles it with apparent ease.
As I noted last month, the visual style nails the atmosphere with a classic EC Comics vibe, which strengthens this reintroduction of Sabrina as a serious book. Afterlife With Archie, while extremely solid, carries a bit of kitsch to it. Not a bad thing, but the concept, especially at the time, definitely came from a very cool kind of novelty. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t novelty, elevating it as a proper horror or “weird fiction” book that puts another feather of variety in the ever-expaning brim of Archie Comics’ cap. This book has gone from “oh, this is kind of a neat take on this old character” to “this is a legitimately cool horror book and everyone into the genre should be reading it.”