Cover art for Jem Dimensions #3 (retailer incentive variant) 10"x16" // spray paint, gouache, and colored pencil // 2017 I actively avoided the world of IDW's Jem comics for years because I'm a hardcore fan of the original 80's series, the kind of annoying super nerd that is never satisfied by anything but the original and needs to set everyone on the internet right about it. Anyway, I've now read all of the comics because they totally blew me away.
So getting an email out of the blue from IDW asking if I wanted to do a cover for the new Dimensions series definitely checked a box off my childhood dreams come true list. I wanted to express Jem's core personality using as few graphic elements as possible. I brought in materials and techniques that recalled the aesthetic of the original series as a way to quickly communicate the character and brand identity. Jem is a holographic projection, an illusion, essentially only existing for the stage. Her "true identity" is as much Synergy, the supercomputer projecting her holographic form, as it is Jerrica, the woman wearing that hologram. I blended Jem's hair, makeup, and dress with the negative space of the background gradient to create a sense of her being there but also not. The gradient itself mimics the original logo and the spray painted color gives her a bit of an ephemeral ghost-like quality.
