Original G.I. Joe and Transformers go digital for IDW

G.I. Joe and Transformers climbed to their lofty perches atop Hollywood's food chain from their iconic beginnings on 80's television.

Now, IDW Publishing is helping to bridge the gap between those classic 80's shows and their 21st Century big screen adaptations with new series of digital comic books based on the adventures of Snake Eyes, The Baroness, Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Made especially for online devices like iPods and the iPhone, these digital comics should be a welcome site for hardcore fans of the original TV hits as they're not blown away by the CGI-driven movie adaptions. Yes, the animation of those after-school cartoons was about one frame every four minutes, but they had such purity and charm to their morality plays.

The newly available digital comics include IDW's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra prequel comics, plus Transformers movie tie-ins. In a formal announcement, IDW said it will continue to expand its electronic offerings with more G.I. Joe and Transformers stories each month.

IDW launched the first digital Transformers comics on May in iTunes. The series G.I. Joe: "Origins" is now on iTunes for the first time to lead up to this weekend's feature film premiere.