Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1: Preview

[alicemacher]

Archie Comics, given its success with the excellent Afterlife with Archie series, is launching a second "Teen+"-rated horror title October 8. The writer, once again, will be Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and the artist Robert Hack. Aguirre-Sacasa told Comic Book Resources:

"Robert [Hack] and I are doing something different with our 'Sabrina' series. This is not the Sabrina from 'Afterlife,' she exists in a separate universe. And it's an epic, occult, coming-of-age story, set in the 1960s, so it's a period piece, as well. And half of the first issue, which is super-sized, is Sabrina as a little girl, a bad seed, before she even gets to high school."

Here are two of six preview pages of the first issue prologue (included in the above CBR link and as an appendix to Afterlife with Archie #6).

On Hallowe'en 1951, the daughter of witch Edward Spellman and his mortal wife Diana has turned one year old. Edward prepares to remand the girl, as Diana had agreed, into the custody of his sisters Hilda and Zelda. Diana has other plans and flees with her daughter into the forest, intending to seek sanctuary in a church. But Edward and siblings magically get the jump on her.

Comments

[silverhammerman]

I must say, despite some lingering misgivings about Afterlife With Archie I do really like what Archie Comics is doing launching a mini horror line. It's a neat supplement to their main titles that can appeal to a different audience. I am a little disappointed that this doesn't tie into Afterlife, if only because I like the idea of having a single cohesive, horror version of the Archie universe.

Now I'm just praying for a horror version of Jughead's Diner/Time Police.

[obsidianwolf]

I go back and fourth a single horror universe would be kind of neat especially after that clif hanger in the last After life with archie. (I dread waiting months to find out what happens next) on the other I absolutely love that Archie comics has just full on embraced the multiverse concept and run with it.

There's something really refreshing about a comic company just trusting their readers are smart enough to tell what universe they are reading based on the title(s). I mean there's just something nice about them letting what happened to Sabrina in after life with archie happen in one universe, A rosemary's baby style story in this new one and classic SAbrina appearing in the main archie titles form time to time and Rule 63'ing the entire town of Riverdale (oh wait that was Salem Sabrina had to fix it.)

[espanolbot]

I'm always kind of confused that the horror themed tie-in to Sabrina didn't happen sooner (although she did host a Tales of the Crypt type thing back in the day), as having a legitimate magic-using witch in town should really be a bigger deal than the rest of Riverdale treat it.

Like, from what I gather it's kind of an open secret about Sabrina, Salem the Cat and her aunts (hence why Afterlife of Archie took off with Jughead taking a dog to her to resurrect), you'd think that it would show up a bit more often.

Or maybe Sabrina and her relatives are actually much better at keeping magical and regular stuff seperate, so they don't end up leaking into each other like in Charmed or Buffy.

I am kind of curious as to whether Sabrina exists in the Archie Spire Christian Propaganda comics universe or not though...

Salem ain't the cat in that one.

[7dialsmystery]

If she does, they would burn her and her aunties and dad at the stake.

[minervasolo]

I love the concept of this, and the preview looks good. But I have to wait until October? :(

[shadowpsykie]

the art style is even Pulpy....

though is this Sabrina gonna be bad?

[alicemacher]

I'm wondering the same thing. In the original Gladir/DeCarlo Sabrina stories, she was your standard kid-friendly "evil but not too evil" witch, tasked with passing as a mortal teenager and causing mischief amongst her peers. But she also had a forbidden interest in mortal boys, even competing with another secret teen witch for their attention. It wasn't until later in the 60s that she was retooled as the "good seed" of her family, and not until the 90s live-action TV series that her aunts too, not to mention most witches in general, were portrayed as good (and their comic-book portrayals synched accordingly).

My guess with the upcoming series is that her half-mortal nature (an element the sitcom also introduced) will be significant, so that she'll be raised as a creepy dark magic baddie but have conflicting moral impulses.

[selke]

I love the 70s style art but the lettering is bothering me for some reason...

[alicemacher]

That may be because it came out too fuzzy in my scans, for which I apologize. For some reason no amount of rescanning and Photoshoppery on my part was able to correct that, a problem I haven't had with other scan posts so far. :(