Random Musings on Al Hartley, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Christian Archie Comics

[espanolbot]

One of the writers for the Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic in the early Seventies was one Al Hartley, who some of you might recognise from the Spire Christian Archie comics. Sometimes the subject matter from one could leak into the other though, such as in the one time Sabrina physically went to the North Pole to talk to Santa Claus about the nature of belief.


The fact that Hartley was using Sabrina to make not terribly subtle parallels with his religious work is kind of hilarious, considering how everything to do with Sabrina has been thrown under the bus multiple times during the Spire comics.


Not entirely sure what Sabrina's views on Sex Ed are, but I do know that Harley's version of the character would straight up murder people if the mood took her.


Not that I'd particularly blame her for sending Reggie to an icy grave, considering the extremely uncomfortable implications behind his behaviour in this Christian Archie strip,






Heck, even Archie, who seems to view every woman in Riverdale as a potential romantic interest (including Veronica's cousin, who he only just met), was shown using some bizarre pressure on a girl in this baffling strip.



Basically, I can't really blame Sabrina for mostly keeping herself to herself and hanging out with her cool talking cat. The muggles seem like jerks.

Comments

[crinos]

.....Did Reggie rape a woman?

WTF DID I JUST SEE!?!

[thereddouglas]

It's striking how often, "A more innocent time," turns out to be, "welp we're completely oblivious of the frightening implications of the content we're producing! Isn't it jolly that Archie and the boys treat women like objects?"

[philippos42]

Hartley wasn't just a Christian. He was the son of a right-wing anti-labor politician, and apparently a Nixon sympathizer. Some of his work has the romantic ideas (nostalgia for a past one did not experience oneself, assumptions of his own countrymen's moral decency) of a perhaps well-meaning right-winger.

I suppose his religious views weren't entirely rooted in conservatism, since he became a born-again as an adult. (And he did a comic-book version of Joseph Bayly's The Gospel Blimp, which is a good send-up of pious evangelical self-importance.)

But that line (from Santa Claus!) about how things are really simple but we make them complicated seems prone to an interpretation where we're encouraged to hold to childish superstition.

I don't subscribe to his particular take on religion, but the Spire comics are pretty cute, and have some clever moments.

[espanolbot]

Heh, yeah, Hartley's nostalgic view of the past was implied in the Spire comics. Although they seemed to eskew the regular "nostalgia removed by twenty years" thing that normally happens (the 70s had a lot of 50s themed stuff, like Happy Days, Grease, that kind of thing) instead going straight for the 1900s for some bizarre reason.


Pfft, yeah women were treated as "more than equals" during the 1900s alright! And by "more than equals" you mean "unable to vote, little to no rights to property, etc. etc."

Might hold more water if they were in Columbia, the setting of Bioshock Infinite, if only because the leader there deliberately ramped up gender equality so that the populous would be more accepting of his heir Elizabeth.

[shadur]

... I see that picture and my mind's eye is already drawing in a caricature black kid shining shoes adding "And us negroes know our place!"

Because you *know* the person who drew that would be thinking it.

[espanolbot]

Ah, that would hardly be surprising, considering the accidental content of the vanilla Archie comics.

[philippos42]

That's the page I was thinking of, in fact!

[thereddouglas]

Odd, Diary Queen actually does a much better job of pitching for Christianity than Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika. For one thing it has a much more coherent narrative. And it actually offers up something worthwhile in terms of ethics. Hansi on the other hand just has the lead character go through some ordeals only to abruptly to convert to Christianity on the last page of the story.

Ah, but just to make up for that he has Archie's bizarre declaration of his faith just after treating a girl like piece of meat.

[umbrall]

Eh, Archie seems quite honest about his intentions as well as willing to respect the girls no -even if he vocally disapproves of it. (And going out with someone purely on sexual interest is not restricted to the boys.)

Reggie on the other hand clearly seems not to respect the girls limits, even if there is a minimum of ambiguity at the end.

[espanolbot]

The weird thing is that Hansi is actually based upon a real woman's life story (albeit heavily editted), so you'd think that it'd be more respectful towards her... rather than implying that she's kind of a moron, rather than being mislead due to the circumstances of the Great Depression in Germany or something.

[shadur]

Isn't Hansi's big revelation moment when she hears "under God" mentioned in the pledge and concludes right then and there that the USA has to be the perfect promised land because they say "god" ?

[michaelhealy]

My head canon is that Afterlife with Archie is the Spire universe without the guise of Christian propaganda.