Archie's 80th anniversary/Pride Month: Kevin Keller's debut

[alicemacher]

The year 2010 saw two of the most important and innovative developments in Archie Comics in many years. One was the launch of Life with Archie: The Married Life which, despite its initial misguided packaging together with teen celebrity infotainment pieces, was the first title in which the Riverdale cast not only grew to adulthood but, in both timelines, faced more complex life problems and underwent actual character development.

The other was the introduction of the publisher's first gay character. And not as a mere token minority, but as a likeable, non-stereotypical individual with a variety of interests. As a result, he instantly became a fan-favourite character and part of the main cast.


From "Isn't It Bro-mantic?", Veronica #202 (Oct. 2010). Script and pencils by Dan Parent, inks by Rich Koslowski. 8 of 24 pages.

Veronica enters the Chock'lit Shoppe and finds Jughead in a burger-eating contest with a new arrival in town: Kevin Keller. She falls for him at first sight. When Kevin emerges as the winner (19 burgers to Jug's 18), Ron swoops in with a hug and a claim that his prize is a date with her. Jughead says that makes him happy to lose, whereupon she mocks him in front of everyone for being unable to even win at "being a glutton. One word for you -- 'FAIL!'" Jug is not pleased.

Over the next few days, Veronica insinuates herself wherever Kevin is. This doesn't bother him; he's nothing but cheerful and friendly to Ron, which steels her resolve to ask him out. (Archie is visibly jealous at this but, interestingly, plays only a minor role in this story.)







Veronica herself gets a touch of green-eyed monsterism when she sees Betty talking with Kevin. But they've simply been talking journalism: Kevin's written for his hometown newspaper and is now interning for Riverdale's paper. Veronica privately begs her BFF not to come between her and Kevin. She even offers to let Betty have Archie all to herself. Which Betty is of course more than fine with, and not just because she isn't into Kevin that way.





Betty, noticing that Veronica's been turning up the glamour to 11, has a "shoulder angel and devil" moment in which she considers telling her friend that Kevin's gay. Realizing that doing so would mean having to share Archie again, she goes with her devil.

Later Kevin and Jug hang out at the carnival, when along comes guess who, to stake her claim.







Veronica delivers a huge heart-shaped box of chocolate-covered fruit to Kevin, prompting him to realize it's time he levelled with her. And not just because he hates chocolate-covered fruit, hehe. This leads right in to my favourite gag from the story.







Ron misinterpeting Kevin's regifting of her candy to Jug is a great bit. Why? It shows that Dan Parent, and his editors, were well aware of the by then common murmurings that if Jughead doesn't like girls, he must be gay. (Never mind that there's such a thing as asexuality; the 2015 Jughead reboot series got that right.) However, instead of doing what the old Archie Comics regime would've done in response -- giving Jughead not one but two girlfriends in 1990 for a bit (three, if you count January McAndrews from the Time Police 'verse), or attempting to purge any and all Jughead slash fic from the Internet -- they instead displayed a welcome sense of humour about their own characters, with this affectionate wink at the fanwank.

Anyway. Now for the story's twist ending!





Subsequent Kevin stories would develop the poignant Kevin-Veronica friendship even as they continued to flesh out his background by, for example, making his dad an army colonel. And although they did show him dating guys, Parent and other writers have continued to avoid making Kevin's sexual orientation all there is to the character. Moreover, with only a couple of special exceptions (e.g. the climax to both Life with Archie timelines), writers have portrayed Riverdalians as fully accepting of Kevin and subsequent non-hetero characters (such as Toni Topaz, who's bi in the comics too). As a result, the character has earned recognition from GLAAD and others, as an instance of queer representation done right.

Comments

[leahandillyana]

That's a cute story, but honestly I'd prefer more psychological tales like the Zot! issue presented recently.

[lilacsigil]

I like that they put some effort into Kevin not just being "the gay one" and his low-key friendship with Jughead. Also that Kevin was 100% correct about Jughead's motives for him not telling Veronica, and yet still getting sucked into the mindgame!

[tinygaylaura]

Kevin is such a lovely addition to the cast

I did not know that they introduced Toni Topaz in the comics and made her bi like in the tv show!

Does she have a girlfriend yet? It would be cool if she and Cheryl were together in the comics as well

[alicemacher]

Toni actually debuted in the comics five years before Riverdale started. Funnily enough, she too in her intro story gave Jughead some friendly competition when it came to eating. (In this case, it was a cupcake-eating contest, which Jug had to forfeit, so they've never definitively faced off as far as I know.) I don't think she was shown specifically to be bi until some time into the Archie reboot with Mark Waid. That might still count as before the show, however.

As for Cheryl, she's always been straight in the comics, even after the reboot. To the extent she's ever had a regular love interest at all (her one true love being, of course, herself), it's been Archie. Though there was a cute pre-reboot story where she fell for a guy she was seeing online (with them both using pseudonyms). When she finally met him in person, it turned out to be Dilton. This infuriated them both at first, in a tsundere way, but within moments they just laughed and agreed there actually was something to their mutual attraction.

[tcampbell1000]

Rolling out Kevin was indeed well done. He has a variety of appealing interests and a personality both pleasant and believably guarded. The epistolary use of texting neatly sidesteps the main issue that's plagued a lot of "first gay characters," the fact that being first means they don't usually have anyone to be gay with.

I was quietly relieved that Archie didn't just make Jughead gay here, which struck some readers as the more obvious move. It would've been interesting in some ways but call for a somewhat uncomfortable reappraisal of every reprint ("So did you ever catch feels for Archie? Moose? Reggie? What was that stuff with Ethel and Twyla-- you wavered every so often in your seeming distaste for them, were you just leading them on? Did... you not feel like it was SAFE to be out in Riverdale?").

I always related best to Jug as a guy who looked around at the storm of drama that held every other major character in its grip and was like, "Yeah, later for this noise, I think I'll pursue my relationship with this burger, who won't get mad if I see some fries on the side." That said, there are multiple versions who work for me. I'm cool with the ace version of the character, but also the one from the married-Archie timelines who was definitely hetero but only ready for a relationship some years down the line. (The less I say about "Bughead," the better.)

But back to Kevin. Every so often, the right thing and the commercially shrewd thing are one and the same. Parent knew exactly what he was doing, how everyone (accepting and otherwise) would react, and what sort of dividends this character could pay down the line in terms of adaptation and reinvention. He saw his moment and seized it, and God bless him for it.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I prefer Ace Jughead. Not crazy about the assumption that a lack of interest in women means you're gay.

(Also he arguably has more in common with Reggie than the rest of the guys and I REALLY don't want to see that.)

But I could see how someone could be straight and nope right out of the Betty/Veronica binary so I'm not too bothered by Future Midge.

Also worth noting that his short-lived relationship with Sabrina started when she was dressed as a food mascot.

[zachbeacon]

So much to unpack.

“What’s the deal with those three?” really captures the franchise as a whole.

OF COURSE the one thing Kevin’s parents know about Jughead is that he loves to eat.

“Newsflash! Kevin is gay!” …are we SURE this isn’t a lost 90s script?

This isn’t exactly Juggy’s finest hour…

…but Ronnie’s meltdown is hilarious. She doesn’t care that she lost the guy. She doesn’t care that he’s gay. She’s furious that she thinks she lost Kevin to Jughead.

I’m glad Kevin came with his own love interest because he is clearly too good for these people.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ha, "Junkhead", that's awesome.

attempting to purge any and all Jughead slash fic from the Internet

Wait, they did that?!

And I loved Life with Archie, and was crushed when it came to an end. If I had time, I would post a series of scans recapping that whole wonderful series. It's the most I've been invested in Archie since I was a kid.

As long as I'm talking about it, I did have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Paul Kupperberg, who wrote the series, about the then-upcoming "Death of Archie," and you can find that here.