Review of Sabrina Super Special #1

Didn’t I mention something about comic book magazines?  Well, here you go.  In this case, I happily picked this up on the Barnes & Noble magazine rack over the weekend.  The cover is a bit too dark, but it’s otherwise alluring.  I haven’t seen the new Sabrina TV show, but the actress is a dead-on ringer for the comic book character. (Other than she looks about ten years older than a high school student.  It’s like the later years of the Melissa Joan Hart show.  They desperately wanted to change the no-longer-applicable-name, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but weren’t allowed to.)  Inside, the 120+ pages are unfortunately printed on poor pulp.  The material inside is all reprints and promotional pictures.  It may be a bit overpriced at $10.       

Still, I’m happy with the purchase.  Sabrina is this character everyone likes, but it’s hard to pin down exactly why.  The character is simple in appeal, but that appeal is complicated in actual execution.  Really.  I casually thought I could write up a quick of review of this.  No chance.  Sabrina is a complex character when taken in over the many years of her existence.  

Sabrina started in a straightforward enough manner.  George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo created an attractive teenage witch for a short story in an anthology comic as a submission for a continuing character.  This famous story is, of course, included in the magazine.  Obviously, the glamorous way Sabrina is drawn catches the eye.  She has minor magical powers that cause amusing trouble.  That concept has successfully been used in other places.  Lastly, she’s mischievous, but has a good heart.  It’s so simple, but allows for all sorts of interpretation.

The various iterations of Sabrina have varied greatly.  You can see that just in the pages of the magazine.  It’s almost schizophrenic even.  There are pictures from the current horror TV show.  There’s Sabrina’s origin from the disturbing Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic that inspired it.  There’s the classic version from the 60’s comics and the somewhat languid 70’s and 80’s interpretations. 

There’s Holly G’s fun and likable version that I think came after the 90’s TV show.

Here’s Dan Parent’s version where Sabrina was going to a supernatural high school.  I didn’t even know about this concept.  

Here’s an Adam Hughes’ Sabrina cover.

Lastly, and the main reason I bought this, they reprint the current comic book version of Sabrina.  The Veronica Fish artwork speaks for itself.  The story was good, albeit way too familiar in the use of certain modern high school comic book tropes.  (Was every female comic book writer bullied in high school, along with having a fat ethnic best friend who is probably an author self-insert?)  I’m tempted to pick up the trade of this when it comes out.  In the back, there was also a text excerpt from a YA novel based on the new TV show.  You have to applaud the magazine for covering so much ground. 

The text pieces inside where promotional and fluffy, but actually had a quite a bit of information on the character.  (They did politely sidestep what happened to Harvey in the Chilling comic.)  There are plenty of other versions of Sabrina.  Noted Jughead artist, Harry Lucey did a version of Sabrina (as shown above, these aren't my scans by the way, I don't own the comic).  Comics from the 90’s show and follow up cartoon show aren’t represented here.  I’m a bit surprised, since Melissa Joan Hart’s show has to be the most popular expression of Sabrina.  (Surely Archie owns all the rights to those.)  There’s the 70’s animated shows, where Sabrina interacted with the Archie gang, had a solo show, and the Groovy Ghoulies show (which I saw, but don’t remember).  Her look, and especially her voice, were irresistible. 

Sabrina was also in a horror comic in the 70’s.  Also around that time, there used to be a yearly Sabrina’s Christmas Magic title.  There were supernatural adventure stories in the 80’s.  (I haven’t seen those.)  There was an animated show that I never saw in 2014.  (I think it was computer animated.)  Tania del Rio produced a heartfelt manga version in 2004.  She’s shared a title with Jughead recently, and currently, she’s in a romance with Archie.  (Do those guys mind sharing the same girl?)  Sabrina had a major role in the zombie horror series, Afterlife With Archie.            

I reviewed a small trade version of the manga Sabrina on an Archie comics fan site.    (All of my reviews and pictures I posted there disappeared in a server crash on their end.)  I wish I had all of the full trade paperbacks of this.  Here’s an excerpt. 

I will sum this volume up in three words: labor of love.  Tania del Rio clearly has love and respect for the Sabrina character and has married it with her enthusiasm for the manga style of art and storytelling. There are plenty of teen girl witches in Japanese comics, so it's really a natural fit.  [I wonder if the entire magical girl genre in Japanese manga was actually inspired by Sabrina.  It’s not improbable.  The whole manga industry was inspired by American comics after WWII.]           

I also reviewed some of Sabrina appearances in The Best of Archie Comics #3. 

2000’s

Fernando Ruiz could not resist himself transferring the Archie gang from Archie’s Weird Mysteries into a Scooby Doo-like mystery, A Familiar Haunt.  It wasn’t quite a straight-on parody or homage though, since Weird Mysteries seemed to mostly take its cues from the X-files or Kolcheck the Night Stalker.  Frankly, I thought the mystery-supernatural angle worked reasonably well as a setting for the gang.  An even better fit was Sabrina as a manga magical girl.  I was pleased to see Tania Del Rio’s version represented here in the heartfelt, Spell It Out.   

2010’s

The reason I bought this book was because I’d missed getting Jughead #200 when it came out.  Something Ventured, Something Gained was indeed suitably grand for this anniversary, a bit preachy, but awesome.  Jughead is magically tempted out of his prodigious metabolism and his friends start losing their best traits trying to get it back.  Rex Lindsey’s art was excellent.  I was also eager to read The Great Switcheroo, where the gang is gender-flopped.  I’m a big fan of Gisele’s artwork and it doesn’t disappoint here.  I’m not sure I got whatever the point was supposed to be of Tania’s story, but it was fun anyway.

The Jughead #200 story is important in that this is where he found out that Sabrina is a witch.  This became a running issue in following stories.  It led to what happened in the Afterlife series.  The Switcheroo story was caused by Salem, Sabrina’s cat.  The cat might have been the most popular character in the 90’s TV show, so he’s become much more prominent.

I’ve liked some versions of Sabrina and disliked others.  I’m sure other people have different opinions.  A lot of the comics, especially from the 70’s and 80’s were not good.  I don’t like the horror stuff at all.  The 90’s show was more Melissa than Sabrina in terms of likability.  (The cat was also great).  Manga Sabrina was probably the best written and conceptualized version, but, while the artwork was wonderfully expressive, it didn’t look like the classic Sabrina everyone likes. 

Putting a bow on this is going to be difficult.  There are few fictional characters that have undergone this many permutations and still remained popular (Batman namely).  None of these versions are actually that far off from that original story from the 60’s.  They just vary widely in tone.  Considering also the varying quality of the comics and shows, you have to conclude that Sabrina’s concept is greater than the sum of its parts.  I have a hard time actually pointing to Sabrina material that I really like and yet I love the character.  I suspect I’m not the only one.