Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 (1971) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to do a comic book review. Since Halloween was on Tuesday, I decided I would review Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 from 1971. So let's get into it.

Having been a fan of Sabrina Spellman, her familiar, Salem, and her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, since I was nine years old, I've wanted to cover the comics on one of my blogs for a really long time. Since I have the Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Complete Collection Vol. 1 in my collection, it was easy to do to get this issue read. Like most comics from Archie Comics, this one has multiple stories in them. 

First appearing in Archie's Mad House #22 in 1962, Sabrina is a character that has appeared in cartoons, two live action TV shows and a trilogy of TV movies, the first one essentially acting as the pilot for the 1996 sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart. Though many many changes were made from the TV movie to TV series. When I was a kid, I knew that Sabrina was originally a comic book character, published by Archie Comics. What I didn't know is that Sabrina and her aunts, and Harvey, actually interacted with Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie, along with the rest of the Riverdale crew. I found that out in the 2000s, after the show was over and I started getting Archie Digests, which included Sabrina stories in them. 

The first story in this issue, "Strange Love" actually has Sabrina interacting with Ethel, Archie, and Veronica. Even though Zelda first appeared in Archie's Mad House #65 (1968), she doesn't appear very much in these early comics. Particularly not in this issue. Hilda actually predates Sabrina by three issues, first appearing in Archie's Mad House #19 (1962). 

What I like about this first story is that it establishes Sabrina's powers and her tendency to use them on silly teenage things, like getting back at Harvey for being out with another girl, despite the fact that Sabrina has no idea who Harvey is out with. Naturally, the first person she sees just happens to be none other than Archie Andrews. and she puts a spell on him, making him fall in love with her. Which angers Veronica, because, again, naturally it would.

The second story, "Mission Impossible", features Sabrina's cousin, Sylvester, who is a hippie (this is the '70s afterall). This is the story were Zelda appears, but she doesn't have any dialogue and only appears in a single panel. The conflict is comedic in that, Sylvester represents the kinder, gentler, witches, while Hilda represents the classic witches, who are nasty towards humans. Being a gentle witch herself, Sabrina is kind of thrust in the middle of the classic argument. Sabrina doesn't really do much in this story, as it's focused on Hilda and Sylvester, but it's her book, so she's not written out completely.

The final story, "An Uncle's Monkey", has Hilda fed up with Harvey's clumsiness, basically like Mr. Lodge's relationship with Archie, and threatens to turn him into a monkey. Comedy ensues when Cousin Ambrose, who wasn't in the 1996 TV series, but was a main character in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and I think he was in the early 2000s animated series as well, shows up with a monkey while Sabrina is up changing her clothes, due to Harvey accidentally spilling milk on them. She sees the monkey when she comes back downstairs and thinks that Hilda had changed Harvey into a monkey while she was upstairs changing, so she turns the monkey into Harvey. I think you can guess how that ends up going right?

This is a pretty good issue. It's funny because there's nine years of stories from when Sabrina originally debuted in 1962, to when this issue was published in 1971, yet this is a perfect jumping on point for kids who maybe weren't around to read the earlier stories in the '60s. Being a comedy book, and an Archie comic, it's easy to pick up any Sabrina comic, at least from the '60s and '70s and read them in any order. Mainly because, there's no continuity except when a character debuts and then continues on as a recurring character. Not like the superhero comics of the time that hadn't been one and done issues since the '60s. 

That's it for me for today my friends. I think I'll be back tomorrow to review the original 1988 Tim Burton movie, Beetlejuice, but I'm not quite sure yet. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.