{"id":15330,"date":"2016-10-14T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T08:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=15330"},"modified":"2016-10-13T12:44:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:44:10","slug":"the-magic-of-sabrina-the-teenage-witch-archie-and-friends-all-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/10\/14\/the-magic-of-sabrina-the-teenage-witch-archie-and-friends-all-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magic of Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Archie and Friends All-Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bill Golliher<\/strong>, Abby Denson<\/strong>, George Gladir<\/strong>, Holly G!<\/strong>, Al Nickerson<\/strong> & various (Archie Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-879794-75-7<\/p>\n

Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch<\/em> debuted in Archie’s Madhouse<\/strong> #22 (October 1962), created by George Gladir & Dan de Carlo as a throwaway character in the gag anthology which was simply one more venue for comics’ undisputed kings of kids’ comedy.<\/p>\n

Almost instantly she proved popular enough to become a regular in the burgeoning cast surrounding core stars Archie Andrews<\/em>, Betty Cooper<\/em>, Veronica Lodge<\/em> and Jughead Jones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

By 1969 the comely enchantress had grown popular enough to win her own animated Filmation TV series (just like Archie<\/strong> and Josie and the Pussycats<\/strong>), thereby graduating to lead feature in Archie’s TV Laugh Out<\/strong> before finally winning her own title in 1971.<\/p>\n

The first volume ran 77 issues from 1971 to 1983 and, when a hugely successful live action TV series launched in 1996, an adapted comicbook iteration appeared in 1997. That version folded in 1999 after a further 32 issues.<\/p>\n

Volume 3 – simple entitled Sabrina<\/strong> – was based on new TV show Sabrina the Animated Series<\/strong>. This ran from 2000-2002 for 37 issues before a back-to-basics reboot saw the comicbook revert to Sabrina the Teenage Witch<\/strong> with #38. This carefully blended elements from all the previous print and TV versions.<\/p>\n

A creature of seemingly infinite variation and variety, the mystic maid continued in this vein until 2004 and issue #57 wherein – acting on the global popularity of Japanese comics – the company boldly switched format, transforming the series into a manga-style high school comedy-romance in the classic Sh\u00c5\u008djo manner.<\/p>\n

Sabrina is just a typical Greendale<\/em> High School girl. She lives with her Aunts, Hilda<\/em> and Zelda<\/em> Spellman<\/em>, has a pet cat – Salem<\/em> – and is tentatively dating childhood pal Harvey Kinkle<\/em>. The cute but clueless boy reciprocates the affection but is far too scared to rock the boat by acting on his own desires.<\/p>\n

Sabrina is an atypical witch: half-mortal (on her mother’s side), living in the mundane world and passing herself off as normal. Complicating here life is snide and snarky Amy Reinhardt<\/em> – a spiteful mortal rival for Harvey’s affections who will do anything to upset the magical maid’s ambitions\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This particular grimoire of giggles is a collection cherry-picked from #38-56 of that third volume and celebrates the wacky wonder of teen hormones and black magic acting in tandem.<\/p>\n

After few pinup pages the magic – illustrated throughout with dazzling verve by artist Holly G! and inker Al Nickerson – starts to unfold with ‘Internet Threat’<\/em> (scripted by Bill Golliher) wherein Sabrina starts lazily abusing her gifts and is grounded by her aunts. After Salem find a loophole in the edict, Sabrina tries making magic online and is soon abducted by the arcane and aggressively invasive Empire of Lost E-Mail<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The concluding chapter sees the bellicose byte-brutes similarly capture Hilda and Zelda before the three witches unite to outwit the digital dastards\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The two-part ‘Spell Trouble’ <\/em>finds the young witch slipping into more bad habits and summarily despatched to an otherworldly after-school program to correct her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spelling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d difficulties. Here she meets cute boy Shinji Yamagi<\/em>: a gorgeous, popular young warlock working to overcome his embarrassing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spellexia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who is well set to complicate her life with Harvey\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In ‘All’s Fair-y’<\/em>, a generous act by Hilda allows a plague of ungrateful pixies to infest the house, after which single-pager ‘Purr Pals’<\/em> finds Salem looking for feline companionship and hooking up with Josie and the Pussycats\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Holly G! scripts as well as pencils ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’<\/em> as Amy makes another brazen play for Harvey, forcing Sabrina to compete on her rival’s terms in a talent competition. Of course in love and war all things are fair, even conjuring robot musicians for an instant rock band\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Salem is no ordinary cat. Centuries ago he was Salem Saberhagen<\/em>: the most powerful warlock on all Earth. After trying to conquer the world he was imprisoned in a cat’s body where he could do no magic, but he can still talk and his rehabilitation is, at best, grudging. However, when his 100-year parole meeting comes due, Sabrina is notably missing from the hearing and mean head witch Enchantra<\/em> messes with the prodigal’s memory in ‘Sabrina Who?’<\/em>: an extended epic written by Golliher.<\/p>\n

Happily another previously de-powered, ensorcelled animal steps in to save the day, thereby ending her own four-footed enchanted exile in the process\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Holly G!’s ‘Model Witch’<\/em> sees Sabrina elected Teen Witch of the Month in a breezy tale recapitulating her origins and family life, after which Golliher introduces a new enemy. A mermaid seductress sets her sights on Harvey and uses deep-sea magic to further her aims in three-part thriller ‘Danger from the Deep’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A school sleepover in a condemned haunted house sees a pair of aggravating spooks follow Sabrina home until she finds them a far more upscale permanent residence in ‘A Haunting We Will Go’<\/em> whilst an exclusive invitation from a prestigious \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Other Realm\u00e2\u20ac\u009d institution adds to her work woes when Sabrina is offered a place at ‘Charm School’.<\/em><\/p>\n

The singular honour and the new and old friends already there are hard to resist, but Enchantra’s bratty daughter Lilith<\/em> is determined to get Sabrina expelled before she even begins\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Back on Earth Abby Denson scripts ‘Bikini Babes’<\/em> with the school sorceress trying to boost a mortal friend’s confidence by charming her new swimsuit – and thereby unleashing a social monster – before ‘It’s My Party’<\/em> (Golliher, Holly G! & Nickerson) sees Sabrina’s stressed-out life go into overload as a big bash for her Charm School chums looks likely to drive human Harvey right into Amy’s eager clutches. Surprisingly, Shinji has the answer to Sabrina’s woes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Denson returns to embroil the teen thaumaturge in role-playing game chaos as ‘It’s In the Cards’<\/em> sees two very different versions of the fantasy fascination grip both magic and mundane school kids whilst Holly G! details the alarming effects of elemental prankster Jack Frost<\/em> on Sabrina in ‘Frost Bite’<\/em> before everything goes haywire for all witches as a planetary alignment sends their powers hilariously haywire in a ‘Zap Flap’<\/em> crafted by George Gladir, Holly G! & Nickerson.<\/p>\n

Enticing, funny and genuinely enthralling, these magical riffs on a classic American icon will delight most fans and readers. Sheer exuberant fun; perfectly crafted and utterly irresistible\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2011 Archie Comic Publications. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Golliher, Abby Denson, George Gladir, Holly G!, Al Nickerson & various (Archie Comics) ISBN: 978-1-879794-75-7 Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch debuted in Archie’s Madhouse #22 (October 1962), created by George Gladir & Dan de Carlo as a throwaway character in the gag anthology which was simply one more venue for comics’ undisputed kings of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Magic of Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Archie and Friends All-Stars”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[141,113,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archie-comics","category-comedy","category-fantasy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-3Zg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}