Five Must-Read Comics This Fall
A comic loving guy from Omaha, Nebraska. Also host of Dan Dashly Discusses, the internet's 2,368th most popular youtube comic review show.
No. 4: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Credit: Archie Comics
What It's About
A new take on everyone's favorite Teenage Witch! Sabrina Spellman deals with all of the same issues she always has: boys, high school, and Madam Satan rising from the depths of hell trying to kill her. The typical teen drama fare. With the help of her trusty cat Salem and her incredibly supportive aunts, Sabrina tries to adjust to a normal life in Greendale. Well, as normal as life can get for a teenage witch. Yet unlike in every other incarnation of Sabrina, things get decidedly less family-friendly as we explore the darker sides of magic and the consequences for breaking the rules of being a witch.
Credit: Archie Comics
Why You Should Read It
When the Archie Horror imprint first started with Afterlife with Archie it was very easy to write it off as a novelty. Some thought Archie was grasping at straws to maintain relevance in a shifting comic book industry, aping the successful zombie books of the day. Yet Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa made Afterlife with Archie not only a fresh new take on the beloved franchise, but one of the best horror comics in modern memory.
The Spellman family is of course present in Afterlife with Archie as well, although this comic and that one are separate, and it was by the creepier, more sinister Afterlife with Archie witches that the witches in this incarnation of Sabrina were inspired. Aguirre-Sacasa looked to capture lightning in a bottle twice with this book, and obviously thought that if we enjoyed the gritty horror feel of Afterlife we'd love a dark, serious take on the Spellman family. Of course he was right on all fronts.
The tale that this book weaves is unlike any other in the comic book space today. Sabrina's family are broken from the start. Her mother was human and her father a witch, one of the big no-no's of their society, and the world is less kind and inviting than previous incarnations. All this gives Chilling Adventures the necessary teeth to cover deep issues like parental abandonment, false imprisonment and being turned into a tree. More mature issues for readers that grew up with a light hearted Sabrina.
These issues are handled well. And while a few of them, like your father's witch ex-lover wanting to kill you and take your face, are witch specific, they end up being presented in a very relatable and palatable way to the audience. Aguirre-Sacasa's creepy writing is punctuated by unsettling, painterly art from Robert Hack, an artist who does not shy away from the supernatural aspects of the book. Images like Aunt Hilda becoming a giant spider woman, or Madam Satan's ripped-off face, have amazing punch to them, and are actually scary, not only because of Hack's ability to know exactly the shapes and forms that send shivers up our spines (spiders and muscle striations being some key culprits), but because of his ability to pack in color exactly where it is needed. The main palette of the book is filled with blacks and whites and yellows and browns, and has an almost muted fall look to it, but when blood or gleaming red eyes hit the page Hack makes them as deep and as rich as the medium will allow.
As a complete package, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina deviates from the original in the best ways possible. Everything is ramped up and has serious teeth, exactly what a horror comic should have.