Overview

When people think of the Character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the first thing that often comes to mind is the television series starring Melissa Joan Hart. Its hard to forget how Sabrina, a half witch/half moral, came to live with her aunts and their pesky cat Salem. However, what fans often forget about the classic American icon is that Sabrina started off as a character from Archie Comics. She made her first appearance in Archie’s Madhouse #22, released in 1962. Since then, she has spawned multiple television series, both live action and animated, several successful comic book series and an ongoing tradition of magic and fantasy. Sabrina the Teenage Witch demonstrates a classic comic book character evolving into a multitude of different genres. In a sense, the developments of Sabrina have been similar to that of Fairy Tales. Similar to Little Red Riding Hood and Goldie Locks, Sabrina has been written about and told by different points view. However, some things remain the same of America’s favorite teenage witch: a desire for magic, fantasy, and youth.   Sabrina demonstrates that comic book or television stories with strong themes can be retold to different generations.

Sabrina’s Comic Book Origins

Sabrina was first introduced to comic book fans back in 1962 for Archie Comics. This Sabrina is much different than the modern Sabrina played by Melissa Joan Hart. She was originally depicted as a young sixteen year old who moved near a cemetery in the fictional town of Greendale. This is where fans are introduced to three classic characters associated with Sabrina: Aunt Hilda, Aunt Zelda, and Salem the Cat. In their original adaptations, Aunt Hilda is drawn as the classic witch: a tall woman with red hair and a giant boil on her nose. In many stories, she is seen as cranky and gets irritable when Sabrina uses her magic irresponsibly. In Archie’s original series, Aunt Zelda is depicted as plump, easy going, laid back and a counterpart to Zelda. She often encourages Sabrina to use her magic and often attempts to get her Niece out of trouble with the magic counsel. Salem the cat, as many Sabrina fans know, is Sabrina’s once human friend who got turned into an animal as punishment for attempting to take over the magic realm. However, in the original comic series, similar to the live action television show, Salem is usually seen as comedic and harmless in his cat form. What fans of the original series might find interesting is how Archie writers tie Sabrina in with the rest of the Archie gang. Despite living in the town of Greendale, Sabrina often visits Archie, Betty, Veronica and the rest of the gang in Riverdale. Her magic is cleverly used in that it often leads to trouble for Riverdale. She also coincides very well with Archie and his friends since Sabrina also attempts to use her magic to solve some of Archie’s long running gags. These include attempting to solve the eternal love triangle between Archie, Betty and Veronica, end Jughead’s love of food, and preventing Reggie from being arrogant. Sabrina’s comic book origins help develop her appearance in later media.

Sabrina’s Television Series

Along with Sabrina’s appearance in the original comic book series, she is also very known by fans for her television appearance. In 1996, Archie Comics created a partnership with Warner Brothers in order to establish a live action television series regarding Sabrina. This proved immensely successful, as the company was able to bring the long running comic book character to life on screen. Actress Melissa Joan Hart was cast as Sabrina and this allowed fans to recognize the actress’ talent. Not only did the series successfully run for over 7 years, it spanned 2 two movies as well as a novel series of over 50 books. One of the main focuses on the television series that differs from the comic series is the inclusion of Sabrina’s mortal boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle. Harvey, originally introduced in the comic book series, is often seen as clueless of Sabrina’s magical powers. The television series allows the writers to focus on Sabrina and Harvey’s romance and as it progresses, the series develops Sabrina’s inner conflicts. As noted in the very first comic series about Sabrina back in 1962, if she falls in love with a mortal, she loses her magic abilities. As both a comic fan and longtime Sabrina supporter, I found this classic reference as crucial in understanding Sabrina’s struggle. Melissa Joan Hart also accurately depicts Sabrina in the television series by developing her struggles. Sabrina is a character who is used to magic her entire life and, like her comic book counterpart, must face the struggles of adolescent romance. In essence, the Sabrina live action television series was a success in that it captured Sabrina’s magic origins and incorporated them through screenplay.

Sabrina’s Manga Relaunch

Most recently, what I found most interesting is that Archie revived Sabrina’s comic book series but in a manga style. Manga often means a Japanese Comic series translated into English. However, American comic book writer, Tania Del Rio, wrote Sabrina’s manga series from 2004 to 2009. As a long time fan of Japanese Comics and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, I found this series both compelling and incredibly interesting. Sabrina’s manga style successfully demonstrated that an icon could be incorporated into a vast variety of different comic styles. The manga style ran for 43 issues. As in previous Sabrina installments, long time characters including Salem, Harvey, Zelda and Hilda all returned. However, unlike the original Archie Comic and television show, this series focused a lot more heavily on rivalry, danger, and even death. In the first issue of the manga revival, Sabrina fans are introduced to Shinji, a fellow wizard who becomes one of Harvey’s greatest rivals for Sabrina’s affections. Early on, the reader is also taken to the magic realm, the parallel universe where all magic users are from, and learn a shocking twist: the magical world is dying. I found this as amazingly interesting. I have read countless adaptations about Sabrina as well as ancient magical mythology and none have I read a story where a magical world is being depleted of its resources. This in turn causes manga Sabrina to fight against the corrupt forces and save the realm before it collapses into chaos.

Conclusion

Sabrina the Teenage Witch demonstrates a comic book series adapted into countless titles and genres. Whether a fan of the original comic, the television show, or even the manga series, fans get to enjoy Sabrina in different points of view. Sabrina the Teenage Witch represents a comic book character whose presence became an American icon.

Images Works Cited:

The Huffington Post.com Sabrina the Teenage Witch Movie Planned. April 12, 2012.

Archie Comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 1963. By Dan DeCarlo.

Archie Comics, Comic Book Resources. Sony Conjures Archie’s Sabrina for Live Action Superhero Movie. 1997.

Eyz, eyzmaster.blogspot.com Comic Panels of the Week: Meet Sabrina. December 2, 2012.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch Wiki. Season 5- Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 2001.

Tania Del Rio, Archie Comics, iTunes. Sabrina: Manga #1 on the App Store. June 8, 2009.

Tania Del Rio, Chris Sims, Archie Comics, Comics, Comics Alliance. Archie Releases Tania Del Rio’s ‘Sabrina’ In Manga-Style Paperbacks, Fans Of Teenage Witchery Rejoice Read More: Archie Releases Tania Del Rio’s ‘Sabrina’ In Manga-Style Paperbacks, Fans Of Teenage Witchery Rejoice. January 18, 2013.