Archie Horror: Post Eight: Chillinng Adventures of Sabrina

At the end of a month of reading through Archie Horror, I ended with the new (almost a week old as of this post) Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and starring Kiernan Shipka.

The series, following in the footsteps of the CW's Riverdale, continues to expand the Archie Universe, and although I've only seen the first four episodes (sorry - I was finishing reading Vampironica and I'm not a great TV show-binger!), it has been a pretty fun watch so far...

First of all, for the fans of the original comic book series (also created by Aguirre-Sacasa), the television series ditches the sixties setting (although it keeps much of the look), and hasn't (so far) gotten quite as dark as the comic series either.

In many ways I'm really enjoying the balance the show is doing, working to appeal to fans of Riverdale while at the same time acknowledging that for a lot of people, Sabrina Spellman is either the character from the comics or the character from the 90s TV series.  Is it edgier than I expected?  Absolutely!

For the record, my favourite characters to date are Sabrina's aunts Hilda and Zelda (but that may just be they are closer in age to me than the leads) and the freakiest moment to date was in episode four when the human world storyline got incredibly dark (probably darker than they intended), although I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.

A fun, well acted and intriguing look at how we balance our home lives and personal lives, the show (although definitely not for children), is well worth the watch.

So there you have it, a month seeing what Archie Comics could do with the Horror genre, and you know what? They've done a pretty great job!

Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Seven - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Ok, so back in 2013 I started collecting my first Archie comic in about thirty years, Afterlife with Archie. The comic, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and with art done by Fansesco Francavilla, takes the familiar characters from the small town of Riverdale and throws them into a full-blown zombie apocalypse. The art was great, the story significantly more emotional than I was expecting, and the the throwaway lines and references to the horror genre ensured this comic would be immediately addd to my ongoing comic collection.

Then a year later a spinoff was announced, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which would follow the teenaged witch into her own horror-themed story. As Sabrina makes only one small (but crucial) appearance in the first collection of Afterlife with Archie comics, I wasn't sure at first if the new series would be a companion series or start something new all its own.

Then, as with virtually every title I've been enjoying this month, I dutifully collected each issue as it came out, stuck it in my "to be read" folder, and ignored the entire collection until last month when I began putting this theme month together for my blog.

The series, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Robert Hack, follows Sabrina through her teen years during the 1960s. Other than being part of the Archie Horror imprint, it has no connection with Afterlife with Archie, and feel a lot like the devil-focused witch movies brought out by Hammer Horror in the 60s.

The stories largely focus on Sabrina's backstory, as well as that of her nemeis, and like Afterlife with Archie, includes cameos by original Sabrina characters but shown in a very different light. The overall story is really quite eerie, and does, at times, get fairly gruesome.

Definitely not for kids, but if you grew up reading Sabrina, or (like me) are even vaguely familiar with the character, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a title well worth a look.