Netflix's "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," premiering Saturday, seems like a very new take on the veteran character from Archie Comics. But it lifts elements from throughout the teen witch's long history.
The idea of Sabrina Spellman being a restive, modern spell-caster in a magical society with ancient, restrictive rules goes back to her first appearance in "Archie's Madhouse" in 1962. Created by two Archie A-listers, writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, it was an upbeat intro with a hip Sabrina who nevertheless couldn't cry, couldn't sink in water and couldn't fall in love. And she had a familiar, a (non-talking) cat named Salem.
Head witch Miss Della was also introduced, a taskmistress who was training Sabrina to be a good witch by doing bad things. While only implied in this first story, later episodes would make it clear that Sabrina wasn't much into doing evil (much to Miss Della's exasperation. She was much more interested in hanging with friends, listening to records, dancing the Twist and exploring this "boyfriend" idea.
This tension has remained the heart of Sabrina's stories (and appeal) ever since. It's not the most original idea, with precursors such as the 1950s movies "I Married a Witch" and "Bell, Book and Candle." The "reluctant modern witch" concept was also used to great effect in the TV series "Bewitched," which premiered two years after Sabrina, in 1964.
Meanwhile, as the '60s continued and Sabrina got groovier, she began picking up more elements familiar to today's fans. Various pre-existing bit characters (primarily horror host Hilda the Witch and busybody Greta the Fairy Witch Mother) gradually changed into Sabrina's aunts Zelda and Hilda. A romantic rival, a Baxter High student named Rosalind, or "Roz," began to appear, although in later years she was presented as Sabrina's friend. Sweet-natured boyfriend Harvey Kinkle and fashion dandy Cousin Ambrose (who owed a lot to Dr. Bombay and Uncle Arthur of "Bewitched") arrived in 1969.
Until that year, Sabrina had appeared in fewer than two dozen stories, primarily in "Archie's Madhouse." But she got more exposure when that title was replaced by "Archie's TV Laugh Out" � a play on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" � an anthology that usually starred the teenage witch in the lead story, followed by yarns featuring the Riverdale cast. Sometimes the Archie gang would appear in the Sabrina tale (without knowing she was a witch), establishing at long last that Sabrina's Greendale and Archie's Riverdale were adjacent.
Sabrina also showed up in the Archie cartoons Saturday mornings, and she must have been popular because 1971 was the year of Sabrina. Not only did she get her own cartoon, but also her first solo comic book, with the soon-to-be-familiar title "Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch" emblazoned across the cover.
Sabrina had arrived. In one form or another, Greendale's teen hexer has remained a staple in the media landscape ever since. Later highlights would include:
�� "Chilling Adventures in Sorcery." This short-lived 1972 horror anthology is significant for its title, which inspired the current comic book and Netflix titles. The first two issues featured Sabrina as host of various horror stories, drawn by Archie stalwarts like DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg in the typical Archie style (although the stories were serious). Alas, Sabrina disappeared from the title with the third issue �� but so did the cartoon style. Grandmasters like Gray Morrow, Dick Giordano and Vicente Alcazar illustrated the stories in the more realistic style for the few issues that were left.
�� "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (TV). Most people probably know Sabrina from this charming TV show, starring Melissa Joan Hart. Its popularity established three new ideas as canon. One, Salem can talk, which was picked up by the comics very quickly. Two, Sabrina didn't come into her powers until her 16th birthday, while previously she had them all her life. And three, Sabrina is a half-breed: Her father was a warlock, but her mother was human. The series ran seven seasons and spawned three made-for-TV movies.
�� Animation: After her appearances in 1960s Archie cartoons and her own 31-episode series in 1971, Sabrina had three more animated sojourns. "Sabrina: The Animated Series" (1999-2000, 65 episodes) and "Sabrina's Secret Life" ( 2003-04, 26 episodes) featured a preteen Sabrina. "Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch" (2013-14, 26 episodes) starred a sort-of superhero Sabrina who battled magical enemies. While containing a lot of the usual Sabrina elements �� Zelda and Hilda seem mandatory �� neither was set in the "mainstream" Sabrina world established by the live-action show.
�� Manga: In 2004, Archie Comics tried an experiment: a Sabrina series drawn in the big-eyed Japanese style. It had its fans, and has been reprinted several times, but it's hard to find an Archie reader who will admit to liking it.
Which brings us to the biggest influence on "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" TV show, the comic book of the same name. Launched in 2014 as a companion series to "Afterlife with Archie," it's written by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa, who is not only the chief creative officer at Archie, but also the "Sabrina" showrunner at Netflix.
The comic book lives up to its name, and surely Netflix will try for the same vibe. But the show will almost certainly veer from that blueprint. For one thing, the comic book is a period piece, set in 1962. The TV show appears to be set in the present.
For another, Harvey Kinkle is killed and eaten in the fourth issue of the comic book, and then in the fifth resurrected as a host body for the spirit of Sabrina's dead father. (Feel free to take a minute to digest that.) That's not likely to happen on the TV show, where Harvey (Ross Lynch) is listed as a regular on the 20 episodes of the first two seasons.
Also, Betty and Veronica play a key role in the first few issues of the comic book. That won't be the case on TV, because no crossover with The CW's "Riverdale" is in the cards (yet).
So what does the TV show lift from the comic book?
Both feature the huge problem facing Sabrina on her 16th birthday, when she is expected to decide between staying human or embracing her magical heritage. In the comics that means a "Dark Baptism," in which Sabrina must eat a sacrament (made of crushed spiders, crickets and flies), sacrifice a live goat with a machete and sign Satan's book. You know, the usual.
Another major element is Cousin Ambrose. Before "Chilling Adventures" the comic book, he was a portly man with a handlebar mustache who seemed to be the same age as Zelda and Hilda. But Aguirre-Sacasa reimagined Ambrose as a contemporary of Sabrina's, a British teen (with a Liverpool accent) confined to the Spellman attic by "High Priest Crowley" for revealing his powers in public. He is accompanied by his two familiars, talking cobras named Nag and Nagaina. Chance Perdomo will play a similar Ambrose on TV.
Ambrose isn't alone in suffering a punishment from the higher-level witches. In the comics, Salem is a witch who has been turned into a cat because, he says, "this is what happens when you try to enact the Book of Revelation." That element stretches back to the TV show, in which Salem was a former witch being punished for trying to take over the world.
Another bit inspired by the comics is Sabrina's chief antagonist, teacher Mary Wardell (Michelle Gomez). In the comics her name is Miss Porter, but in both the show and the comic book, this ancient witch pretends to be a friend and mentor to Sabrina while she actually is working toward her destruction.
Here are a couple of odd twists.
In the comics, Miss Porter's real name is Madam Satan � an actual character from 1941 Archie Comics, when it was called MLJ Comics. She was an evil, beautiful woman who died and went to hell in "Pep Comics." Then Satan sent her back to Earth to tempt good men into evil for five more stories, although she was always thwarted. Yes, that was a real series that really happened. But her strip was canceled to make room for a new humor series starring a red-headed teenager in a fictional town named Riverdale. No wonder she hates teenagers!
Anyway, TV's Miss Wardell should play much the same role, but isn't necessarily Madam Satan. In the credits, Jenna Berman plays the character for one episode. A disguise, maybe?
Regardless, it appears that one can enjoy both the comic book and the TV show without being spoiled by either. Ditto previous iterations of Sabrina, which didn't involve dark baptisms at all. I hear some people even like the manga version.
