Comic Review: Sabrina the Teenage Witch (2019-) #1

Sabrina The Teenage Witch (2019-) #1

Archie Comics

Writer: Kelly Thompson

Artists: Veronica Fish & Andy Fish

If you were to go back in time one year and tell me I’d be reading a bunch of Archie comics, I’d probably question your method of time travel. I’d also probably say that that’s cool. A person’s tastes change and grow with time and no one should be shaming others for that. So here we are in 2019, and while I never really had an interest in them before, I’m reading most of the current Archie comic books. In this first issue of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it’s Sabrina’s first day at a new high school. That means new friends, new enemies and new boys to take an interest in.

I really like this first issue, I think it’s a good setup for the story to come. I think even if someone had never in their life heard of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, this issue covers the basics of her. It’s pretty hard to not know the character, with the popularity of Riverdale and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina being TV shows, but it’s a nice character introduction anyways. There are more familiar faces that pop up in the book also. We see Hilda and Zelda, Sabrina’s Aunts, and Salem the cat. There are also new characters Ren and Radka Ransom, a brother/sister duo, who seem to be a big part of this story.

Besides that, there’s a story here that catches my interest from page one. Sabrina is in the woods, hurt and bleeding and there’s a monster type creature standing over her. The rest of the issue is a flashback to the day before that happens. It’s Sabrina’s first day, and it kind of goes through some of the typical stuff you’d see in a story set in high school. She makes friends, meets boys, and finds a “rival”. It’s all pretty standard stuff, sandwiched by a monster attack.

I really like the art in this issue. It’s got an aesthetic that feels vintage, kind of. Not as much or as stylized as The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or any of the Archie horror titles. I also really like the colors together with the style. It’s kind of “flat”, I would say, but the colors and everything pop and stand out a bit more. The panels where Sabrina uses a spell stand out a bit on the pages they’re on, because of the color usage in them. All in all, the art is just really pleasing to look at for me. If you’re me from a year ago and haven’t been reading the new Archie line of comics, you should. And Sabrina The Teenage Witch #1 is a good place to start.