The Complete Sabrina the Teenage Witch: 1962-1972

The Complete Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1

by Archie Comics

It's back to the beginning with Sabrina in this first of a new series compiling the entire history of everyone's favorite Teenage Witch! This black and white graphic novel chronologically collects all the stories starring Sabrina the Teenage Witch from 1962 to 1965.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Witches, Fiction, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics

512 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2017

About the author

Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by publisher/editor John L. Goldwater, written by Vic Bloom and drawn by Bob Montana. They were based in part on people met by Goldwater "in the Midwest" during his travels throughout the United States while looking for jobs and places to stay.

Archie's first appearance in Pep Comics #22 on December 22, 1941, was drawn by Montana and written by Vic Bloom. With the creation of Archie, publisher Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney. Archie Comics is also the title of the company's longest-running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #114, the title was shortened to simply Archie.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Complete Sabrina the Teenage Witch volume one collects 500+ pages of Sabrina comics from 1962 to early 1972.

I'm an Archie guy from way back and this was only $4.99 at the Archie shop BEFORE the discount. I've read more Archie books during the quarantine than during the previous 20 years combined.

Sabrina engages in typical Archie-style teenage hijinks with the added bonus of being a witch and dealing with matters of the witching world. Most of the stories are drawn in the Archie house style and many of those are drawn by Dan DeCarlo, innovator of the Archie style. In fact, I found myself skipping the stories that were drawn off-model.

The stories are fun fluff, much like the Archie books. There are no overly memorable stories aside from the one where Sabrina meets Santa Claus and that one was mostly memorable because Joe Sinnott drew it in the typical Archie style with some Marvel-esque touches. Sabrina suffered from the lack of a robust supporting cast other than her family until she moved to Riverdale and became part of the Archie cast.

Since the Archie style isn't hyper detailed or heavily inked, the lack of color hurt the collection a little. It's fun watching Sabrina experience timely things like hippies and woman's liberation. And wearing hot pants in one story. It's also fun seeing what elements have made it into the more recent, more serious Sabrina books. Poor Harvey has no idea what is in store for him.

The Complete Sabrina the Teenage Witch is good for hours and hours of wholesome, slightly occult fun. Three out of five burning witches.

[Shai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really appreciate how the publisher come up with this compilation of some of the comic strips from the old Sabrina the Teenage Witch version. However, I found almost 70% of the stories not really that funny. And I think that some of the jokes are no longer relevant now maybe because they were written almost 5 decades ago.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Aunt Hilda, I brought Harvey over! We’re going to play his record collection!
No! Not that ding-a-ling!"

Sabrina the Teenage Witch was who I wanted to be when I was younger. I mean, I kind of still do... This volume is fantastic for all Archie and Sabrina lovers. It was hilarious and a lot of fun.

[ALLEN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everyone realizes that Sabrina predates Samantha! These comics go back as far as 1962, which may account for her Tina Cole / Doris Day style "helmet" hair. Her appearances in this volume are fairly rare until the turn of the Seventies, though, when the "Archie Comedy Hour" got off the ground on CBS and her comic-book appearances correspondingly multiplied. There is little difference between early-Sixties Sabrina and early-Seventies Sabrina, except that along the way the illustrators jettisoned her "calculating, sexy" diamond eyes and replaced them with something more wide-eyed and teenish.

Sabrina, generally a good-humored sort of teen, is apt to kick when her "betters" (witches higher up in the hierarchy) tell her what to do; also when she comes across rank unfairness or bad behavior. The imputation that witches are normally covert and tricky may annoy some, but judged as an artifact of the time, she's an "alright" girl. Ten bucks for this B&W digest of 512 pp. is a very good price.

[Xristina Karvouni · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting black and white graphic novel who follows the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. The character appeared for the first time in Archie's Madhouse all the way back to the 1960's. I got a nostalgic feeling while reading this and i got the chance to remember Riverdale and Archie with the whole group. Even though, it is a bit dated I still found it to be quite fun and I totally recommend the original tv series about Sabrina which aired from 1971 to 1974.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sabrina is my favorite character in the Archie universe, except maybe Jughead, so I was thrilled when I saw this advertised on Amazon over two years ago. It finally got released this year and I couldn't wait to read it. It would have been nice to have it in color, but I am thinking about using one copy (I bought one to read and one to keep) as a coloring book now that I'm done with it.

One thing I learned is that much of what I think of as classic, iconic Sabrina comes from the TV show that came out in the 60s. I've always resented the influence of the Melissa Joan Hart TV show on Sabrina, but now I see that this is just following the pattern laid out in the early days of the character. I still prefer classic Sabrina, but I'm a little less bothered by the TV-inspired changes we see in modern Sabrina comics today. Of course, manga Sabrina is still an abomination.

[Alicia Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun if a bit dated.

[Reagan Formea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally finished this. Took me forever because almost every comic had some kind of harmful language or imagery in it (racism, sexualization of children, fatphobia, etc.). And I understand it’s just part of how it was back then but genuinely no one should read these anymore and that’s my bad lol. The plot lines and character development didn’t match up, it was constantly contradicting itself. Oh and the fact that they started punching Christianity there randomly with the Christmas strips??? In a comic about witchcraft??

[Dichotomy Girl]

Not for me. DNF after about 50 Pages.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read July 2017
Ehh, it was fun, but it’s so obviously written by a man..
Sabrina is (supposed to be) a teenage girl, but feels more like a (sexists) male’s view of a teenage girl rather than an actual teenage girl.
The cultural appropriation of Native American culture wasn’t great either..

I grew up watching the TV show and was hoping this would be just as enjoyable, but I guess this is one of those cases where the adaptation is better than the original.. (though I’m sure looking back the show had its flaws as well. Still, I enjoyed it much more.)

Also, reading the whole collection in only a couple of days probably wasn’t the best. It’s so much of the same thing. Some of the comics where even almost complete copies of previous ones..

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was interesting to read since my only real knowledge of Sabrina (or any Archie stuff for that matter) comes from the 90s sitcom version. So I was curious to see how the original version did or didn't match up with the TV version. And initially, for the first issue or two and then again occasionally down the line, things are very different. Sabrina is portrayed as a more traditional witch in that her magical powers are to be used for mischief and evil, she can't sink in water, and she will become mortal if she falls in love. Which could be an interesting premise for a character and makes me wonder if any of that got used in the recent Chilling Adventures comic.

But, of course, Sabrina pretty quickly becomes somewhat blander, getting up to the same sort of hijinks as the other Archie characters in stories that generally last eight to twelve pages. The closest thing to her being a malevolent force is that sometimes one of her aunts or the rarely appearing head witch will order Sabrina to do something evil. Usually this is accomplished by Sabrina trying to help her friends with magic and inadvertently making things worse. Which is a pretty common theme in general - Sabrina tries to magic her way to London or solve somebody's romantic problems only for wackiness to ensue. In that way, the comics do bare a certain similarity to the show.

On the other hand, there are some significant differences. Sabrina's aunts are very different from the show's Hilda and Zelda, she has a random male cousin with magic powers who acts as the sensible one, and most glaringly, Salem appears in only a handful of stories and isn't the snarky little jerk that's the real reason to love the TV show. Plus the Archie characters are here cause in the comics Sabrina is in the same town as Archie and co, which is weird. Apparently Archie is in a band? For some reason? Also there are a couple of appearances by Sabrina's hippy wizard cousin who is both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious. There aren't really many standout stories here, sadly. Mostly it's just silly gags with little continuity or character development, which I think is typical of other Archie comics. Also the last forty or fifty pages consisted in Christmas stuff which seemed heavier on the Christian stuff than I would've expected.

Overall, for all that it was also inconsistent in quality and sometimes pretty goofy, I definitely enjoyed the show more than I did this collection of early Sabrina stories. It was fun to see where she came from, but the actual stories weren't very high quality. I probably will seek out the Best of Sabrina collection, since I'm curious to see what other sorts of stories have been told with the character, and I'll admit I would read a volume two of this if it ever appears since I'd want to see how Sabrina changes as comics in general change.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

It was kinda cool to read the early adventures of Sabrina starting with her first appearance. I've always been a big fan of compete collections of comics that start at the beginning, even if Sabrina isn't my usual read.

One thing that surprised me was how sexy the art was in these issues, especially the Dan DeCarlo issues. Seeing Sabrina bounce around in her short tennis skirt and small volleyball shorts probably made the stories a favorite of teenage boys lol. She and the other female characters dressed pretty sexy in general, but I assume they were just following the fashion of the time. Or either the artists were a little sexist, and considering the time frame that's very possible. Many of the stories themselves are sexist, considering Sabrina spends most of her time chasing boys.

The basic premise of most of the stories is Sabrina screwing up magic spells, although in some stories she seems pretty competent. That puts much of the material at odds, but Archie comics are all about fun anyway and never let contradiction get in the way of a good time.

One thing other readers have noted is how the Christmas tales ventured heavily into religious territory. I know Archie Comics had a Christian Comics line, but didn't realize their mainstream comics included religious messages as well. That actually points out the historical significance of these type of collections, as I'm sure many readers never realized this either.

Another thing noted by other readers is how Archie Comics don't work as well in black and white. I'm a big fan of the large black and white comics collections such as Essential Marvel and DC Showcase Presents, and I understand the economics of publishing the big collections in b&w rather than color, but this series would probably come across much better in full color.

So overall this was an enjoyable read, even if many of the stories are formulaic. That probably wouldn't be a big issue when reading them spread out over a decade, but when you read them all together you see the similarities.

Of course if you're an Archie Comics fan, this is pretty much a must read.

[Alina Karapandzich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Thank God the Sabrina reboots are sooo much better and waaaay less sexist than these original ones. They did get a little better by 1971 where Sabrina started being concerned with helping others in need and not just helping herself look better to get men's attention... Also the racism against Native Americans in here is real. In one comic, Sabrina literally uses the word "squaw" and I wanted to vom. Also, it's soooo beyond obvious a man wrote this who is 1) super christian (the Christmas special from 1971 was awful and not fitting to a family of witches at all) and 2) clearly thinks women are vain, vapid, incompetent and self-centered soooo, gross overall.

[Daniel Andreu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entiendo que eran otros tiempos (empezó en los 60), pero ni por esas le puedo dejar pasar tanto tanto tanto machismo añejo. Las únicas preocupaciones de Sabrina y el resto de personajes femeninos son conseguir novio y contentar a los hombres. Me puedo imaginar perfectamente una oficina como la de Mad Men llena de machos escribiendo diálogos de mujeres, o de lo que ellos creen que deben ser las mujeres. Si por lo menos fuera divertido... pero el humor es muy básico. Me quedo con las serie de Melissa Joan Hart y las reinterpretaciones de Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa en cómic y en serie.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can definitely start seeing some cultural shifts from 1962 - 72. I’m not sure what the reading age of that was supposed to be at the time but a lot of it is cringe worthy. Really underdeveloped hammy plots and on the nose characterisation. Interesting though. The publishers intro should have slanted it from more of a nostalgic angle and framed it as more of a cultural piece because it really is just too dated to be reissued as just entertainment.

[Ashley Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the early years so much! Sabrina is a total trickster and really leans into the witch thing. Then as the years go by, she seems to soften and then I don't like the stories as much. I love the illustrations in the early years especially. And the pages that featured tricks to play on others.

Fun!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I hope they do a volume 2.

[nitya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minus the redface/appropriation + Salvation Army inclusion (ahhhhh the 60s/70s), this was a great collection of Sabrina stories! Looking forward to more volumes

[Stefan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много јака ствар
⚡✨⚡✨⚡✨

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

So nice to see the beginnings of Sabrina in comics. I became an instant fan when I was a child of the 90s series with Melissa Joan Hart, and was happy to discover the characters' origins.

[Jackie Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated humor but still a lot of fun!

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the comics, However they're definitely products of there time. I'm glad Sabrina stayed in the public conscious so we can see her doing more than just flirting with boys.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some unfortunate cultural appropriation and some other of its time issues from the early 1960s-early 1970s prevent me from giving this a higher rating, but it's good that these are collected.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, classic Sabrina strips from the 1960s-70s. These are reproduced as black and white line work without the colouring/shading. The art is simple enough that it works. These strips are what you expect - simplistic, silly, cartoony fun.

I think it could be interesting for fans who aren't already familiar with the original portrayals of characters like the aunties, cousin Ambrose (here he switches between "cousin" and "uncle" to Sabrina!) I grew up reading reprints of these in the 1980s, so it was nostalgic for me.

There are a few jokes/references that haven't aged well, and the book gets weirdly preachy/religious towards the end. I don't remember Christianity being referenced in any Archie comics when I read them back in the day, so I wonder if at some point the decision was made to pull those ones from the cycle of endless reprints they do? It's especially funny because Sabrina is a witch...and in the current Netflix series a Satanist...so I find all the God-talk jarring. Betty is a real Bible-thumper here.

I read these while battling a terrible cold, and they are easy and comforting to read when you're feeling too lousy to concentrate on anything else. There is an undeniable charm to these old Archie comics that always helps me relax.

[M.L.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dated, for the most part, with a lot of terrible, sexist elements and lots of plots revolving around Sabrina getting a boy. The interesting backstory for Sabrina is introduced--familiar cat, has a head witch, can't fall in love, supposed to hex people--and jettisoned almost immediately for what I'm assuming is more typical plots of Archie comics, with Sabrina using her powers for romantic hijinks. There's the bewildering run of comics where everyone knows Sabrina has powers. The more interesting witch elements are slowly reintroduced, but definitely softened.

But the most aggravating thing is how Sabrina must be constantly neutered. I understand that, on one level, they can't have her too powerful, because then it's harder to create conflict in a tiny comic issue. OTOH, when Sabrina is out with a mortal boy and they're hijacked, she tends to cower in fear while relying on the human boy to save them. She will belatedly remember that she's a witch and save the day, but, still. How frustrating.

[Francesca Mondino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non credete sia simile al telefilm "Sabrina vita da strega", anzi: completamente diverso! I personaggi ci sono ma, soprattutto per le due zie, sono differenti; il gatto Salem compare un paio di volte soltanto, e ad un certo punto diventano importanti i personaggi di Riverdale (non ricordo se comparissero anche nel telefilm, come non ricordo se ci fosse il cugino Ambrose, presente invece ne "Le terrificanti avventure di Sabrina").
Sono più che altro strisce, o puntate di qualche pagina, slegate tra loro. A tratti è divertente, ma è una comicità anni '60 e '70, differente da quella di adesso, quando fa sorridere più che ridere di gusto. E per chi lo accusa di sessismo, be' era appunto l'epoca, dove la donna non aveva lo spessore di adesso; quindi non ci si può aspettare che il fumetto sia tanto diverso. Una lettura tutto sommato piacevole.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fantastic to see how Sabrina started. Seeing the first appearances of Aunt Hilda, Cousin Ambrose, and Aunt Zelda were great. This volume is like a time capsule seeing how teenage culture was seen back in the sixties and seventies. Sometimes I felt like the dialog was forced to sound like it was retro with all the "far out" or "groovy" exclamations but I guess it's legit. Seeing how obsessed with music and mod culture teens were thought to be was insightful. It was also a bit wordy and the jokes were flat however. The best part was seeing Sabrina started out as just another Archie teen character who had magic.

[Alejandra RL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Por un lado, me gustó ver los orígenes de la bruja adolescente de Riverdale; pero por el otro lado, definitivamente hay situaciones que no envejecieron bien.

Cuando salieron las primeras tiras de Sabrina, era de lo más normal promover como algo positivo que las jovencitas se pelearan contra otras por los muchachos, a ellos se los presentaba como los campeones si estaban rodeados de muchas féminas (incluso estando sus novias presentes), y por supuesto, hay que utilizar trucos mágicos para alterar las voluntades de los chicos guapos y asegurarse un lugar en el baile de la temporada.

Estoy segura de que este libro resultará invaluable para los fanáticos acérrimos de Sabrina la bruja adolescente o las historietas de Archie; pero para los seguidores ocasionales, se puede pasar de el y no les va a caer un rayo por ello.

[Michael Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first volume covers the first ten years of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in various Archie comics, which after her debut were few and far between until she was featured in the cartoon series. It’s fun to look at the evolution of her character as well as the additional cast throughout the early years. Though a majority of the stories have her using her powers to help but backfiring, there are some “chilling adventures” that begin to appear towards the end of this volume. Overall, the stories are amusingly charming and illustrated in the Archie house style, the highlights being those by Sabrina’s co-creator, Dan DeCarlo.

[Jennifer Priester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I don’t like the earlier comics as much as the later ones because I’ve only ever been a fan of the good witch character type, I love seeing how the character progressed and changed over the years to eventually become the version of Sabrina that I love most. It’s interesting to see how it all began. I used to collect the comics, but was never able to get any of the earlier stuff so it was exciting for me to finally get the chance to start from the beginning and read some of the early comics that I might otherwise never have gotten the chance to read.