Rachel Reads & Reviews

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: 60 Years, 60 Magical Stories

What better way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of everyone’s favorite witch than to read this 512 page collection of some of her best stories!

Though it offers some behind the scene mentions, the intros are not exactly looking into the history and evolution of the character as Archie’s 80 Years, 80 Stories or Archie’s 75th Anniversary compendiums do. Rather they are quick anctedotes and mentions from various Archie contributors and some of Sabrina’s best writers/artists like Tania del Rio, Dan Parent and more.

The real meat comes from seeing the evolution in origin, and of course in style from the first introduction to Sabrina in 196 . She’s a modern witch, out with the black hats and warts, sent to hex and vex her schoolmates and cause unlucky magic. Then Sabrina’s world evolves, gone is the mandate that witches aren’t allowed to fall in love or lose their powers. Gone is some witchy superstitions like not being able to float. Sabrina wants to join the normal world while balacing her powers and that’s where all the fun starts.

As several contributors mentioned, Sabrina is wonderful for how she is able to magically fit into various genres from horror to humor to romance to anything in between. It’s what made her last so long, she’s relatable in her continuous coming of age tale while aspirational in having this fantastic powers and fun adventures in the Otherrealm.

Some interesting things I found was that Hilda has been a long mainstay though Aunt Zelda seems to have only started appearing in the (though that may just be a choice of which stories were included. The 60 stories are one from each year, there are 3 just from del Rio’s 2004 run for example. So the cream of the crop is more important than chronology). Her hair also sometimes appears as blonde in modern iterations instead of just green thanks to the influence of the sitcom. Salem also appears as orange rather than just black and white (also influence from the sitcom). It also features Sabrina’s kooky nemesis, Prof. Pither from Planet Pluto who is so despicable that the witches that usually play tricks on humans, command Sabrina to stop his evil plan of ruining the Riverdale Regatta.

What I most appreciate the breadth of stories involved here with the 60s more mischevious witch who freely uses her powers (Interestingly some of her mortal friends knew of her powers in several stories). Then comes the more standard 70s good Sabrina who flauts witch convention of doing good deeds with her powers despite her aunts and head witch’s reprimends.

But there’s also the brief run of Sabrina’s move to Gravestone Heights that give readers a chance to see a whole new cast of hip monsters like Chip Noggin, Cleara and others that let loose Sabrina’s freaky side focusing on the many uses of her powers and how she’d get into trouble with them. There’s Dan DeCarlo’s 4-part 90s tie-in with the Sabrina sitcom, Do You Believe in Magic?, bringing Sabrina’s new origin where she finds out her powers on her 16th birthday and goes to live with her aunts so she can gain control of them. Plus the time shifting Cleopatra Chronicles that shows why it’s ‘s favorites.

There’s also the Holly G. run that introduces spell school and a new rival for Harvey, Shinji who also comes into Sabrina’s affections. Then Tania del Rio jumps off that with her manga to further explore and add depth to Sabrina’s magical world and its politics.

Finally there’s the new, hilarious guest spots in Jughead as Sabrina reveals a genuine interest in the chowhound though the date leaves a lot to be desired; the fantastic Kelly Thompson volumes that I’ve previously reviewed (and I want it to return!) and it’s all just fantastic. It picks and chooses to give readers a great overview of all the strands that make up Sabrina mythos. If only it introduced Sabrina’s new rival, Amber Nightstone like in the #1 Sabrina Anniversary issue that unfortunately sold out before I could get my hands on it.

Alas, it does not but it more than makes up for it and there’s plenty of other Sabrina content to get into once you’re finished with it.

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