Archie's Madhouse #25
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeArchie's Madhouse #25 (April 1963) is a double-debut issue that helped cement the creative direction of Archie's most experimental Silver Age anthology title. It delivers one of Sabrina the Teenage Witch's earliest follow-up appearances — just three issues after her landmark debut in #22 — demonstrating that reader demand was already pushing what Gladir and DeCarlo had conceived as a throwaway one-shot toward recurring-character status. The same issue introduces Captain Sprocket, Archie Comics' resident spoof superhero, a character whose bumbling-but-triumphant formula anticipated the campy, self-aware superhero parody that would sweep popular culture with the 1966 Batman television series — predating it by nearly three years.
In "Sister Sorceress," Sabrina the Teenage Witch takes on her first real assignment from her aunt, the Head Witch Della—hexing Wanda DeMoola to break up her romance with Hal Flipp. But when Sabrina discovers Wanda is also a witch, the prank turns into a magical showdown of spells, potions, and playful sabotage. Written by George Gladir and brought to life with Dan DeCarlo’s signature charm and Rudy Lapick’s dynamic inks, this 1963 classic features Samm Schwartz’s vibrant cover, capturing the mischief and magic of Archie’s Madhouse #25.
In "Sister Sorceress," Sabrina the Teenage Witch takes on a hexing mission from her mentor, Della the Head Witch, to sabotage Wanda DeMoola’s romance with Hal Flipp—only to discover that Wanda is also a witch, turning the spellbook showdown into a magical rivalry full of potions, pranks, and playful sabotage.
In "Moon Boon," Hal tries to impress Nancy with a fun fact about lunar gravity, explaining that things weigh just one-ninth as much on the Moon. Nancy, ever the practical joker, immediately sees a chance to indulge—she’s convinced she can eat anything without gaining a pound.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By early 1963, Archie's Mad House had fully shed its original format — the first eighteen issues had starred the Archie gang in deliberately nonsensical comedy — and pivoted into a monster-and-science-fiction anthology that parodied contemporary fads and pop culture. Issue #25 sits squarely in that transformed run, written and drawn by the same Gladir–DeCarlo–Lapick team responsible for Sabrina's debut, with cover art by Archie stalwart Samm Schwartz. The issue was published without an issue number printed on its cover, a quirk documented consistently across catalog sources.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover-dated April 1963; on-sale January 25, 1963, published by Archie Comics (Archie Publications).
- First appearance of Captain Sprocket (created by Joe Edwards), a bumbling superhero who would become one of Archie's Mad House's principal recurring characters, appearing in the title through the late 1960s and later resurfacing in Archie & Friends and other digests as recently as 2022.
- Contains an early appearance of Sabrina the Teenage Witch — just three issues after her debut in Archie's Madhouse #22 (Oct. 1962) — in the story 'Sister Sorceress,' scripted by George Gladir, penciled by Dan DeCarlo, and inked by Rudy Lapick.
- In 'Sister Sorceress,' Della the Head Witch assigns Sabrina to hex Wanda DeMoola and break up her romance with Hal Flipp, an early example of Sabrina receiving magical assignments from authority figures — a narrative device that would recur throughout her run.
- The debut Captain Sprocket story (art: Joe Edwards) involves the President of the United States calling on Sprocket to repel Neptunia, a girl from Venus scouting Earth for invasion — science-fiction parody typical of the title's post-#19 identity.
- Cover by Samm Schwartz; the issue was published without an issue number printed on its cover, an anomaly confirmed by multiple catalog sources.
- Captain Sprocket's superhero parody predated the campy Batman TV series (1966) by nearly three years, establishing an Archie-universe template for comic-book self-parody well ahead of that genre's mainstream moment.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Archie's Madhouse #20 (1962)
Reprinted in Tales from Riverdale Digest #11 (2006), Archie Comics Digest #263 (2010), World of Archie (Jumbo Comics) Double Digest #17 (2012), Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo #4 (2012), Sabrina the Teenage Witch Complete Collection #1 (2017), Archie's Big Book #1 (2017)
Key issues in Archie's Madhouse
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