Archie's TV Laugh-Out #1

History

The title launched in 1969 as a deliberate tie-in to Archie Comics' Filmation animated properties, its punning name riffing on the then-popular NBC sketch series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Writer George Gladir (Sabrina's co-creator) and writer/artist Dick Malmgren were among the chief contributors to the first issue, with penciller Gus LeMoine and inker Jon D'Agostino also contributing, and colorist Barry Grossman handling color. The editorial rationale was straightforward: the animation boom had made the Archie characters television stars, and Archie Comics needed a book where all those TV-friendly properties — the Archie gang, Sabrina, and Josie and the Pussycats — could coexist under one cover. The first issue adopted a format modeled loosely on Laugh-In itself, with Sabrina stories bookending a run of rapid-fire gag pages, though that experimental structure was quietly dropped by the third issue in favor of a conventional anthology layout.

Trivia · 7 facts

• First comic-book appearance of Harvey Kinkle, Sabrina's mortal boyfriend, who had debuted on the Filmation animated series just months earlier in September 1969.
• First comic-book appearance of Cousin Ambrose Spellman, Sabrina's warlock cousin, likewise introduced on the animated series and brought into print with this issue.
• First issue to feature Sabrina the Teenage Witch interacting with the core Archie gang (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc.) within a shared story, a narrative integration that had not occurred in her earlier Archie's Mad House appearances.
• Primary creative contributors to issue #1 include writer George Gladir (Sabrina's original co-creator), writer/penciller Dick Malmgren, penciller Gus LeMoine, inker Jon D'Agostino, and colorist Barry Grossman.
• The title was conceived as a print companion to Archie Comics' Filmation-produced animated TV shows, including The Archie Comedy Hour and the Sabrina the Teenage Witch animated segments that debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969.
• The series ran for 106 issues from 1969 to 1986, with Sabrina appearing in every issue, eventually serving as the transitional vehicle leading to her own solo title, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which launched in 1971 and ran for 77 issues.
• Stories from the series were later celebrated in a digital-exclusive best-of collection released as part of Archie Comics' 75th anniversary retrospective.

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