Sabrina #1

History

Writer Mike Gallagher and penciller Dave Manak — a creative duo with a well-established working history stretching back through Marvel's STAR children's comics line and Archie's own Sonic the Hedgehog — served as the core creative team for the 2000 series throughout its run, with Jon D'Agostino on inks and Victor Gorelick as editor. The previous Sabrina series (1997–1999, 32 issues) had been built around the Melissa Joan Hart live-action sitcom, borrowing that show's character designs and backstory elements; Archie deliberately used the final issue of that run as a narrative bridge, transitioning the title directly into the new animated-show continuity. The launch issue's lead story, 'Everyone Old Is New Again,' served double duty as both a series premiere and an in-continuity explanation for the character's younger, less powerful status — goblin queen Repulsa zaps Sabrina back to age 12 — neatly folding the reboot's premise into a single plot.

Trivia · 7 facts

• Written by Mike Gallagher and drawn by Dave Manak, with inks by Jon D'Agostino; Victor Gorelick served as editor.
• Directly adapted from 'Sabrina: The Animated Series,' the DIC Entertainment cartoon that premiered September 6, 1999, on ABC and UPN — a show that re-imagined Sabrina as a 12-year-old in middle school rather than a teenager in high school.
• The lead story, 'Everyone Old Is New Again,' acts as a continuity bridge from the 1997–1999 Sabrina series (which was based on the Melissa Joan Hart live-action sitcom) to the new animated-continuity version.
• The series established a new power dynamic: this version of Sabrina cannot use her own witch abilities until she turns 16 and must instead 'borrow' spells from the Spookie Jar, a genie-like entity living in a purple cookie jar that dispenses rhyming incantations.
• The 2000 series was simply titled 'Sabrina' (dropping 'the Teenage Witch' from the title) and ran for 37 issues before issue #38 acted as a transition into yet another retitled and rebooted run.
• Sabrina herself was originally created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, first appearing in Archie's Madhouse #22 (October 1962); this 2000 series was her third solo ongoing comic, following the 1971–1983 run (77 issues) and the 1997–1999 run (32 issues).
• Early issues of the series were later collected in a trade paperback titled 'Sabrina: Based on the Animated TV Show,' published by Archie Comics in 2011, written by Gallagher with art by Manak.

Cast · 14 characters

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Variants (1)