Showing posts with label Frank Doyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Doyle. Show all posts

Friday, October 27, 2023

Frightening Friday Fun CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY AS TOLD BY SABRINA "Boy Who Cried Vampire"

The now-cancelled CW series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was not the first time the "Teenage Witch" did actual horror...
... in 1972, she hosted her own series of horror stories told in the Archie "vein" as you can see in this never-reprinted (in color) terror-tale...
Now there's an ambiguous ending if ever I heard one...
In 1971, the Comics Code Authority loosened its' regulations regarding monsters, allowing limited use of "classic" creatures including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.
While DC and Marvel went monster-happy, unleashing new strips and several new titles, Archie Comics' response was this book with an unusual combination of horror writing and Archie house-style art, which tended to conflict with the theme of the stories!
To be fair, writer Frank Doyle, penciler Dan DeCarlo, and inker Rudy Lapick tried their best with this tale from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina #1 (1972), but it just doesn't work.
After two issues, the series was revamped (pun intended) into a more-traditional horror title with non-cartoony art by Gray Morrow and associates, dropping Sabrina as the hostess.
It survived nine more issues.
Speaking of survival, reruns of the TV version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina can be seen on Netflix!

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(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white) 

Friday, June 12, 2020

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY TOLD BY SABRINA "Ultimate Cure"

Archie Comics doing a horror comic isn't unusual...
....but AfterLife with Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or even Jughead: the Hunger this ain't!
Not exactly the usual wholesome Archie fare, eh?
Written by Frank Doyle, penciled by Stan Goldberg, and inked by Jon D'Agastino, this lead story from Archie's Chilling Adventures in Sorcery Told by Sabrina #2 (1972) was their contribution to the industry-wide "monsterization" bright on by the loosening of restraints by the Comics Code Authority in 1971.
Why it was deliberately-done in the Archie "house style" remains a mystery to this day!
(To be fair, when Archie jumped on the Batman/James Bond fad of the mid-1960s, their comics featuring the Riverdale crew as either super-heroes or spies were also illustrated in the humorous "house style"!)
After two issues, the book was reformatted as a realistically-illustrated traditional horror comic, running nine more issues.
Sabrina didn't appear in them...
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(reprinting the two Archie-style issues as well as the best of the retooled 1970s series)