Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack

Full disclosure: I read each issue individually, but felt it silly to review them one by one. So I can’t comment on any extra stuff this volume might have in addition to all the very cool extras each issue already contained. Apologies.

That said, this is a really cool retelling of Sabrina Spellman’s story, and I’m glad I heard about it via the Kiernan Shipka casting news. I love that it’s set in the 60s and is a straight up homage to horror comics of the era. While the Riverdale gang makes the occasional (awesome) cameo, it’s pretty great that this book is essentially standalone, much like the beloved TV show starring Melissa Joan Hart, so can do its own thing. And what an own thing that is! Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and his artist, Robert Hack, have created a terrific throwback that turns all the cutesy witchy stuff on its head and really delves into a world of darkness. I especially enjoyed how they then juxtaposed that with reprints of original Sabrina/horror stories from back in the day. For those of us lucky enough to have grown up with Archie comics a/o the aforementioned TV show, this book provides a creative and entertaining retelling of a story familiar from our childhoods, in a way that is distinctly adult but hardly exploitative (inasmuch as any horror comic can escape being the latter.)