Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Occult Edition (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Collected Editions) #1-2)
Published October 15th 2019 by Archie Comic Publications, Hardcover 288 pages
From the author of the New York Times best-selling graphic novel Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale comes the horror sensation Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This title contains Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's story so far, in addition to never-before-seen comic items and imagery from the Netflix series in a premium, over-sized hardcover format.
Terror is born anew in this dark reimagining of Sabrina the Teenage Witch's origin, an occult coming-of-age thriller!
On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the young sorceress finds herself at a crossroads, having to choose between an unearthly destiny and her mortal boyfriend, Harvey. But a foe from her family's past has arrived in Greendale, Madame Satan, and she has her own deadly agenda.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I've been meaning to read 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' for such a long time, since it promised a darker take on a character I remember so fondly from my childhood. Admittedly I was more familiar with the TV versions of her, both an animated one, that I loved, and of course the Melissa Joan Hart version, which was one of my favourite shows (I watched it all again a few years ago and it holds up pretty well, except for the last season) but I did know she was Archie Comics character, and I had always felt curious about her origins.
When I saw they were releasing this Occult Edition, I instantly bought it. It contains the entire story so far, and a few extras-- Sabrina's first appearance from 1962 in 'Archie's Madhouse #22', A Madam Satan story from 'Pep Comics #17' (from 1941 I think) and some stills from the TV series.
I enjoyed the whole thing. It's nice to have a Sabrina who is actually a proper witch, if that makes sense. And where the use of magic has some weight to it, and a lot of darkness too. It's mostly set in the sixties, with a few flashbacks here and there -- and I really enjoyed the various outfits. I didn't expect to be wanting to raid Sabrina Spellman's wardrobe! And sometimes Aunt Zelda's.
Story wise, it's dark and twisted, creepy and violent. There's lots of murder, some sacrifices, and various unexpectedly gory surprises. Robert Hack's art is wonderful, the kind of thing I naturally gravitate towards. The 'Sabrina on Netflix' section says, 'To help bring his story to life, Aguirre-Sacasa enlisted the aid of artist Robert Hack, who merges jaw-dropping illustrations of monsters and mortals with an autumnal color scheme that is both beautiful and unsettling.'
I just had to use that, as it describes it so well.
My only gripe (and even this reflects my enjoyment) is that it ends on quite the cliffhanger, and I have no idea how long the wait will be to find out what happens! In the meantime, I think I'll finally watch the show, which looks pretty good! And I definitely want to read 'Afterlife with Archie' now too. 🎃
Oh I almost forgot: Salem-- Salem is wonderful! 🐱
UPDATED: I have now watched the show and I loved it! 👹
Rating: really liked it
Part of the Archie horror line,
Chilling Adventures reinvents Sabrina as part of a hardcore "Hail Satan" type witches coven. It's got a
Rosemary's Baby vibe to it. This is trying its hardest to be the reinvention of old 50's horror comics like
Creepy or
Eerie and in that it mostly succeeds. Robert Hack's art is definitely reminiscent of the era. It's got a smoky, foggy look to it as if we are in the moors of England. Even though the book is trying its hardest to be dark, it's a bit to over the top and a little campy. Aguirre-Sacasa's writing is heavy handed with way too much narration of each panel instead of letting Hack's art speak for itself. The story is clunky at times and moves very slowly. Still not a bad addition to Archie's horror comics.
This occult edition collects the series to date which is 8 issues. Unfortunately the story ends in the middle of it and with the release of this and the fact that volume 2 of this series is unfinished and 5 years late, I doubt we ever see the end of this. The book also includes the first appearance of both Sabrina and Madam Satan along with a few pages about the Netflix TV show.
Rating: really liked it
I’ve been a fan of Sabrina since I was a young teenager and I was watching Melissa Joan Hart in the role. My little teenage heart is so happy that Sabrina is making a comeback with the Netflix show and this BEYOND stunning graphic novel. While I love both versions of the show, this graphic novel just knocks it out of the park. The story is SO much darker and gorier and witchier and it made my black heart skip a beat I was so happy. I love that it’s set in the 60s too, it adds just a different vibe to the story and I was all for it. And to top it all off the illustrations are out of this world, I can’t get over how gorgeous they are! Hail Satan and this delightfully evil collection of comics!
Rating: really liked it
I am way ahead on my Goodreads reading goal for the year, I have tons of reviews to write, lots of ideas for blogmas, and everything is going swell! For now, my plan for blogmas is to try to get some of these reviews out but I definitely want to do some fun seasonal posts because I love this time of year. From about October (maybe September) on is my jam! You will find my house decorated, me in cozy sweaters and cute boots, and loving this time of year. One of my recent reads was the Sabrina graphic novels! I was able to get the Occult Edition which had some extras about also contained multiple editions. I am a huge Sabrina lover, ever since I was a kid when the show with Melissa Joan Hart aired and I never missed an episode to now when I watch the Netflix show and have different feelings from the original but find I still have a love for it. I have wanted to pick up the graphic novels but I just had not yet, I knew my Hoopla had copies so this year when the fall season hit I decided I was finally going to do it! I checked out the Occult Edition on Hoopla and read it all in a little over a day (I would have just read it all in a day but things got busy).
SPOILERS AHEAD
In this collected edition we follow Sabrina through everything from her sixteenth birthday and what is supposed to be her meeting with the dark lord to her first love, Harvey Kinkle, to Salem's story of how he became her familiar. I do not want to go too far in-depth into any one thing because the majority of it is all connected however, I will touch on a few things! I really enjoyed getting to see Salem's story as well as the story of the snakes (Sabrina's cousin's familiar) I thought this particular section was super interesting and I always love hearing Salem's backstory in every iteration of Sabrina's story. I also found the twist with Harvey really interesting, I know the show did it differently and I know things on there are progressing much differently but I am super interested to see how they progress in the graphic novel now as well. I really was not expecting them to do that! I do not know if they are writing more graphic novels but I truly hope they do. One other aspect I found interesting in the graphic novel and I find interesting in every version of Sabrina was her family. I am always intrigued by how they illustrate her father, mother, and aunts but I think the graphic novel had a unique way of bringing each of these characters to life (although I will never forget the Hilda and Zelda from the Melissa Joan Hart show). Overall I really enjoyed this graphic novel and I hope to see more editions, I can not wait to see more of the show and I love going back and watching the older show as well. I am giving this four stars on Goodreads.
Rating: really liked it
I loved this book! I recommend it for October/Halloween though......again, too bad I don’t own this one... It’s borrowed!
Rating: really liked it
So, I'm sad to admit that my almost complete repugnance of the Netflix adaptation of this graphic novel is the reason it's taken me so long to read this. (I'm sorry if you love the tv show; I wanted to love it too. But I couldn't. It's just. . . strangely boring.)
The weird thing is, to my recollection of the first 2.5 episodes I watched, the story tracks pretty closely plus and minus a few details. For instance, Salem talks in the graphic novel, and I LOVED the sidebar story of how he became a familiar. For another instance, (view spoiler)
[ Harvey gets DEAD in the graphic novel and I couldn't be more pleased. Bu-bye, you uninteresting love interest. (hide spoiler)]I can't quite put my finger on why the original is so much better, but suffice to say that the graphic novels aren't afraid to get dark and dirty. The storytelling is great, the art is magnificent, and I love the tie-in to the Archie dark comics too.
Rating: really liked it
I didn't realize that this was a compilation of the two volumes of the comic series by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. I got it on Hoopla and it was not clear what was included in this "Occult Edition" so it's my own fault for inflicting this series on myself again. I have previously read Volume 1 and I didn't like anything about it; story, art style, colouring, it's all just terrible. This was just more of the same.
Rating: really liked it
Sabrina gets reinterpreted as an actual witch, in a setting full of dark secrets and morbid ends. Archie comics have always gone in some weird directions and the fact that they were fine letting Robert Aguirre-Scasa and Robert Hack do a full-on horror series (complete with Satan, gore, and cannibalism) is fantastic. It's still a bit campy (as all Archie comics tend to be) but it's fun and just creepy enough. It also includes the first appearance of Sabrina from decades ago, and an early appearance of Madam Satan, which is nice. The only big problem I have with this series is the fact that, 5 years later, this is all we've got. We're getting a new one-shot the week I'm writing this (which prompted me to go back and read through this) but this collection stops in the middle of the story with lots of build-up and no pay-off.
Rating: really liked it
It started really good and promising - real witches eating human flesh, woods, Satan.
But then I got extremely annoyed by all Church of Night stuff. In comic book it's basically Christian church with different words - lead by puritan old men, with extremely strict stupid rules which everyone follows for no clear reason.
I expected being witch and worshipping Satan to be much more fun but it's very boring and it's a mystery why anyone doing that. Madam Satan ditches all Church bullshit and does whatever she wants and everything is alright - other witches should take a page from her book.
I think Afterlife with Archie is much better horror comic book but it looks abandoned at this point.
Rating: really liked it
10⭐️! I think I actually enjoyed this more than The Walking Dead series. Super dark, creepy, and horrific. I’ve read some of “The Stand” graphic novels by Aguirre-Sacasa, so I knew I’d probably enjoy it, but it was so much better than I expected! I loved the extras included in this edition, such as a story from the original Sabrina comic and alternate illustrations.
Rating: really liked it
Closer to 3.5 stars. This story wasn't quite for me. I enjoy a good witchy book, but some things in this rubbed me the wrong way.
Rating: really liked it
Definitely prefer the show 🤷🏼♀️
Rating: really liked it
DNF. I read the first four volumes and decided that this wasn't for me. A little too dark and the art was a little too rough.
Rating: really liked it
Awesome story, amazing art, great writing.
This is 100% better than I thought it would be. It was a gift that I put off reading for a while, but once I cracked it open, I couldn’t stop. I recommend this to everyone, especially people who don’t think they’ll like it based on the title and cover. This rules.
Rating: really liked it
Honestly, I'm not really sure what I read? The storyline is preytty confusing and lacks any substance. it flits between concepts and the as a graphic novel it's kind of disappointing. It just felt very choppy and the author uses an excessive amount of gore to enforce the horror concept without any real purpose. There's also a really uncomfortable storyline with Sabrina's dad being interested in his own daughter.
I'm not really a fan of the art style but that aside, it also does nothing for the storyline. The visuals are vague and look like concept sketches so they hardly do anything to further the storyline or give any context to what is happening.
For once, I prefer the television adaptation.
