Wicked Horror interviews Corinna Bechko, writer of the all new Sabrina The Teenage Witch comic series!
A new Sabrina the Teenage Witch No. 1 is coming in October from Oni Press and Archie Comics with Hugo Award-nominated writer Corinna Bechko (EC’s Blood Type) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Kano (EC’s Cruel Universe) on board.
Just in time for Halloween, Sabrina’s discovered she’s discovered her birthright. As the official synopsis notes: “Sabrina Spellman is honing her craft one hex at a time and figuring out how to balance her magical new life with the crushing responsibilities of being 16 years old.”
That’s when her beloved cat Salem drops a mythical trickster into her world, making it harder than ever for Sabrina to keep high school and witchery in balance.
As Oni describes it: “No time for fate. No time for destiny. No time for homework. Being a teenager is far from magical . . . even when you’re a witch!”
Wicked Horror posed a few questions for Corinna Bechko recently about entering Sabrina’s world and conjuring ideas of her own.
WICKED HORROR (WH): Hi Corinna, you spoke last to Wicked Horror about your EC Comic Blood Type. Welcome back, and tell us about how you approached another but quite different iconic comics world with Sabrina. What aspects of the Sabrina universe appealed to you most as a writer?
CORINNA BECHKO (CB): Thanks for having me back! You’re right, Blood Type and Sabrina are quite different, even though their Venn diagram overlaps in the “spooky” area. Sabrina’s world is much gentler than Ada’s, and her concerns are a lot less … blood-spattered. But the main difference for me is that Blood Type’s Ada is a completely new character sprung wholly from my brain in collaboration with first Jonathan Case’s and then Andrea Sorrentino’s art. Sabrina has been around for nearly 65 years so she has a preexisting mythology as well as a lot of devoted fans. That means that I needed to immerse myself in Sabrina comics to make sure I got the tone and details right. Fortunately, this kind of homework is not exactly a burden. My favorite thing about writing her so far is her irrepressible take on life. She’s ready for adventure, unsure some of the time about herself, but always curious about the world.
WH: In the samples of the new comic, you seem to be having fun with juxtapositions. Sabrina’s abilities seem to be a new discovery, and she’s made maybe an unfortunate choice in her Halloween costume. She’s also concerned with appearance, so sort of a natural part of the adolescent world. Tell us about the balance of the witchy and the realistic.
CB: Oh yes, that aspect of Sabrina is so much fun! She’s still at that precarious life stage where she truly cares how she’s perceived (I suppose that stage may last until death, but for most of us it is particularly acute during the teen years) while simultaneously starting to chart her own unique course. When we meet her in the first issue all of this has been upended as she learns she’s also a witch. Kano’s art handles this beautifully. The colors, the expressions, the way he lets the action flow, all of it highlights the new reality she’s been forced to accept. And her witchcraft is a great way to amplify what everyone already goes through as a teen. It’s hard to find your place in the world, to learn what you’re good at and what you care about, to accept that you have responsibilities you never asked for… heck, it’s just hard to be a person in the world.
WH: Archie Comics have gone in some interestingly dark directions in recent years. Did you feel some freedom in developing stories? Sample pages suggest a mix of fun with some darker elements. Salem delivers a “gift” that leans a little to the grotesque.
CB: I was basically given free rein, although always with the backstop of Archie wanting what’s best for their characters. Sabrina is a very elastic character. She’s a teenager with teen concerns but she’s also a witch with witchy concerns. That gives me a lot of room to experiment! But I am also aware that there are two other titles in this line, one is Archie, which will be a bit less about magic and more about teendom, the other is Archie in Hell, which will lean more into horror. I don’t want Sabrina to feel like either of the Archies, only … girl. So we are going in a different direction, one that encompasses spooky and sometimes scary but also awe and wonder. All of it with a mischievous heart, of course. Because Sabrina may be kind, but she’s also a teen with magic at her disposal.
WH: Did you have to tone down any ideas?
CB: Honestly, not really. I’ve been writing professionally for long enough now that if I don’t have a good sense of a character’s tone and world, or if I feel like my vision won’t mesh with what the character needs to thrive, I won’t take the job. But with Sabrina I could instantly picture how she should act and how she fits into her world. I had about a million ideas for stories and so far none of them have been turned down.
WH: Were Sabrina’s interactions with her aunts fun to create?
CB: I love her aunts! I’ve had a lot of fun with them in the backup stories where we get to see them as people, not just caretakers. It’s not often that you get the chance to write about a house full of women who all want the best for each other even if they sometimes clash over exactly what that means in practice. I know some other iterations of Sabrina have leaned into the drama between the aunts, but I think if they’ve lived together for this long they must have figured out how to not kill each other at least most of the time. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s never a disagreement. Total harmony rarely makes for entertaining comics.
WH: What other characters can readers expect, and what are some favorites for you in the mix?
CB: My absolute favorite character is Salem. He’s so self-assured he practically writes himself. I’m also introducing a new character that causes Salem no end of consternation in the first arc. And of course we’ll see some classic characters like Harvey right away. After all, every girl needs her gang!
The new Sabrina debuts in October. Then, in November, the inferno begins in Archie in Hell No. 1: “In another time, in another Riverdale, Archie Andrews’ radiant life is about to turn pitch black. Separated from his friends and bound by a terrible curse, there’s only one way to save Archie: to damn him. But he won’t be alone for long . . .” Eisner Award winner Patrick Horvath (Beneath the Trees where Nobody Sees) and Eisner Award nominee Tyler Crook (Harrow County) will lead the creative work on that project.
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