Wow, It's HalloweenBy Mike Pellerito Remember when you were a kid and thought that comic book stories were real? Not stories Imagined and drawn by real people with families to feed, but real? Almost like the comic books were reports on actual events.
Do you remember when comic were magical to you?
 One day you realize that regular everyday people and not elves create comics. There's not some portal to a crazy other world - just stories made up by regular folks. Comics lose some of their magic from that point on. You realize suddenly you will never get bitten by a bug and get wild super powers, neither will your parents ever tell you that you actual came from a far off place with Incredible powers. No ancient artifacts to grant you magical powers, heck you never got all that good at card tricks. Well, that is what Halloween is for, at least in some regard, to dress up and live a life a little more magically.
 Some of us grow up and actually become one of those non-elf people who are lucky enough to help create comics. In some ways it is as much a blessing as it is a curse. The process gets broken down into business terms and deadlines and profitability. Every project is just as memorable for all the problems and things that went wrong as much as it is memorable for being well, ya' know, fun. In this case, being behind the scenes from the beginning, there for all the battles, this is a personal recollection of how Sabrina went manga, and despite all the hard work, makes even the most hardened comic reader remember what it was like to believe is the magic of comic books.
I was out one day for lunch with the then proofreader and art director and a conversation came up about an article in the local paper. The article was about an award winning artist/writer that was local to the area and was working in the "Manga" style. For those who don't know Manga is basically Japanese for comics, and has been taking America by storm. Most bookstores carry a huge amount of different Manga titles in the graphic novel section. Typically a Manga title is black and white, run few hundred pages of story for less than 10 bucks. Granted this is a little simplified, but for our purposes it will have to do.
Anyway, doing something with a Manga influence has been suggested at Archie dozens if not hundreds of times over the last decade. Hey, we at Archie have to be aware of all the trends - it goes with the territory.
 For some reason this time seemed to be the right time for Archie to go Manga. That was in no small part due to Tania Del Rio - the local artist featured in the article. She was and is very nice, polite and easy going. However under her calm demeanor must beat the heart of a magical warrior elf who makes comics, because in no time Sabrina was re-launched with issue #58 in a Manga look and feel that even the worst skeptics (after giving it a fair read) had to admit was very good. Archie even published an Ash can for Halloween (did you pick up this years Ash Can?) featuring the Archie gang, Josie & the Pussycats as well as Sabrina all with the new look.
It may not seem it but this really was a radical departure from the norm at Archie. Archie is Archie, meaning that if you read an Archie comic you know what to expect-funny stories, maybe a tear or two, but the kind of comic you can read on your worst day and feel great about life again. But there we were working in a very soap opera-like story line, nothing dark and evil and angsty, although love triangle and magical conspiracies abounded and the comic world noticed.
 Tania - being an award winner from TokyoPop, a leader in the Manga publishing world, gave us some street cred, a lot of attention, and by the first issue Archie had a hit. The sales rise almost every month and fan letters come in. Marvel Comics even hired Tania to help on one of their female characters writing fully and even doing some of the art for the Spider-Man Arana Special. Not to mention writing and penciling some stories for Sonic The Hedgehog (a favorite of Tania’s for years) that really excited the still get fan mail months after seeing print. Tania is still going strong with Sabrina (issue #80 is due out shortly) never missing an issue, writing and penciling mind you
Still some people would knock her Sabrina work (you know who you are) without ever giving it a chance or say they were waiting for the trade. Some of have grown up too cynical and forgot that magic comics once had. When asked for possible titles collecting the first four issues of Tania’s run, #’s 58, 59, 60 and 61 yours truly blurted out immediately “The Magic Revisited” because that what this collection is.
These stories come across as real as if Tania is telling stories from her own life, magic talking cats and everything. Tania, along with Jim Amash inking Jeff Powell lettering and Jason Jensen Coloring, every month make even one of the editors forget that people make comics and that these stories aren’t made by elves. Although if for some reason you find yourself in Tania’s home, could you see if her brooms fly, just out of curiosity?
Now, you may feel this is biased; you may need more than the usual “read any two consecutive pages” dare, fine. Don’t read a page of the comic. Do an Internet search for Tania Del Rio and Sabrina. You might find a lot of people are a little biased with Sabrina. So Revisit or try it out for the first time, just don’t miss the magic.
Talk to you next Tuesday for something truly outrageous. And no, you can’t punch me in the stomach…
Now that you know what to read here’s where to find it:
 SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH VOLUME #1 THE MAGIC REVISITED
DIAMOND ITEM CODE - AUG063027
ISBN - 1879794195
PAGES - 112
PRICE - $7.49
AGE GROUP - All
WEBSITE - b>ArchieComics.com
As always thanks for reading, and feel free to send your comments and recommendations or excess Halloween candy (but please no Pennies) to: MikeP@SilverBulletComicbooks.com
In the meantime here are some new All Ages reads on sale this week:
AUG063029 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #168 $2.25
AUG063026 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #107 $3.69
AUG063027 SABRINA VOL 1 MAGIC REVISITED TP $7.49
AUG063016 BETTY #160 $2.25
AUG063024 JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #15 $2.49
SEP060264 LOONEY TUNES #144 $2.25
SEP062190 MARVEL ADVENTURES FLIP MAGAZINE #18 $4.99
SEP062122 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #21 $2.99
SEP062168 SPIDER-GIRL VOL 7 BETRAYED DIGEST TP $7.99
SEP062086 SPIDER-MAN AND POWER PACK #1 (OF 4) $2.99
SEP062988 LITTLE SNOW FAIRY SUGAR MANGA VOL 2 TP $9.99
AUG063311 MICKEY MOUSE ADVENTURES VOL 12 TP $7.95
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