The Archie/Sabrina Universe

Intersecting with fan studies, TV and comics studies, queer, disability and feminist studies, as well as popular culture and media scholarship, this collection of essays is the first to offer critical examinations of Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the broader Archie/Sabrina comics universe. Its authors interrogate these texts in an effort not only to make sense of their chaotic stories, but to understand our own ongoing fascination with their narratives. Contributing to a greater cultural conversation about representation in media, authors find unexpected value in the oftentimes ridiculous (mis)adventures of the Archie/Sabrina expanded universe.

Heather McAlpine is an associate professor in the English department at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Her previous research has examined the influence of the English emblem tradition on the work of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

W. Ron Sweeney is a writer and teacher living in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He teaches comics courses at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Jess Wind is a PhD candidate in language and literacy education at University of British Columbia.

Their research explores games, media, and fan spaces through queer, feminist, and anti-racist perspectives.

Edited by Heather McAlpine, W. Ron Sweeney and Jess Wind
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 223
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8084-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4933-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v
Introduction
Heather McAlpine, W. Ron Sweeney and Jess Wind 1
Archie Must Die: On the Many Lives and Deaths of Archie Andrews
W. Ron Sweeney 11
On Becoming a Citizen of Riverdale: Narrative Expansion Through Fanfiction, Interactive Fiction, and Other Apocryphal (Hyper)Texts
Dessa Bayrock 28
Endless Authorship: Fanfiction, Copyright, and the Extended Archie Universe
Kirsten Bussière 45
Chilling Adventures in Feminism: Sabrina Is Not the Feminist Heroine We Need
Katie Stobbart 62
“When will the world learn? Women should be in charge of everything”: Lilith as Villain, Victim, and Feminist in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Sarah Stang 84
“Put your cape away”: Riverdale’s #MeToo Moment
Melissa Wehler 105
Watching Them, Watch Them: The Coded Movement of Betty’s Pole Dance and Our Passive Audience Gaze
Hannah Meghan Celinski 124
Punk Rock Prom Queen to Covergirl: Teens and Consumption in Riverdale and Josie and the Pussycats
Kaarina Mikalson 139
Archie Got Hot: How Embracing the Queer Art of Failure Allows the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to Shift Queer Readings Away from Identity
Mat Wenzel 155
Disability in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Whitney Tiffany Renville 173
“First as tragedy, then as farce”: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Satanic Moral Panic
Brett Pardy 190
About the Contributors 205
Index 207