Sabrina Chills as Salem's Story Spellbinds

Following almost exactly a month after CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #5 comes the totally unexpected CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #6.

Okay, if Archie Comics will continue a proper schedule, I'll lay off the jokes about the intermittent releases of this title and it's sister, AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE. Because as much as I kid, I truly love and enjoy this twisted take on the teenagers we all grew up with in the funny pages.

But there's nothing funny about this Sabrina. In fact, this title has all the right stuff in it to have some parents going, "You know, that old Fredrick Wertham fella may have had a point." Most ironic, the title comes from the publisher helmed for the longest time by Comics Code Authority stalwart, Michael Silberkleit.

This latest issue is a bit of a break from our storyline, although it stays within its timeline. Harvey Kunkle is still "back from the dead," although as readers of last month's issue know, Sabrina's boyfriend is now inhabited by Sabrina's father, which you just know is going to lead to all kinds of "Flowers in the Attic" creepiness. But the focus of this issue is on the familiars in the house -- Ambrose's cobras, Nag and Nagaina, and Sabrina's cat, Salem.

If your first thought when you met Nag and Nagaina was to flash back to Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," then your instincts were spot on, as the cobras reveal to Salem how they came to be in their current form. In return, Salem tells them his story, which dates back to the time of John Proctor ("The Crucible") and a boy who runs afoul of a witch by betraying her. However, Salem's curse also comes with a prophecy, which brings things full-circle back to Sabrina, and the challenges she is soon to face.

Robert Hack picks up the pencil for this issue, and his style is a perfect fit for the teenage thaumaturge, although perhaps a bit more restrained in the way the pencils blur out the naughty bits. (Witches tend to run about the woods "skyclad" quite a lot.) Meanwhile, scribe Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa continues to weave a tale of suspense and horror that brings readers back issue after issue.

This book also contains a blast from the past backup feature: a classic Sabrina comics story written by George Gladir and drawn by premiere Archie and Josie artist, Dan DeCarlo.