Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 22nd, 2011
No one knows exactly what state Riverdale is in, but for the past 70 years (this month) it has been the home of Archie Andrews and his friends Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper and Forsythe “Jughead” Jones. But whichever state is home to one of comics’ enduring teenager, in five or six years it will have marriage equality.
Life With Archie is exploring a plot line that takes place in the future, one in which Archie either marries loyal and loving girl next door Betty, or the rich and beautiful but manipulative and shallow Veronica. But on January 4th, the marriage that is splashed across the front cover is that of Riverdale’s newest resident, Kevin Keller. (CNN)
Kevin Keller is shown to have followed in his Army father’s footsteps – in images released to CNN, readers learn that he served in the military and was injured while serving in Iraq. He meets Dr. Clay Walker while in a hospital’s rehabilitation unit.
Clay helps Kevin regain his ability to walk, and the two become friends. But it’s not until a chance meeting in an airport that they start dating.
…
“Riverdale, Archie and the gang are set in high school, and we ran a risk, unless we reflect what’s going on with kids today in the real world, of becoming irrelevant,” said Goldwater, the son of Archie creator John L. Goldwater.
Although Archie and gang are about as wholesome and middle-America and non-controversial as you can get, this isn’t really as big a risk as we might think. The introduction of Kevin a year ago didn’t exactly send Carl and Karen Svenson in the suburbs of Minnesota into a cardiac. (I don’t mean to rely on stereotypes, but I was watching some lovely couple in the Midwest on HGTV buying their first home and gosh, he was excited. Man, it was really great. Golly, that knotty pine basement is just like the one his family has.)
Goldwater said the creation of Riverdale High’s first gay student resulted in only seven canceled subscriptions, and “hundreds and hundreds” of new ones. Archie Comics sold out of Kevin’s four-issue miniseries. Kevin is also getting his own title, published every other month, in February.
So best wishes to Kevin, and let’s hope Goldwater is prescient… but also keep in mind that comic book time is very different from our own. After all, Archie may be 70 but he doesn’t look a day over 17.
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Jess
December 22nd, 2011
Archie has always been a guilty pleasure for me, in fact I have two double digests next to my bed right now waiting to e read. I’ve never had a subscription, but I am going to probably get one to the Kevin Keller digest, since they don’t sell them in my town.
Sandhorse
December 23rd, 2011
Love the plot line and premise. I’m not so keen on the ‘chance meeting in an airport’. It’s too reminiscent of another ‘chance meeting’ for my taste. Kudos all the same for forging ahead of society at large. I think it’s the small steps like these that make huge leaps, even if it is not readily apparent.
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