Advance Review: Have Yourself A Merry Winter Solstice With The ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch Holiday Special’

When you don’t have a lot of pages to tell a story, the best thing to do is jump right in and that’s exactly what writer Kelly Thompson does with her story for the Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special. The special, which sees Thompson reunited with artist Veronica Fish for the first time since Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Something Wicked, also includes a back-up story by writer Danielle Paige and artist Veronica Johnson (with colors by Matt Herms).

As a oneshot, this issue is extremely strong but, as a holiday special, it doesn’t completely hit the mark

Technically it makes sense that the holiday the Spellmans would observe is the winter solstice but it’s not very festive, and while there are few more references to Christmas in Paige’s and Johnson’s story (Sabrina and her aunts are decorating their tree when Hilda and Zelda break into a story about their teenage years), it’s a Christmas tinged with sadness – the first Hilda and Zelda had to spend without their parents.

Christmas and melancholy go hand and hand, so it’s not like Paige and Johnson aren’t being truthful, and the best part about this flashback story is it gives readers a chance to spend some time with Hilda and Zelda’s brother (aka Sabrina’s dad). Sometime Archie characters are made to look glamorous (not the usual teenage experience), and while that idealized reality is fun, there’s a realness to how Johnson draws young Hilda and Zelda, that retains (rather than retouches) the awkwardness of being a teen. “A Very Spellman Solstice” might not be the story to read to have your spirits lifted (Hilda and Zelda even sing the saddest Christmas song – if you’ve seen Meet Me in St. Louis, then you know which song I mean), but it’s nothing if not honest.

To go back to Thompson and Fish’s story, though, it took me a while to realize “The Longest Night” was a reference to the winter solstice (probably because I forgot the winter solstice is, literally, the longest night). I kept thinking the title was a play on “Silent Night” (which just goes to show how hung up I was on making this special about Christmas when there are other winter holidays). From the very first, dripping-with-sarcasm words out of Sabrina’s mouth I was invested in this character again and there is some continuity with Thompson and Fish’s previous arcs as well. In the last issue of Something Wicked the possibility of Sabrina transferring to a magical boarding school was raised and that’s where Sabrina’s enrolled now.

In fact, she and her dorm mates are in the middle of casting a serious spell. Somehow one of Sabrina’s new pals has wound up kidnapped by “the Beast.” How? Why? There isn’t time to explain and Thompson knows readers don’t need that information anyway. Fish’s design for the Beast is a happy medium between more than a bat and less than a vampire, and while it’s consistent with how letterer Jack Morelli has designated spells in the past I still love the choice to have the speech bubbles flipped to black bubbles with white text when’s Sabrina’s practicing witchcraft. It should also be noted that Thompson is great at naming spells. They’re clever instead of on the nose or made-up words that mean nothing.

The resolution for the story is a classic if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it answer that should’ve been easy to predict, but sometimes the obvious answers are the easiest to miss.

In Jamie L. Rotante’s editor’s note it’s hinted that Thompson and Fish may have more Sabrina stories in them yet. Hopefully the “Fin???” at the end is a sign of great things to come.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special goes on sale December 13th from Archie Comics.