DRAWN TOGETHER

So How Did Archie’s Gay Pal Kevin Keller Come Out To His Parents?

We told you a while back that Kevin Keller, the gay Archie character launched last year, would get his own four-part, bi-monthly spin-off series dealing with topics like coming out and bullying. Well, a friend of ours snagged an exclusive sneak peek at the first issue and it’s kinda amazing.

No, the comic doesn’t have over-the-top gayness like other queer comics we’ve featured here—such as the trans and lesbian inclusive superheroes of Spandex, the Ellen Degeneres comic book, the DADT comic for military personnel, or the issues of The Uncanny X-Men featuring bossy bottom Northstar. But that’s because Archie comics have a younger demographic.

Even still Kevin Keller’s creator Dan Parent made sure to hit on a wide range of contemporary gay issues by giving Kevin a disabled veteran father (conservative parents), a desire to join the military (DADT whut), and an anti-gay smear campaign levied against him when he runs for class president (just like Houston’s lesbian mayor Annise Parker).

And even though it features all these serious issues, it still has regular Riverdale antics like Kevin and Jughead joining a pie-eating contest and barfing afterwards.

Side note: Does any town in the real world actually still have pie-eating contests?

Go look at the comic and tell us what you think. It really is “a pivotal moment in pop history.”

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