We haven’t been writing too often about books selling out at the distributor level, but the news that Archie Comics’ Life With Archie #16 – The Wedding of Kevin Keller selling out is kind of a big deal.
Earlier this week, news broke that the One Million Moms group, a subset of the American Family Association, was demanding that Toys R Us immediately remove Archie Comics from their comic book section because of the same sex wedding image displayed on the cover.
“These comic books are sold at the front checkout counters so they are highly visible to employees, managers, customers and children. Unfortunately, children are now being exposed to same-sex marriage in a toy store. This is the last place a parent would expect to be confronted with questions from their children on topics that are too complicated for them to understand. Issues of this nature are being introduced too early and too soon, which is becoming extremely common and unnecessary.”
Of course that prompted people to see what all the hullabaloo was about, which may have further prompted more people to buy the issue to check it out. This morning, I haven’t heard of any rioting or burning of Toys R Us stores across the nation, or conservative news media outlets digging up the ghost of Fredric Wertham like they did a few weeks ago with Catwoman, so it looks like the One Million Moms media grab may have backfired, all to the benefit of a company that is really trying to reflect societal trends in their books.
In a statement, Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater stated:
We’re sorry the American Family Association/OneMillionMoms.com feels so negatively about our product, but they have every right to their opinion, just like we have the right to stand by ours. Kevin will always be a major part of Riverdale, and we’re overjoyed, honored and humbled by the response to this issue. Our fans have come out full force to support Kevin. He is, without a doubt, the most important new character in Archie history. He’s here to stay.
There’s no word if Archie Comics will be going back to press with this issue, or if you’ll be able to pick it up in digest form at the checkout line of your local grocery store in the near future.
3 Comments
Yay! Good for them!
Kevin has to be the only kid out of Riverdale that actually “grows up” and gets married (Not counting the alternate timelines where Archie is married to both Betty and Veronica), assuming this is in continuity.
Then again, he hasn’t been around all that long so maybe he hasn’t had enough exposure to whatever in Riverdale keeps everyone from growing older.
He married a BLACK guy?!? What is this world coming to!!
NOTE: This is a sarcastic remark and is meant in humor. Don’t hate me. I can not believe the uproar. It is ridiculous in my opinion. We have bigger issues to confront as a society and being distracted by the powers-that-be to focus on these kinds of things keeps us from achieving bigger greatness. Demand that your leaders address the real issues and stop deflecting. They are wasting our precious time.
Now off the soapbox and back to my comic book collection … Atomic Robo!!