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Last September, Archie Comics introduced a new student in Riverdale High: Kevin Keller, the series’ first openly gay character. Kevin’s inclusion in the comics after Issue 202 proved popular with readers–so popular, in fact, that Kevin Keller is now getting his own spin-off.
The series, titled Kevin Keller, will follow a four-issue mini-series starring Kevin that began in July and has started filling out his background, including his relationship with his father, who serves in the military and is supportive of his son’s desire to follow in his footsteps. Like those for the other Archie characters, Kevin’s series will deal with his life in high school. “He’s going to be the class president,” said Dan Parent, the writer-artist who created Kevin. But it won’t all be a good time. “Even the most popular kids are not popular with everybody,” Mr. Parent said. “There’s some adversity he’ll have to deal with.”
Readers will also get a glimpse into Kevin’s adulthood thanks to a continuing married life story line in Life With Archie, which shows that famous redhead’s life on two paths: one in which he married Betty, the other in which he married Veronica. In early 2012 that story line will feature Kevin’s marriage. “We needed to figure out how to get Kevin into that book and, frankly, not sidestep the issue,” Mr. Goldwater said. “It deals with the fact that he’s a gay man and has gay relationships.” Mr. Goldwater said the overall reception to Kevin has been positive. “Out of all the people who subscribe to the Archie books, we only had seven total cancellations,” he said.
The New York Times via G.TDW | Image: Archie Comics
These days, TV, music and book spin-offs are a pretty slick business – but it wasn’t always like that!
Here’s a list of some pretty badly thought out spin-offs from the mists of time:
So Neil Simon writes a successful play, that then becomes an even more successful movie, and then becomes a long-running sitcom spin-off with Jack “Quincy” Klugman and Tony “proto-Niles” Randall. Surely that’s enough juice to be going on with. A couple more squeezes? You got it.
Exhibit A – The Odd Couple Sings, an endeavour that could most generously be described as misjudged, particularly as Klugman’s pipes aren’t exactly what you call fit for purpose. You can download the full horror at the link above, particularly the awesome version of You’re So Vain.
The indignities don’t stop there for ol’ Felix and Oscar. Oh no, after 114 hit episodes, the concept was later revived in 1982 as The New Old Couple. New, I hear you say? So, new scripts right? Not exactly. The same scripts, in fact. Then how is it new? Well, er Felix and Oscar, well, they’re er, now they’re black. So why don’t we call it The Black Odd Couple? Dude, that’s not cool.
From the Upcoming 
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