Sabrina #101: The Cat Takes Over

I was curious to see what Archie Comics did with the title after the Sabrina manga ends with #100. Today, they announced that her cat Salem was taking over the title, as it goes from girly manga to boys’ wizard adventure.

They’re billing it as “a four-part miniseries-within-a-series”, which means they keep the title as Sabrina the Teenage Witch, although the star is now “Young Salem”.

Now, Salem’s early days are explored once more in a special four-issue tale which harkens back to the days when he wasn’t an enchanted feline, but an actual boy wizard! That’s right: in this special storyline we take you back…way back…to when Salem was a little boy! Years later, an ill-conceived plot by Salem will incur the wrath of the leaders of the Magic Realm and lead to his enchanted punishment of spending the rest of his life as a furry feline.

Because a non-furry feline would be gross. Is there a reason they can’t say “cat”? The story is written by Ian Flynn (Sonic) and drawn by Chad Thomas. Issue #101 is due out March 25 with a raise in cover price, from $2.25 to $2.50 an issue.

I know various titles were reworked and retitled in the 50s, but is this the first time that someone’s pet kicked a title character out of their comic book?