The first issue of Kevin Keller's eponymous comic presents us with something we very, very rarely see in Archie comics: a first date. Existing, as we do, in the perpetual in media res of Riverdale, the close knit gang of teens have always been dating. So why not insert Kevin into this ouroboros of teen dating? Well, because he's gay. It's articulated very nicely by the version of this character that appears on the television show Riverdale, that there aren't a lot of options in a town like Riverdale for queer teens to date.
But before we even get to dating, I just want to talk about the character himself. Kevin was created by long-time Archie artist Dan Parent, and perhaps even more so than the esteemed Mr. Andrews himself, Kevin, visually, typifies the typical small-town American white male. Blond hair, blue eyes, smart, and charismatic. Riverdale has long been missing a blond male to balance out the hair colours of the gang, but instead of making him a rival, a la Cheryl Blossom, Kevin's creators chose to make him inaccessible to any of the rest of the, let's be honest, incestuous little crew. (Honestly, who hasn't dated who in that group?) Having done so, do they back themselves into a corner as far as the stories they can tell about Kevin? Remember that a huge, HUGE, percentage of Archie stories are about dates.
There would be an easy fix for this in that the creators involved could simply have said that there were plenty of other young men to date. But, in an uncharacteristic but necessary attempt at reality in an Archie comic, we instead get a very different gay dating scene in Riverdale. Which, honestly, probably reflects the reality of people in Kevin's situation more than the typical Archie story might. This introduces the flaw that Kevin worries over in today's story, that he is a bad dater, through the simple fact that he hasn't had the opportunity to do so with the same frequency as his peers.
Speaking of his peers (and family, and literally everyone else in the comic), there is no awkwardness toward Kevin and his orientation. He goes to them for dating advice, and they give it freely and with no editorializing. Even Reggie, who, in other stories, has evinced some discomfort with Kevin (note: this too is an important story to be telling in Archie comics), offers to help make over the awkward Keller. A nice touch, this, in that it treats some of the anxieties of teens, straight or queer, as analogous. Who hasn't worried about what the right thing to say or to do on a date is? And who hasn't asked friends for advice? Kevin's familial relationship is also quite wonderful, his father showing none of the reticence that the television version does toward his son. Then again, Kevin doesn't exactly go cruising in the woods in this issue.
One last thing that jumped out at me. Near the end of the story, Kevin is helping his father with some yard work. "Start by digging ditches for the apple trees," his father says, "Then we'll work on the stone wall." Those last two words are bolded in the comic, and I can't help but think that it's not simply for the purposes of vocal emphasis, but to point to something a bit more symbolic. Isn't the appearance of a character like Kevin exactly the sort of thing the original protestors at Stonewall, and all those who've marched since, would want? A gay kid in an Archie comic, dealing with all the same things Archie characters do (i.e., he's not there solely for the "gay" stories), and also representing the more specific things a gay teen might have to deal with. And presenting a welcoming community within which the character is allowed to flourish. A few panels later, we see Kevin carrying a stone for the wall as his date arrives - Kevin has mixed up the days. This panel, though, if you'll allow a flight of symbolic interpretation, shows a young gay man carrying this stone toward his waiting date, shouldering, in part at least, some of the burden to carry forward the struggle. And, I think, to demonstrate that, in the figure of the arriving date, that it's not just toil that awaits, but reward.
A nice start to what I think is going to be a really great month of comics.
More to come...
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