Archie Comics' Gay Weddg: Creators Say They Were Interted In Beg Current, Not Polil | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• ARCHIE GAY MARRIAGE IC SELLS OUT FACE OF BOYTT LL
• KEV KELLER, GAY ARCHIE CHARACTER, GETS MARRIED IN JANUARY ISSUE (PHOTO)
• ARCHIE'S GAY WEDDG PLANS FOR KEV KELLER
• ARCHIE COMICS WEDDG: FIRST GAY WEDDG IN THE SERI HS COMIC BOOK STOR
• SGAPORE HAS BANNED AN ARCHIE COMIC FOR DEPICTG A GAY WEDDG
• ARCHIE COMICS ANNOUNC GAY CHARACTER WILL MARRY -- WILL ANYONE OBJECT?
• ARCHIE COMICS FEATUR FIRST EVER GAY WEDDG
• ARCHIE COMICS’ GAY WEDDG ISSUE SELLS OUT DPE PROTT
• ‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE
• GAY WEDDG ARCHIE COMICS
• ARCHIE COMICS' GAY WEDDG: CREATORS SAY THEY WERE INTERTED IN BEG CURRENT, NOT POLIL
• SGAPORE BANS ‘ARCHIE’ GAY MARRIAGE ISSUE
• ARCHIE COMICS FEATUR ONT-VER OF FIRST EVER GAY WEDDG
• ARCHIE, BELOVED IC BOOK IN, DI SAVG GAY IEND

ARCHIE GAY MARRIAGE IC SELLS OUT FACE OF BOYTT LL

Dpe attempts by a nservative Amerin mothers' group to have pulled om sale, the new Archie ic, which featur a gay marriage, has jt sold out.

Its publisher scribed the marriage of Kev Keller, the seri' first gay character, the latt issue as "a historic moment", announcg yterday that the Life wh Archie #16 had sold strong sal follow a ll om the Amerin Fay Associatn's webse One Milln Moms for Toys R Us to stop sellg the new Archie issue.

Homosexualy is a topic which is "too plited" for children to unrstand, say the mothers, and "a trip to the toy store turns to a premature discsn on sexual orientatn and is pletely unlled for" Archie Comics -chief executive John Goldwater has said that the pany "stands by" the new issue. "Announcg yterday that the Kev Keller issue had sold out, Goldwater said that Archie's fans "have e out full force to support" the gay character. Related: Archie Comics’ gay pal Kev Keller is gettg married.

KEV KELLER, GAY ARCHIE CHARACTER, GETS MARRIED IN JANUARY ISSUE (PHOTO)

In 2010, Archie Comics troduced the first-ever gay character s seri’ 70 year history, Kev Keller. The highly-anticipated gay weddg issue of Archie Comics has fally been revealed. The January issue's ver illtratn shows Kev Keller, Riverdale's first openly gay character who is also an active U.

Archie Comics' next step for their much discsed new character se gay Riverdale teen Kev Keller walk down the aisle a war hero the pag of "Life Wh Archie, " and CBR has the si story. Archie's popular gay teen Kev Keller ti the knot "Life Wh Archie" JanuaryThe but of Kev Keller to the world of Archie Comics has been nothg if not a whirlwd of activy.

ARCHIE'S GAY WEDDG PLANS FOR KEV KELLER

Sce the troductn of the gay teenager to the pag of their "Veroni" tle, the character has lnched his own mi seri, nnected wh his U. While certa segments of the public may balk at the ia of what they see as a kids ic alg wh gay marriage, both Goldwater and Kupperberg were more than ready to hear whatever reactns are head their way.

Kupperberg says the stori will matter as long as they rema about a character who happens to be gay and is not jt phg an agenda. "The problem when the character be all about beg gay stead of jt beg a person who happens to be gay, " Kupperberg said.

Archie Comics' gay character, Kev Keller. Gay rights supporters, activists, bloggers and ic book fans are celebratg along wh Archie and the gang about the January issue of "Life wh Archie, " where a gay uple ti the knot, reported the Amerins Civil Liberti Unn a Jan.

ARCHIE COMICS WEDDG: FIRST GAY WEDDG IN THE SERI HS COMIC BOOK STOR

Keller is the ic seri' first openly gay character, which has been publitn sce 1941. Ironilly, 2003, an Atlanta theater pany was performg a play where Archie would e out of the closet orr to portray beg gay a "better light". Kev and his partner aren't the first gay people to appear ics.

Batman and Rob's relatnship has been cricized for several years but creators ny crime-fightg duo are gay. In 1988, Extrano (Spanish for "strange"), an effemate Hispanic magician, was one of the first openly gay ic book characters when he appeared the DC ic book seri "Millennium.

Marvel's 2005 seri, "The Young Avengers" had two ma gay teen characters named Hulklg and Wicn.

SGAPORE HAS BANNED AN ARCHIE COMIC FOR DEPICTG A GAY WEDDG

State media censors Sgapore have banned the sale of an Archie ic book for s ank prentatn of gay marriage, a matter that remas socially taboo and legally verboten Southeast Asia’s most veloped state.

ARCHIE COMICS ANNOUNC GAY CHARACTER WILL MARRY -- WILL ANYONE OBJECT?

The third stallment Archie: The Married Life, one of several spoff seri the multifar Archie universe, featur the weddg of Kev Keller, a gay character whose creatn 2010 earned wrer Dan Parent a GLAAD Media Award last year. ) As cric Alyssa Rosenberg noted Wednday The Washgton Post, the 75-year-old ic book anchise has recent years adopted a distctly polil subtext, takg on issu of topil signifince as they e: Kev, a gay solir, was troduced as the Obama admistratn was liberatg the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; Archie’s terracial marriage ma the ver 2012. ” In s guil for imported publitns, the MDA prohibs ics and other illtrated material that pict or discs “alternative liftyl or viant sexual practic, ” listg homosexualy as an example of such (alongsi “group sex and sadomasochism”).

Concerng the recent purge of homosexual ntent, though, the rtrictns may not be pletely unwele. Venerable Comic's New Ma Character 'Marri' Gay PartnerArchie Comics Publitns, Inc. Has announced the enthiastic receptn of a new storyle prented s "Life Wh Archie" seri volvg a newly-troduced ma character, Kev Keller, gettg married to his gay partner, an Iraq war vet.

The general tone of the gay character and the same-sex nuptials are weled and treated as normal the world of Riverdale, where the "Archie" stori take place.

ARCHIE COMICS FEATUR FIRST EVER GAY WEDDG

It jt mak sense to have an openly gay character Archie ic books, " Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics Co-CEO, told CNN last year, when Keller was troduced.

ARCHIE COMICS’ GAY WEDDG ISSUE SELLS OUT DPE PROTT

Tth be told, gay marriage is legal enough stat now that most of [are] likely to know someone who is married to someone of the same sex and that shouldn’t suprise — 'Archie' ics are simply regnizg an unniable aspect of our culture. "As for Archie Comics fans who may feel nflicted over the publitn's promotn of a gay liftyle, Dixon suggted that disengagg might not actually be the bt reactn. "Christians aren't crossg any l by readg Archie ics, not any more so than they would be by gog to a grocery store or a bank wh a homosexual manager.

While the Bible is clear about the sfulns of homosexualy, 's also clear about our primary llg as Christians to love our neighbor and proclaim the gospel, " Dixon said. We need to thk refully about how we n simultaneoly promote the sancty of marriage our lol church while still reachg out to, lovg, and servg the homosexual muny. When we choose to boytt thgs like this we are sendg a msage to the homosexual muny — we don’t agree wh you and we don’t want to hear your si.

Who knows, perhaps readg 'Archie' might help unrstand better where some homosexuals are g om so that we might be better equipped to serve them, love them, and share the gospel wh them the real world, " he said. Hartley, who also worked at Marvel Comics, died 2003, at the age of Comics most certaly is not alone s troductn or exploratn of homosexual characters.

‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE

Gay marriage, Obama, and the Occupy movement e to Archie’s wholome hometown. Kev Keller is the first gay character Archie Comics.

The ic’s most public step to the left was the troductn of a new gay character named Kev Keller 2010. In this ic book ver image released by Archie Comics, Kev Keller, left, the seri' first openly gay character, is shown on the ver wh his father, a retired Army lonel. Keller is the foc of an upg gay marriage storyle Life Wh Archie that has drawn mixed reactns om crics.

GAY WEDDG ARCHIE COMICS

(AP/Archie Comics)Archie is gog om ic to culture warrr aga, as the Archie Comics universe fields praise and srn over a gay a pair of straight weddgs -- both strangely volvg Archie, though his dreams -- drew natnal attentn, the publisher behd the popular stori has nfirmed that ’s makg room for someone else to walk down the aisle: Kev Keller, the seri’ first openly-gay character. ”It’s the first time the Archie universe, which picts the liv of teenagers the fictnal town of Riverdale, has touched upon the topic of gay marriage. “Gay people share the same dreams.

“It jt mak sense to have an openly gay character Archie ic books. Archie’s gog to a weddg — a gay weddg. Last year, Archie Comics, the ic dtry’s embodiment of wholome Amerina, crossed an important bridge when troduced s first gay character, Kev Keller.

ARCHIE COMICS' GAY WEDDG: CREATORS SAY THEY WERE INTERTED IN BEG CURRENT, NOT POLIL

Keller is gettg his own solo seri startg Febary 2012 that will see the character get elected print of Riverdale High School and face the challenge of beg an openly gay teen. The Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD) praised the storyle and nomated Keller’s creator Dan Parent for an award 2011. Between the film and Kelly’s recently published, long-supprsed memoir “Women I’ve Undrsed, ’’ a vivid portra emerg of Grant as an amb young immigrant vvillian who revented himself so thoroughly, he end up nyg his te self a homophobic dtry.

“The physil vlence between the men [was] not unmon between homosexual men of the perd, ’’ Kathere Thompson, the documentary’s wrer, told The Post. The bate over whether the former Archie Leach was gay, bi or straight has centered for s around his on-and-off habatn wh Stt a beach hoe Malibu, which was documented a famo seri of still photographs of them domtic pos. ’’ (And 1980, he actually brought a famatn su agast edian Chevy Chase, who was forced to issue a retractn of his jokg reference to Grant as a “homo.

The Life Wh Archie #16 ic, which the character beme the first gay character to wed the longnng Archie Comics seri, sold out of stor, s publisher’s -CEO Jon Goldwater announced a prs release.

SGAPORE BANS ‘ARCHIE’ GAY MARRIAGE ISSUE

He’s also the subject of his own brand new ic seri, which tracks his teenage years as an openly gay high school stunt. One example is episo five, “Judgg Books by Covers, ” which prented an unexpected take on the subject of homosexualy — at a time that nobody was alg wh .

The All the Fay wiki offers up this plot scriptn: “Archie thks he knows a homosexual when he se one and when Mike v his flamboyant photographer iend Roger (Anthony Geary) to the Bunker hoehold, Archie tomatilly assum that Mike’s iend is a “flamer. ” Retreatg to the safety of Kelcy’s Bar, Archie choos to spend time wh his “he-man” pals, notably his old arm-wrtlg crony Steve (Philip Carey), who, when hearg about Roger, reveals himself to be gay — which Archie never spected.

Televisn historian and thor Jim Colucci, who is currently -wrg wh Norman Lear a 50th-anniversary book voted to All the Fay, ments, “This was a brand new show g blazg out of the gate, bee if they were gog to tackle touchy issu 1971, gay reprentatn was certaly among the touchit.

ARCHIE COMICS FEATUR ONT-VER OF FIRST EVER GAY WEDDG

Jim mentns that when he wrote his book Goln Girls Forever, he mented that the first regular gay character on televisn was the short-lived s The Corner Bar, which aired 1972. Gay liberatn and Stonewall had been 1969, so certaly was somethg the world was talkg about. And the gay muny had started to fd s very nascent voice, but wasn’t beg reprented mastream media and certaly not on televisn.

“Not only did they have gay reprentatn, but they also were breakg the harmful stereotyp that were the only thg that day and age people knew about gay people. In 1971 people probably thought all gay people were ty, feme, limp-wristed men wh lisps — jt all the stereotyp. While any stereotype has some tth, what the episo took pas to show is that never tells you whether Roger, Mike’s iend who wears the ast and is very boistero, and ee talks wh his hands, is gay or not.

But what do show is that the macho man, the nfirmed bachelor who’s an arm wrtler and big and beefy, and a former play player, whom Archie idoliz and hangs out wh the bar all the time, has been gay all the years. “So there was jt so much that the show did, ” Jim pots out, “to give reprentatn to a gay character, which would have been ground breakg enough, but also showed multi-dimensns to what beg gay meant. Archie Comics have e a long way… troducg s first gay character last year and now, featurg a same-sex marriage.

ARCHIE, BELOVED IC BOOK IN, DI SAVG GAY IEND

Kev Keller was the first gay character the Archie Comics, and now, he’s gettg married. "Archie: The Married Life Book Three" was taken off book store shelv followg a plat to Sgapore's Media Development Authory which found was not le wh social norms and breached their ntent of the ban, which was imposed earlier this year but me to light late on Wednday, a week after Sgapore's Natnal Library Board said was to stroy three children's books seen as beg pro-homosexual, cludg pengu story "And Tango Mak Three.

" A growg groundswell of support for gay rights is beg met wh noisy protts om relig groups, keen to mata the stat quo of sex between two men beg illegal.

Next week, an issue of the ic will be released the Uned Stat that shows Archie dyg as he tak a bullet protectg a gay Ban: Sgapore Nix Story About Gay PengusArchie Andrews, Who Loved Betty and Veroni, Di at 73 (New York Tim)Do Gay Pengus Have a Place School Librari?