Even Archie is getting with the times!
The classic comic book is introducing its first openly gay character, named Kevin Keller, in the upcoming issue Isn't It Bromantic? - and the only conflict he faces is whether or not to tell an interested Veronica that she's not his type!
Lovely!
Says the cartoonist, Dan Parent:
"In the last year or two, we've been introducing a lot of new characters: Diverse characters, characters with different ethnicities. With trying to be diverse, we wanted to have everybody at the table. We knew at some point we wanted to introduce a gay character, and when I came up with the story idea, we felt it worked in context with this story. They just like watching Veronica making a fool of herself, trying to get this guy to like her. At the beginning of the book, Kevin tells Jughead first that he's gay. And Kevin feels kind of bad and wants to tell Veronica why he's not interested. But Jughead keeps saying, 'No, you should wait to tell her,' because he's enjoying watching Veronica's antics. Jughead's got a mind of his own. I think he'd be the first person to be accepting of a gay character. The story is very much in the true context of our Archie stories. It's Veronica being Veronica. The fact that there's a gay character in the story isn't a big deal to the characters. We didn't do something with turmoil. The guy just happens to be gay, and the characters accept it, and that's it. My daughter has openly gay kids in her high school and it's accepted. Obviously this isn't the case everywhere in the country. There are struggles that gay people have. But gay kids in high schools isn't the big deal it used to be, and we want to reflect the way being gay is accepted in today's society. We're trying to show that Riverdale is an accepting community, that everyone is welcome in Riverdale. We're trying to show that Riverdale is that ideal town that everybody wants to be a part of."
Well spoken and 100% true!
We think it's wonderful that they would introduce a gay character in such a natural and effortless manner!
What do U think?? Are U interested to see how Kevin fits with the rest of the Riverdale gang??
Kristanna Loken
Kristin Kreuk
No comments:
Post a Comment