During an interview with gay podcast Feast of Fun during C2E2, veteran Archie Comics cartoonist and writer Dan Parent revealed that the comic’s first openly-gay character will make his way to Riverdale High School this fall.
(More on Techland: DC’s First Openly-Gay Character Gets Her Own Series)
Debuting in Veronica #202, which hits comics stores September 1st, Kevin Keller will become an openly gay, and openly accepted member of the Archie universe.
Says 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.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snqMn18MkqE]
In his first story, Isn’t it Bromantic?, Veronica makes every attempt to capture the eye of Kevin, who confesses to Jughead that he’s gay. Of course, Jughead goes on to meddle and convinces Kevin to keep this from Veronica, sending her on the prowl with even more embarrassing antics.
(More on Techland: Sci-Fi Sexy Time: All-Time Hottest Hookups)
Parent also goes on to talk about the recent diversification of Riverdale that includes the comic’s first interracial relationship between Archie and Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats. Also in the works are a Jersey Shore parody featuring Veronica as Snookie and Reggie as The Situation as well as a Twilight-esque vampire storyline.
[via Newsarama]