Pride: Kevin Keller

Currently the comic book that is making The One Million Moms organization frantic is KEVIN KELLER, published by Archie Comics. Not only is he in your face about being gay, he is shown to be a good friend to the Archie Gang! AND his father was in the US Army and lovingly supports his son. In his first issue, he is shown getting ready to go on a date with a guy named Brian. How "gay" can you get, right? But that's not the worst part of it from the conservative group's point of view. What really bothers them is that because it's Archie Comics, they are sold at Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us, and other mainstream locations that don't sell less gay-friendly comics like DC and Marvel, meaning MORE unsuspecting kids who haven't learned to hate fags could possibly pick up this issue and like Kevin just like Jughead does! Who would have thought Archie Comics would be so revolutionary?! Of course, this is the same company that insisted on integating their secondary title, JOSIE & THE PUSSY-CATS, when it made its debut in the early 1970s. So maybe the company is being run by Godless Liberals after all? ;-)

As a character Kevin Keller is a little bit too perfect. He's only just moved to Riverdale recently but already he has been voted class president. (I would have thought Reggie would have gotten that locked up!) He is a teen reporter who works part-time for the Riverdale Times. He has a great fashion sense and is kind, loveable, and adorable. He's blonde, blue-eyed, and built. So yeah, he's a bit dull, haha.

He has been shown to be Veronica's new best friend, a development that I think could easily be made permanent. In Keven you have a character that can hang out with Veronica without her having to worry about being her rival. Betty was always Veronica's friend, but there was also always that rivalry/jealousy over Archie that shouldn't be there with Kevin. Or maybe he *will* try to take Archie away from her, haha! (I'm kidding....although I would SO read that comic!)

Archie Comics got in trouble recently when they sold a KEVIN KELLER SPECIAL featuring his possible future marriage at Toys-R-Us (cover shown here). Evidently the Million Mommies when faced with this comic cover couldn't tell their million off-spring, "Some boys like other boys, and some girls like other girls. Don't you go doing that!!" Instead they started a petition, caused a ruckus, and the issue in question sold out. So I guess it's true what they say: there's no such thing as bad publicity. :-)

I don't pick up too many new comics any more, but I try to purchase these when I come across them,  just to check in with him. Hopefully he'll become more of a well-rounded character, and perhaps he'll have a "two dates on one night" or "car stalled on the way to the beach" storyline that will really cause the conservatives to go gorilla-crazy. In the meantime Kevin seems cool, and because they *are* ARCHIE comics, they are not ultra violent or ultra sexy. They are just revolutionary in treating gay people as real characters. Imagine that.