'Archie' Characters Come Out in New National Coming Out Day Comics

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and queer folks celebrated all across social media, sharing their own journeys and hardships and joys related to the constant journey of coming out every one of us has had to embark upon.

Never to be left out, plenty of companies jumped on the bandwagon of the day as well. And while those attempts are often cringe-worthy, at least one attempt went quite well.

The Its Get Better Project joined forces with Archie Comics to put together a series of comic strips showing characters throughout Riverdale embracing their identities, called #ABetterUniverse.

“At Archie Comics, being inclusive and welcoming is a major part of who we — and Riverdale — are,” said co-president Alex Segura.

“It’s a place where friendship and unity are essential, integral elements. It’s always an honor and pleasure to work with our friends at the It Gets Better Project, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with them on a special series of comic strips time to National Coming Out Day.”

Pretty much everyone knows Archie’s CW counterpart, Riverdale, is tremendously queer, but the comics themselves have been fairly LGBTQ friendly over the past decade. Kevin Keller, who also appears as a series regular on Riverdale, appeared as the strip’s first openly gay character in 2010. Since then, a handful of other characters have either been explicitly or implicitly on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, including Archie’s BFF Jughead, who is asexual in the comics.

“It’s our vision that in the future all LGBTQ+ people will be free to live equally and know their worthiness and power as individuals,” reads a statement on the website hosting the new comics.

“We hope this series inspires people to create the world or universe they want to live in.”

All five of the #ABetterUniverse comics can be read online here.