Archie introduces first disabled character

Meet the newest member of the Archie Comics gang, Harper Lodge. She's not just another love interest for Archie –the first new love interest in decades– she's also the first character in the comic to be in a wheelchair!

Harper is Archie's longtime crush Veronica's cousin. She'll make her first appearance when issue #656 is released on June 18.

Real-life Toronto children's author Jewel Kats, an Archie fan, was the inspiration for Harper. She writes the DitzAbled Princess comic series about a zany, quirky woman with a disability.

She asked Archie writer and artist Dan Parent at Toronto's Fan Expo last August why Archie doesn't have a friend with a disability. “I wheeled up to him, looked at him square in the eye and I said, ‘Why isn't there a character with a disability in Riverdale? How is that possible?’ He didn't have an answer right away. But he gave me his contact information,” Kats explained.

But there's more to Harper than her disability. “While Harper does have a disability, it does not define her, and Archie, his friends, and fans around the world will be treated to her dynamic personally.

Harper teaches the Archies an important lesson: that something you think can hold you back can make you that much stronger,” notes comic blog Comicosity.

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