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Salem Saberhagen is a character from the American Archie Comics comic series Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Salem is an American Shorthair cat who lives with Sabrina Spellman, Hilda Spellman and Zelda Spellman in the fictional town of Greendale, located near Riverdale. A former witch, Salem was sentenced by the Witch's Council to spend an indefinite amount of time as a cat as punishment for trying to take over the world. Salem first appeared alongside Sabrina in Archie's Mad House #22 in 1962, and was created by George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo.
Earlier comics portray Salem as an ordinary orange-colored feline who doesn't speak. With the debut and success of the 1990s live-action Sabrina, the Teenage Witch sitcom, Salem's backstory and character underwent several retcons to bring it more in line with the sitcom's version. A late 1990s story initially revealed Salem was turned into a cat for standing up Enchantra, the Head Witch, at the altar. A similar version of events was presented in a 1990s live-action TV movie, where he was imprisoned in the form of a cat for attempting to use his magic to make a mortal love him. However, the comics eventually gave Salem a similar backstory to that shown in the sitcom and its spinoff, Sabrina, the Animated Series. Further details about Salem's past before his transformation into a cat were revealed in the 2000s manga-inspired version of the comic, written and drawn by Tania del Rio.
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