Zelda Spellman

Zelda Spellman is a character featured in the Archie comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Zelda is a full witch (as opposed to half or fully mortal) who lives in the fictional town of Greendale (in the 1990s live-action sitcom, Zelda lives in fictional Westbridge, Massachusetts). Zelda lives with her niece Sabrina Spellman, sister Hilda Spellman, and the family cat Salem, a former witch turned into a cat as punishment for his attempt at world domination.

Aunt Zelda first appeared in Archie's Mad House #65 (December 1968). In the original comics, Zelda was short and stout with green hair. Unlike her temperamental sister Hilda, Zelda's personality was helpful and good-natured.

Starting in the late 1990s, Zelda (and Hilda)'s appearances and personalities were revamped to make her more contemporary (as well as match the live-action sitcom's take on the character). In modern stories, Zelda has her trademark green hair, but appears to be only physically a few years older than Sabrina and dresses in modern fashions.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (live-action sitcom)
In the sitcom, Zelda was blonde and a down-to-earth scientist who tries to keep Sabrina and Hilda out of trouble. As a stark contrast to early comic portrayals, she insists that Sabrina only use her magic for good. As a witch, her magical abilities often manifested as a stream of violet magical particles (similar to Sabrina's golden red magical sparkles) whenever she would transfigure an object or being, conjure an object or teleport herself from one place to another.

Childhood
Zelda P. Spellman was born in 1346. Zelda grew up during the 14th century in Europe, with at least five other siblings: Vesta, being the oldest; Edward, Della, Hilda and Sophia, the youngest.

Vesta was terribly jealous of all the attention that Hilda and Zelda got when they were little. So, she turned their parents into pigs. The Witches Council decided that people with pigs feet could not raise children and so when Vesta refused to turn them back Hilda and Zelda were adopted out to a family in the country.

While the children were living in the farm house the parents stayed in the barn. Their father was "getting very good at working an instamatic with his snout". When their mother head-butted Vesta about a month later, they were turned back into humans. In order to legally get Hilda and Zelda back, they had to adopt them.

Their overbearing mother, Grandma Lydia, spent 200 years of violin lessons on Hilda, while Zelda won trophies, "Winner of the Other Realm Science Fair", "Outstanding Student of the Decade" and "Best of the Best".

Adulthood
As Zelda reached adulthood she went off to college. Zelda attended Other Realm University and subsequently went on to pursue three advanced degrees from Harvard University, graduating in 1873. When it became apparent that she would lose her job as associate professor unless she obtained a more recent degree, she completed a doctoral thesis in two weeks and earned a fourth PhD from Adams College.

Zelda, during the Renaissance, lived in Florence and met a man named Benvolio. Though her father disliked Benvolio, Zelda married Benvolio anyways, though their marriage only lasted three days. At some point, Zelda woke her Aunt Dorma up and was turned into a porch swing.

Both sisters bounced from one job to another over the centuries while trying to find what they wanted to do. Zelda worked as a coal miner when she lived in Wales, rating this as her worst job. During the early 19th century, Hilda and Zelda worked together at a saloon. They were run out of town, but fortunately found a way to maintain some financial security: junk. In the early 1990s, before Sabrina came to live with Hilda and Zelda, they had manservants, spent late nights on the town, weekends in Tuscany, took part in Formula One racing, and originally had a disco on the second floor of their house.

Filmation animated series
Zelda's first non-comics appearance was on the 1969-70 Filmation animated series The Archie Comedy Hour. Zelda was similar to her then-current comics portrayal, with a typical "witch" appearance and attire, as well as her good-natured personality. Unlike Hilda, Zelda's voice was much more soft-spoken. Zelda was voiced by Jane Webb.

DIC animated series
Zelda appears as a character in both Sabrina and Sabrina's Secret Life. Melissa Joan Hart provided her voice in the first series while in the second series she is voiced by Tina Bush. Zelda appeared radically different from her comic book appearances; here, she's depicted with strawberry blonde hair. Zelda had the same basic personality as in the live-action sitcom. She is depicted as a teenager (instead of the usual middle-aged adult), despite being the same age as in other media (hundreds of years old). It is mentioned in passing that she and Hilda have temporally been changed into teenagers by head witch Enchantra as punishment for minor crimes, but the situation is never fully explained. In Sabrina, the Animated Series both attend high school and are not considered legal adults in the mortal world, which is why Sabrina's maternal great-uncle Quigley (an original character created for the series) lives with them. In Sabrina's Secret Life (set two years later), Hilda and Zelda are out of school and able to run the household (and Uncle Quigley is no longer in the cast).

Secrets of a Teenage Witch
Zelda will appear in the upcoming animated series Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, voiced by Erin Mathews.