Archie Comics introduces Riverdale's first hearing-impaired character

From 'Sounds like Music' in Archie Jumbo Digest #329 (Image credit: Archie Comics)

Archie Comics and the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF) have collaborated to introduce the first hearing-impaired member of Archie's increasingly diverse cast of characters.

Grace Alondra, who according to Archie Comics is the first character living with neurofibromatosis (NF) or schwannomatosis to appear in the pages of a comic book from a major publisher, will make her debut in an eight-page short called 'Sounds Like Music' in Archie Jumbo Digest #329 on sale April 20.

From 'Sounds like Music' in Archie Jumbo Digest #329 (Image credit: Archie Comics)

In the story, Archie and the iconic Riverdale gang meet the young "spunky and smart" Latina woman Grace. Grace loves music - especially her favorite band, The Archies - and she isn't letting her journey toward hearing loss define her. Instead, "she is eager to hear all the great music she can, while she can."

The publisher announced it worked with the Children's Tumor Foundation to create this character to bring attention to the many people living with NF2. NF2 is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves in the body, and which often leads to hearing loss. According to Archie Comics, the disease affects 1 in 25,000 births of all populations equally. Diagnosis is most often discovered in the teen to young adult years.

'Sounds like Music' is written by Alex Simmons and illustrated by Bill Galvan, Ben Galvan, Glenn Whitmore, and Jack Morelli. The story is part of the CTF's global awareness campaign launching at the end of April and continues through May, which is NF Awareness Month.

"Grace is a talented and whip-smart teenager," says Archie Comics editor-in-chief Mike Pellerito in the announcement, citing the publisher's commitment to introducing diverse and differently-abled characters in the Archie-verse. "The fact that she's experiencing hearing loss is only one part of her story. To me, this is the stuff that really matters, and we're proud to be working with the Children’s Tumor Foundation on an important story like this."

"We're incredibly grateful for the support of Archie Comics in our mission to increase knowledge of NF to new audiences, particularly readers of comic books," adds Simon Vukelj, chief marketing officer of the Children’s Tumor Foundation. "In addition to the health challenges NF patients face in their day-to-day lives, they also find that many people simply have never heard of NF. This partnership with Archie will go a long way to changing that, and will help give voice to all NF patients."

CTF has independently released three previous comics stories with more in the works.

"Comics are an ideal medium to create awareness, education, and representation for people facing all kinds of challenges, including neurofibromatosis and other rare disorders," says Vanessa Younger, CTF's communications director who oversees its comics program. "The inclusion of a character living with NF2 in this Archie story is the next step in this initiative, and we are actively working on more."

CTFs independent 'NF Comics' titles include 'Understanding NF2,' 'Moxie and Sparx Explain NF1,' and 'Moxie and Sparx Introduce the Accelerator.'

All the comics along with Archie's 'Sounds Like Music,' are available to freely download or read on the CTF website.

CTF's independent comics technically make 'Sounds Like Music' a crossover and Archie has been involved with two of the most unlikely comic book crossovers ever.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.