Archie Comics declared today (9 July) Kevin Keller Day and to mark the occasion, released a video for the It Gets Better anti-bullying project.

Keller is the first openly gay character in the history of the comic book franchise which takes place in the fictional town of Riverdale and includes such characters as Reggie, Veronica, Jughead, Betty and, of course, Archie.

‘When we introduced Kevin, it was the first Archie comic to sell out in 70 years,’ cartoonist Dan Parent says in the video. ‘We were introducing a character that we really wanted to have some legs. So we worked very, very hard on the issue, probably harder than any story that I’ve worked on, and the readers responded really favorably.’

Keller will give his boyfriend, Devon, a kiss in the 7 August upcoming issue – a kiss witnessed by a Riverdale mom who has all kinds of problems with it.

The kiss at Tate’s Diner results in an incident when the mom gets very offended and kind of pitches a bit of a fit.

‘Kevin is kind of used to that, but Veronica records the whole thing and of course uploads it to the Riverdale equivalent of YouTube and that starts a bit of a debate,’ Parent told the Associated Press in May.

The plot in ‘The Kiss’ was inspired by the anti-gay group One Million Moms which last year inadvertently helped to sell out an issue of the comic book Life With Archie that featured an older version of Kevin getting married to Dr. Clay Walker, a physical therapist.

One Million Moms was upset that the Toys R Us retail chain was carrying the issue featuring the wedding on its cover.