Hey Guys,


Was reaching out to see if there was an encyclopedia, or an individual we could reach out to for references on all things Archie.  An example would be if I wanted to look for the haggen das ice cream but of the Archie universe, I could reach out to this person / look it up on this database.  Hope that makes sense!  I work in the writer's room for Riverdale and this would be a HUGE help.  I'll be crushing digests in the mean time.   

interesting idea....

One big problem with that, is that Archie never had continuity in the sense of an "Official Handbook/Encyclopedia of the Archie Universe". Continuity in Archie Comics is loose and flexible. It's mostly a matter of a particular writer wanting to revisit a character or situation he invented (or less often, some other writer invented) in a previous story, in order to put some new spin on it -- but only if he can wring a funny story out of it. Conversely, a story idea that a writer might come up with that contradicts an earlier story (written by him or another writer) is just as valid an idea, because continuity is far less important than writing a funny story. Coming up with a funny story is the main goal, and continuity only applies if that makes ideas come easier for the writer in accomplishing that task. Topical references to things like Haagen Dazs ice cream would be especially fluid, changing from story to story, so that if such a reference appeared in more than one story, it would more than likely be two different "Archieverse" sound-alike brands.

The lack of continuity in Archie stories can be best understood by considering the context of their traditional main audience demographic, 8-to-12 year-old readers. As such, there was an assumed nearly-complete audience turnover every 5 years or so. The changing comic book marketplace resulted in some sporadic attempts at establishing continuity beginning in the late 1980s/early 1990s, in order to try to retain an older segment of readership for a little longer, but without some sort of overarching editorial mandate, even these instances are often contradictory with things established in later stories. A good example would be stories in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch (itself a character whose continuity is somewhat volatile over its history, due to influences from television) appears with Archie and the gang -- sometimes they are aware that she's a witch, and sometimes not, depending on the particular story you're looking at.

There's a (somewhat less-detailed than what you're asking for, but still helpful) Who's Who in the Archie Universe at http://www.mightycrusaders.net/a_pages/riverdale.htm, and you can find a similar list of characters on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Archie_Comics_characters). Those only help with characters though, and still only list the main ones while leaving dozens of more obscure/minor ones out.

Even trying to establish a map of Riverdale is useless.
It's near the mountains, and the seas, and the forests, & major cities, yet it is isolated enough to avoid Big City problems.
Oh, yeah--it's also near a large lake, close enough to the coast for surfing to be popular, but near enough to a desert so that teens would be allowed to drive/camp there. And it snows, which leaves out California.


And there are Witches.


Therefore, right next door to Rod Serling's house.

I should also add that up until very recent times, the continued story from one comic book issue into another (which has been pretty standard for comic book companies like Marvel and DC for many decades now) just did not exist at Archie Comics. Archie stories were just basic episodic sitcoms in nature, like the comedy series airing during the golden age of television, the 1950s and 60s. One major exception to that occurred in the late 1970s, when writer Frank Doyle, inspired by the satiric TV soap Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman!, ran a serial in BETTY AND ME #79-86 (which was the first such continued story ever seen in Archie Comics) called "Betty Cooper, Betty Cooper!". This contained many weird elements of mystery or sci-fi, with a mad doctor with a shrink ray, a vampire, an old gypsy fortuneteller, UFO aliens, and a mysterious threatening figure called "the Limping Man" stalking Jughead. It might be useful for the writers of RIVERDALE to read this, to see how a writer for Archie Comics attempted to emulate a continuing series on television.

A GCD type listing specifically geared to Archie, would be interesting, but more so for character appearances and general story themes and story appearances as well as creator credits.  I'm not even sure how to begin such an undertaking.  The old forum had loads of info, but it was posted scattershot and woefully incomplete even after 8-9 years.