Archie Universe Sliding Timeline

#8 - Post-"Riverdale" Edition

Introduction:

Since 2011, I have done a sliding timeline post. Archie Comics seems to keep the main characters at around the same age (it varies here and there), so, logically, each year, the characters' birth dates are advanced by one year.

This was my original plan: until this point, I had been working under the assumption that the characters would be seniors in the upcoming school year. However, with this timeline, I had decided to shift to the "Riverdale" universe, where the characters start out as sophomores. "Riverdale", for better or worse, is currently the "true" Archieverse - at least, as far as exposure and public perception are concerned. However, I scrapped those plans once I noticed season 1 occurred early in the 2016-2017 school year (despite airing in the second half of it). Since season 2 (airing in the 2017-2018 season) picked up immediately after the end of season 1 (circa October of 2016), this raises questions of whether "Riverdale" will progress in real time or not. Therefore, this timeline moves past "Riverdale" (while acknowledging its events) and continues to follow the comics, which are assumed to occur during senior year.

What this post attempts to do is try to figure out the characters' perspective and frame of reference for viewing the world. This can also be useful for the writers when writing new stories. Of course, I'm aware that people can become aware of things (music, movies, television series, video games, books, etc.) that came out before they were born, but they weren't there "as it happened", and thus these things hold no nostalgic value to them. Also, keep in mind that people generally don't remember things before the age of two (in this case, 2003).

I am assuming 1) the characters were born in 2001 and 2) will graduate from high school in 2019 at the age of 18.

In addition to updating the information, I have sorted it into rough chronological order as the characters would have experienced them (or, in the cases of pre-birth events, wouldn't have experienced them).

For this edition, in which the characters are true millennials (born, and possibly conceived, in the 21st century), I have re-organized the information, presenting everything, regardless of topic, in a series of lists according to school year and, prior to that, calendar year. The category (Education, World Event, Technology, Music, Film, TV, etc.) will be noted before the items. Also, I have deleted pre-birth items from before 1996 to eliminate the clutter.

Not everything from the previous timeline has been added to this timeline, mostly due to a lack of time on my part (even though I usually post the timeline at the beginning of summer, I'm posting it at the end of summer this year, and it still wasn't enough time). I hope to add it in next year's timeline.

Happy reading! If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, please let me know!

Pre-Birth:

Demographics:
The last surviving person born in 1885 died.

Politics:
Bill Clinton was President of the United States.
George Pataki was Governor of New York.
Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister of Canada.
Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Jacques Chirac was President of France.
Aleksander Kwasniewski was President of Poland.
Gerhard Schröder was Chancellor of Germany.
Vladimir Putin was President of Russia.
José María Alfredo Aznar López was Prime Minister of Spain.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was President of Italy.
John Howard was Prime Minister of Australia.
Yoshiro Mori was Prime Minister of Japan.
Zhu Rongji was Premier of the People's Republic of China.
Jiang Zemin was President of the People's Republic of China.
Chen Shui-bian was President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Economics:
Movie ticket price: $5.39
Price of standard comic book from DC or Marvel: $2.25

Violence:
Buell Elementary School shooting - Kayla Rolland murdered
Lake Worth Middle School shooting - teacher Barry Grunow murdered
University of Washington Medical Center shooting - Rodger C. Haggitt murdered
University of Arkansas shooting - Dr. John R. Locke murdered

Technology:
DVDs
Super Audio CD
Windows ME debuted
DVD-Audio
Sega Game Gear discontinued
Sony PS one debuted
Sony PlayStation 2 debuted
USB 2.0 debuted
USB flash drives
CD sales peaked
Windows NT 3.1 support ended

Music:
The Veronicas formed.
Willow Smith was born.
Origin - Evanescence
Music - Madonna
Oops!... I Did It Again - Britney Spears
Lucky - Britney Spears
Stronger - Britney Spears
My Only Wish (This Year) - Britney Spears
Beautiful Day - U2
Rock DJ - Robbie Williams
It's My Life - Bon Jovi
No Strings Attached - NSYNC
Mi Reflejo - Christina Aguilera
My Kind of Christmas - Christina Aguilera

Books:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (#4)
Heartland: Coming Home (#1)
Heartland: After the Storm (#2)
Heartland: Breaking Free (#3)
Animorphs: The Diversion (#49)
Animorphs: The Ellimist Chronicles
Daughters of the Moon: Goddess of the Night (#1)
Daughters of the Moon: Into the Cold Fire (#2)
A Storm of Swords (#3)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (#1)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (#2)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window (#3)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill (#4)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy (#5)

Films:
Next Friday
Supernova
My Dog Skip
Down to You
Eye of the Beholder
Isn't She Great
The Big Tease
Gun Shy
Scream 3
Snow Day
The Beach
The Tigger Movie
Boiler Room
Hanging Up
Pitch Black
The Whole Nine Yards
Beautiful People
Wonder Boys
Reindeer Games
3 Strikes
Drowning Mona
The Next Best Thing
What Planet Are You From?
Mission to Mars
The Ninth Gate
Erin Brockovich
Final Destination
Romeo Must Die
Here on Earth
Whatever It Takes
High Fidelity
Price of Glory
The Road to El Dorado
The Skulls
Black and White
Ready to Rumble
Return to Me
Rules of Engagement
28 Days
American Psycho
Keeping the Faith
Kevin & Perry Go Large
Where the Money Is
Gossip
Love & Basketball
U-571
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Frequency
Where the Heart Is
Timecode
Gladiator
I Dreamed of Africa
Michael Jordan to the Max
Battlefield Earth
Center Stage
Held Up
Screwed
The Virgin Suicides
Dinosaur
Road Trip
Small Time Crooks
Mission: Impossible 2
Shanghai Noon
Big Momma's House
Gone in 60 Seconds
Boys and Girls
Fantasia 2000
Shaft
Titan A.E.
Chicken Run
Me, Myself & Irene
The Patriot
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Perfect Storm
The Kid
Scary Movie
X-Men
Loser
Pokémon: The Movie 2000
The In Crowd
What Lies Beneath
Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Coyote Ugly
Hollow Man
Saving Grace
Space Cowboys
Autumn in New York
Bless the Child
Cecil B. Demented
The Replacements
Godzilla 2000
The Cell
The Original Kings of Comedy
Bring It On
The Art of War
The Crew
Highlander: Endgame
Whipped
Pollock
Nurse Betty
The Watcher
The Way of the Gun
Turn It Up
Almost Famous
Bait
Duets
Solarmax
Billy Elliot
The Exorcist (re-release)
Urban Legends: Final Cut
Woman on Top
Beautiful
Best in Show
Remember the Titans
The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
Digimon: The Movie
Get Carter
Bamboozled
Tigerland
Bootmen
Meet the Parents
Dr. T & the Women
Lost Souls
The Contender
The Ladies Man
Bedazzled
Pay It Forward
Drunken Master II
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Lucky Numbers
Requiem for a Dream
The Little Vampire
Mercy Streets
Charlie's Angels
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Little Nicky
Men of Honor
Red Planet
The Miracle Worker
Bounce
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
The 6th Day
102 Dalmatians
Quills
Unbreakable
Panic
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dungeons & Dragons
Proof of Life
Snatch
Vertical
Chocolat
Dude, Where's My Car?
The Emperor's New Groove
What Women Want
Cast Away
Dracula 2000
Finding Forrester
Miss Congeniality
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
State and Main
The Family Man
The Gift
Thirteen Days
All the Pretty Horses
Traffic
Shadow of the Vampire
Paul Dano, Chris Evans, Topher Grace, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Amber Valletta, Kerry Washington, and Sam Worthington made their film debuts.
Steve Reeves, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Alec Guinness died.

Television:
Animorphs
The Moxy Show
It's Like, You Know...
Odd Man Out
The Brothers Flub
Saved by the Bell: The New Class
KaBlam!
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Sliders
Superman: The Animated Series
The New Batman/Superman Adventures
Noddy
The Avengers: United They Stand
Sabrina: The Animated Series
I Am Weasel
Oh Baby
Detention
Histeria!
Crashbox
Godzilla: The Series
The Journey of Allen Strange
Cosby
Party of Five
Chicago Hope
Now and Again
Boy Meets World
A Little Curious
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (English dub)
The Pretender
Martial Law
Sports Night
Beverly Hills, 90210
Donny & Marie
Harsh Realm
Malcolm & Eddie
Jesse
Forgive or Forget
Early Edition
The Dating Game
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Veronica's Closet
Profiler
Freaks and Geeks
Stark Raving Mad
Kenan and Kel
Love & Money
Dilbert
Shasta McNasty
Young Americans
The Bugs Bunny Show
CBS Kidshow
Double Dare
Totally Circus
Major League Baseball on NBC
Sailor Moon (DiC/Cloverway dubs)
Pepper Ann
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Beast Machines: Transformers
The Roseanne Show
Mickey Mouse Works
Suddenly Susan
The Corner (miniseries)
Stepsister from Planet Weird (film)
The Ultimate Christmas Present (film)
The Simpsons, season 12, episode 08
Law & Order, season 11, episode 08
NYPD Blue, season 07
Star Trek: Voyager, season 7, episode 10
JAG, season 6, episode 09
Xena: Warrior Princess, season 6, episode 09
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 5, episode 10
The Practice, season 5, episode 10
Sex and the City, season 3, episode 18
The Famous Jett Jackson, season 3, episode 17
Pokemon, season 3 (The Johto Journeys), episode 15
Felicity, season 3, episode 11
Charmed, season 3, episode 08
Family Guy, season 2
Angel, season 2, episode 10
Popular, season 2, episode 10
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, season 2, episode 08
Even Stevens, season 1, episode 13
Gilmore Girls, season 1, episode 10
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, season 1, episode 10
Boston Public, season 1, episode 08

Video Games:
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo 64)
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (PlayStation)
Pokemon Red and Blue (Game Boy)
Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition (Game Boy)
Pokemon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color)

Archie Comics:
Archie Annual (Digest Magazine)
Archie...Archie Andrews, Where Are You? Comics Digest Magazine
Archie's Christmas Stocking
(Archie's) Riverdale High
Archie's Spring Break!
Archie's Story and Game Digest Magazine
Archie's Vacation Special
Archie's Weird Mysteries (free preview issue)
Betty and Veronica Annual Digest Magazine
Betty and Veronica Summer Fun
Betty's Digest Magazine
Cheryl Blossom Special
Cheryl Blossom (first miniseries)
Cheryl Blossom (second miniseries)
Cheryl Blossom (third miniseries)
The Jughead Jones (Comics) Digest (Magazine)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Vol. 2)
Veronica's (Passport) Digest Magazine
World of Archie
Archie #502
Archie & Friends #44
Archie Comics Digest Magazine #177
Archie's Double Digest Magazine #121
Archie's Holiday Fun Digest Magazine #5
Archie's Pal Jughead Comics #132
Archie's Pals 'N' Gals Double Digest Magazine #54
Archie's Weird Mysteries #10
Betty #94
Betty and Veronica #156
Betty and Veronica Comics Digest Magazine #116
Betty and Veronica Double Digest Magazine #93
Betty and Veronica Spectacular #46
Cheryl Blossom #36
Jughead With Archie Digest Magazine #160
Jughead's Double Digest Magazine #72
Laugh Digest Magazine #162
Sabrina #12
Veronica #108
Price of standard comic book: $1.99
Price of digest: $2.19
Price of double digest: $3.29

Archie - Other Media:
Betty Cooper: This Is Who I Am (fanfic)
Archie's Weird Mysteries
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV movie)
Sabrina Goes to Rome
Sabrina, Down Under
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series, season 5, episode 10)
Sabrina: The Animated Series
Betty and Me (Hotdog) (Betty/Midge erotic bestiality fanfic)
Archie-The Untold Story (erotic Cheryl fanfic)
A Day In Bed (erotic Archie/Betty fanfic)
Betty and Veronica (erotic fanfic)

continued in next post...

This week, I review Betty & Veronica: Vixens #9.

Way late, but my review of "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...", the Jughead story from Riverdale One-Shot, is now up.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 17, 2018, 12:39:31 AM
I couldn't tell you how time progresses in the New Riverdale continuity (or continuities) -- it seems entirely possible (even likely) that they're not beholden to the 'seasonal' concept to published stories that binds the traditional classic Archie stories, and follow more of an assumed 'compressed time' scheme common to Marvel and DC continuity (which is to say that the amount of time passing during, and between, published stories does not match the passage of time in the real world). If indeed everything that happened from ARCHIE issues #1 through 32, published from cover dates September 2015 through September 2018, is assumed to have taken place, the characters have not aged 3 years during that time -- but if that's true, then they shouldn't have experienced 3 Christmases or 3 summer vacations during that time, either.

'Compressed time' is a concept more easily manageable in the Marvel and DC universes, because the characters aren't as closely tracked by events tied to a school calendar, regular seasons and holidays. It's more about creating a balance between the illusion of the passage of time, while keeping the characters from ageing too much. If a Marvel or DC character is acknowledged to have aged a year since (whatever prior story is being referenced), it's not that big of a deal, whereas in the world of Archie, ageing a single year has major ramifications on the lives of the characters.

The way that I tend to think of Archieverse continuity is: Anything that came out before the current school year perhaps kinda-sorta happened to the characters - in a vague kind of way. Any instances of multiple holidays / proms could be smoothed over / compressed into one. Once a story falls outside their high school timeframe (in this case, fall of 2015), the chances of it happening significantly decrease. Once it falls outside their lifetimes (in this case, 2001), we might as well just forget about it entirely.

So, for example, all 32 issues of Archie could still have happened (more or less) "last year". Same with Betty & Veronica: Vixens. Same with anything that came out fairly recently. It can just be vaguely glossed over like "Yeah, we did that stuff last year, but this is this year."

However, what remains is the precedent set by the story; in other words, the characters still have the potential to act a certain way, because it's already been put out there. So I like to think there's an ongoing accumulation of character traits (over the decades), resulting in an unseen internal battle that each character has to deal with. For example, maybe Betty tries to do good and volunteer everywhere, but she also struggles with an internal darkness, and she might have the secret desire to be a biker and kick some ass.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on August 17, 2018, 12:39:31 AM
Now that I think about it, this is even a bigger problem for Riverdale (as it was for Happy Days). Unlike say, Friends, it isn't a show about 20-somethings whose exact age is indeterminate (but who wound up being 30-somethings by the time the show ended its run). In Friends, that didn't really matter, because the cast's exact ages weren't central to the concept of the show. Unlike comics or animation, you can't simply ignore the fact that the cast is ageing in real-time, just like the show's viewers. You can't order your actors to simply stop ageing, to preserve the original concept of "a story about high school teenagers". Riverdale's been running long enough that the characters' high school years should have already ended. (I still haven't seen the show, BTW.) Perhaps Riverdale, if it continues, will be forced to become more like the magazine version of LIFE WITH ARCHIE.

Riverdale has already screwed up its continuity. In season 1 (which started in early 2017), the town celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding (1941). Fred types up something to give Jughead an alibi (he was supposedly working for him) during the time of Jason's death over the summer, and it was clearly given a 2016 date. All of this indicates season 1 covers the 2016-2017 school year. Betty states she's a sophomore. However, in season 2 (2017-2018), they're still in the same school year. There's finally a Christmas episode, even though it was also snowing at one point in season 1. Not too bad. However, they screwed everything up by doing a promotion of the film Love, Simon in one episode, which the gang goes to see in the theater - and which has a very specific North American release date: March 16, 2018. So it seems season 1 was retroactively moved to the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year (and various moments from season 1 will have to be ignored).

I know. I'm just doing it to illustrate how quickly that issues become outdated. However, the upcoming Archie #699 seems to indicate the entire NR Archie run still happened, regardless of how long ago that the issues came out. For example, the first two issues came out before the current gang even entered high school! I wonder how the upcoming renumbered Archie series will handle this. We know Betty and Veronica is finally moving on to senior year officially. I wonder if Archie will do the same and indicate the previous run occurred "last year".

I just crunched some numbers. I was curious as to how many issues/episodes representing each type of continuity within the Archie multiverse have come out within the time frame that the "current" gang has been in school (2015-2019).
I've sorted these into a few categories:
Digests (D)New Riverdale (NR)Archie Horror (AH), regardless of each of the different continuitiesClassic Archie (CA), just the floppy titlesAlternate Future (AF), the Life With Kevin miniseriesRiverdale (R), both episodes and issues (Riverdale Digest issues are counted under Digests)DC: the crossovers with DC( Harley and Ivy, Batman '66)Reprints (RP), the reprint floppy comics (Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever)

Here's the breakdown:
Ninth Grade (2015-2016, ages 13/14 - 14/15)

D: 32
NR: 12
AH: 2
CA: 1

Summer Vacation (2016, age 14/15)

D: 14
NR: 6
AH: 2
AF: 1

Tenth Grade (2016-2017, ages 14/15 - 15/16)

D: 33
NR: 31
R: 16
AF: 2
CA: 1
AH: 1

Summer Vacation (2017, age 15/16)

D: 13
NR: 7
R: 3
AH: 2
CA: 2
AF: 1

Eleventh Grade (2017-2018, ages 15/16 - 16/17)

D: 41
R: 32
NR: 20
AH: 8
DC: 6
CA: 3
AF: 1
RP: 1

A bit late, but this week I review "The New Archies" segment, "Jughead's Millions".

This week, I review "Fall from Grace" from Riverdale One-Shot.

This week, I review Betty & Veronica: Vixens #8.

A bit late, but this week I review "Summer Nights" from Riverdale One-Shot.

This week, I review "The New Archies" segment, "Gunk for Gold".

I think part of the problem might be the fact that there isn't much perceived value in a 20-page comic book - at least, not as much as in a Middle Grade or Young Adult novel.

Up until recently, Archie Comics had been charging $3.99 per digital issue (including back issues of current series). While I was willing to fork over $3.99 for each issue of Vixens, even I was relieved when the prices dropped. $0.99 makes each issue a much better value - pretty much on par with an episode of the show, which contains approximately twice the story and costs $1.99 to buy digitally on Amazon.
However, consider this. Buying season 1 at once brings the per-episode cost down to $1.54. Buying season 2 at once brings the per episode cost down to $0.91. Yet Archie Comics is charging $19.99 for trade paperbacks, which contain (I believe) six issues. So you can get six 20-page stories or 22 40-minute episodes for the same price. The trades are a worse value than the single issues at this point!

There's a 280-page Riverdale prequel novel coming out on December 26. It's $5.99 digitally and $9.99 in paperback form. Either way, it's a much better value than any of the comics (around 2.14 or 3.57 cents per page versus 4.95 cents per page for a comic or *shudder* 16.66 cents per page for a trade).
Also, there seems to be not much crossover appeal between the show and the comics. When I was at the Riverdale reddit, the only interest, comics-wise, was in the Riverdale comics, which are in continuity with the show but less "bonkers". The massive success of Riverdale isn't translating into interest in more comedic iterations of the characters. There really isn't that sense of fan interaction that viewers of the show have. The show is successful in large part because it was engineered for the current Internet generation. With the comics, prospective readers are expected to pay up, read a 20-page partial story (or, in the case of Riverdale, two 10-page stories), and then wait a month or two to see what happens next; that's it.
What I think might be most successful, on the publishing side, is to do novels instead of comics. Maybe have the artists do covers and a few interior illustrations, but otherwise have the writers tell the stories. It doesn't have to be strictly like the comics or the show; just write stories that today's audience would be willing to buy. Do a 100-page novella and sell it for $2.99. Let different writers work on them and keep churning them out. Set up a print-on-demand option for those that really want it. I'm guessing they'd sell better than any single issue or trade collection of the comics.

A bit late, but this week I review "Sweetwater" from Riverdale One-Shot.

This week, I review Betty & Veronica: Vixens #7.

Late, but this week I review "Romance 4Ever!", the new lead story in Archie and Me Comics Digest #8.