Quick update on things since it's been a while. I've been busy the past few weeks so nothing has really changed since the last update - vacation for a week, then my birthday and plans over the holiday weekend (including driving an hour to see Weird Al in concert) and this week has been nuts at work due to the holiday last week.

The good news is I don't have any plans this weekend and I plan to work out the rest of the licensing templates and get started adding some content on Saturday. While adding content isn't dependent on having all the licensing stuff set up the way I want, I'd like to get that done before I add content so others can contribute when they want. The main licenses (a general "fair use for comic stuff" and some of the Creative Commons ones - including the one used by both Wikipedia and GCD) have already been added but I still have a few more to add.

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH: MAGIC UNLEASHED (ONE-SHOT)

Now packed with 30 PAGES of story content, including a BRAND-NEW STORY! Sabrina's greatest foe, the evil witch Mother Striga, is back and this time she's enlisted the aid of the wicked scientist Mad Doc Doom and his daughter Medusa! Will the powers of science be too much for Sabrina's magic, and who can she turn to for help? Plus, a SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION VARIANT COVER featuring the art from the very first appearance of Sabrina in comics!
Script: Craig Boldman
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Lily Butler
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Main Cover: Vincent Lovallo, Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
Variant Cover: Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick, Vincent DeCarlo
On Sale Date: 9/3
32-page, full color comic
$4.99 U.S.

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BETTY & VERONICA #75 FACSIMILE EDITION

Betty and Veronica make a deal with the devil?! What wouldn't you do to get the attention of the one you love? What kind of deal would you make? Enter Mr. Inferno; dealing in wishes is his job, and he's very good at it. However, love in Riverdale is rarely simple, and he may have just met his match... er... matches. All this and two more timeless tales from the world of Archie in BETTY & VERONICA #75 from 1962, faithfully reprinted in a full-facsimile edition!
Script: Frank Doyle, Joe Edwards
Art: Dan DeCarlo, Joe Edwards
Main Cover: Bob White
Variant Cover: Bob White, Dan DeCarlo
On Sale Date: 9/24
32-page, full color comic
$4.99 U.S.

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ARCHIE COMICS: JUDGMENT DAY (TPB)

It's the end of the world, and the fate of the universe is in Archie Andrews' hands. This collection of the horrifying, groundbreaking miniseries from writer Aubrey Sitterson and artist Megan Hutchison takes the Archie characters on a dystopian thrill ride that begs the question: what truly makes someone good or evil? In a world overrun with demons, Archie Andrews is on a quest to cleanse Riverdale of all wicked-kind. Harnessing the destructive power of a captive fiend, he will have to destroy corrupted and possessed versions of the people closest to him. Questioning his own morality and forced to make difficult sacrifices, are Archie's efforts truly good, or the work of pure evil? Traverse the most horrifying version of Riverdale yet in this collection of the epic miniseries.
Script: Aubrey Sitterson
Art: Megan Hutchison, Matt Herms, Jack Morelli
Cover: Megan Hutchison
979-8-88967-320-0
$12.99 US / $16.99 CAN
6 5/8 x 10 3/16"
120 pp, Full Color

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ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #364

BRAND-NEW STORY! Archie and Jughead take Jellybean trick or treating, but it's Archie's dog Vegas that gets all the attention when they bring him along in a doggy costume!
Script: Dan Parent
Pencils: Dan Parent
Inks: Bob Smith
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 9/10
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 9/10

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BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #338

BRAND-NEW STORY! Mr. Lodge is renovating an old house in town... but when Veronica gets the idea to turn it into a haunted house, there might be more dangers than just ghosts to worry about!
Script: Dan Parent
Pencils: Dan Parent
Inks: Bob Smith
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Francis Bonnet, Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 9/17
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

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WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #154

Kick off spooky season in the best way possible—with loads of magic and mischief featuring Archie and the gang!
Script: Dan Parent, Frank Doyle
Art: Dan Parent, Dan DeCarlo
Cover: Francis Bonnet, Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 9/24
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

I never really got into Sabrina so I probably won't be getting that, but I'll get the digests (albeit a couple months late - I subscribed to that digest box thing) and probably the Summer Fun issue as well.

It'll be interesting to see what else they do with the Facsimile Series. It's nice to see they're reprinting some important back issues, and it's also made me wonder how big the company archives are - do they have a copy of everything they've ever published?

The site is online - there's just not much content at the moment.

https://www.archiepedia.org - main page
https://www.archiepedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bolling - creator with image
https://www.archiepedia.org/wiki/Archie_Meets_Jay_and_Silent_Bob - issue (need to add cover art to that template soon) and example citation
https://www.archiepedia.org/wiki/Archie - character with image

Also example of how properties work:
https://www.archiepedia.org/wiki/Property:Has_creator

A few notes:
I haven't decided if I'm going to keep that "Fact box" feature enabled. Let me know what you think.
I may add a new "Has cover artist" property to use for issues/books instead of the generic "Has creator" one
I'm likely going to disable the option to login/sign up using your Facebook account because there's currently no way to unlink your accounts
The look/layout of the main page will probably change in the future. Right now it's just a note plus an RSS feed of the news from Archie's website. At the very least I want to make it look nicer.

More updates:
Created the template and form for stories and books
Added two new properties: "Publisher", which will link to a page about the publisher of a particular book, and "Record label" for albums/singles, which is just a text field (I don't plan on creating articles for record labels, but it might be useful to some people)
Added the extension to allow us to create tabs on pages.

Still to do: licensing templates and templates for albums, songs/singles, movies and TV shows.

Also, Archiepedia is now on X and BlueSky Social:
https://www.x.com/@archiepedia1
https://bsky.app/profile/archiepedia.bsky.social

Unfortunately someone already took the name "Archiepedia" on X way back when it was Twitter - it belongs to an account for a blog about singer David Archuleta, which hasn't been active in 15 years.

A few more updates...

- Added a new property called "Has EAN" to hold the UPC/EAN of a book, issue, etc. and updated the issue template to support that field
- Added a new property for the ISBN of books
- Updated the Character, Issue and Person templates to set the Image property if there's an image set in the appropriate template
- Installed another extension to let us have tabs in articles. This will be useful for separating character bios for various universes such as comics vs the Riverdale TV series

Still need to do templates for books, albums, songs/singles, movies and TV shows, but most of those can wait a bit as I want to get the main stuff done first (characters, series, issues, stories, creators, etc.) before we get into the other stuff.

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #1: FACSIMILE EDITION
MILESTONE FIRST ISSUE OF SABRINA'S FIRST-EVER COMIC SERIES! Re-live the magic when everyone's favorite teenage witch got her very own comic series! Experience history (and even more pages than ever!) in SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #1, faithfully reprinted in a full-facsimile edition!
Script: Frank Doyle
Art: Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick, Bill Yoshida
Main Cover: Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick, Bill Yoshida
Variant Cover: Andy Price
On Sale Date: 8/27
48-page, full color comic
$6.99 U.S.

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SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH: BOOK OF MAGIC (TPB)
SABRINA FANS, REJOICE! This is the full collection of Kelly Thompson's (Uncanny X-Men) and Veronica Fish's (Spider-Woman, Archie) iconic Sabrina series, spanning two story arcs and an extra special bonus holiday story. Sabrina is a teen witch who's struggling with balancing the double life of high school and her burgeoning powers. Newly relocated to Greendale with her aunts Hilda and Zelda (also witches), Sabrina is trying to make the best of being the new girl in town which so far includes two intriguing love interests, an instant rivalry, a couple of misfits that could turn into BFFs, trying to save the high school (and maybe the world) from crazy supernatural events, blackmail, familial drama, and a portal to a paranormal world with unknown outcomes. You know, just your everyday teenage problems!
Script: Kelly Thompson, Danielle Paige
Art: Veronica Fish, Andy Fish, Veronica Johnson
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Veronica Fish
9798889673200
$19.99 US / $23.99 CAN
6 x 9"
256 pp, Full Color
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 8/6

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BETTY & VERONICA: SUMMER FUN IN THE SUN (ONE-SHOT)
Now packed with 30 PAGES of story content, including a BRAND-NEW STORY! Archie's won free tickets to a new waterpark in Riverdale, and he wants the whole gang to join him! But someone like Veronica doesn't just go to a water park—she's there to make a SPLASH!
Script: Holly G!
Pencils: Holly G!
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Main Cover: Holly G!, Rosario "Tito" Peña
Variant Cover: Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 8/6
32-page, full color comic
$4.99 U.S.

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ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #363
BRAND-NEW STORY! The Archies are getting some competition from rival band Rock Candi—especially now that Betty and Veronica have joined their ranks! Archie and Reggie will do whatever it takes to be the best band on the beach, but can anyone really replace B&V?
Script : Dan Parent
Pencils: Dan Parent
Inks: Bob Smith
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Francis Bonnet, Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 8/6
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

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ARCHIE SHOWCASE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #25: SUMMER FUN
You'll have fun, fun, fun with this jumbo-sized digest featuring the hottest summer stories starring Archie and the gang!
Script : Dan Parent, George Gladir,
Art: Dan Parent, Dan DeCarlo
Cover: Bill Galvan, Bob Smith, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 8/27
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

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BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #337
BRAND-NEW STORY! Betty and Veronica love their "Hearttime TV Movies," and are thrilled to find out that one is being filmed on Riverdale Beach! But when Betty's offered a small role in the film, will Veronica's jealousy get the best of her?
Script: Dan Parent
Pencils: Dan Parent
Inks: Bob Smith
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 8/13
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

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WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #153
Surf's up, dudes! Hit the beach and then ride the waves with Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and even Reggie!
Script: Dan Parent
Art: Dan Parent, Bob Smith, Glenn Whitmore, Jack Morelli
Cover: Francis Bonnet, Dan Parent, Rosario "Tito" Peña
On Sale Date: 8/20
192-page, full color digest
$9.99 U.S.

A few more updates...

Re-factored the template and associated form for creators into a generic Person template. I wanted a template to use for regular people such as Jon Goldwater and the Silberkleits who are important in the Archie world but weren't/aren't necessarily creators, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would essentially be identical to creators except it would put the page in a different category. The new template has a field called "is_creator" that will put the page in the "Creators" category. If not set, it will put them in the "People" category instead.

I'm also currently working on the template for series/titles. I added two new properties to use for the date/year when a series/title was first and last published. I am going to add one more property for number of issues as well.

I've also started running into a bug with the Semantic MediaWiki extension I'm using that will initially cause an error when you first add a property, add/update a page, but refreshing the page through the wiki seems to fix that for now, and it's something I'll just have to live with until they fix the issue.

Still to do:
Templates for stories, story series (Love Showdown, Baby Tales, New Look, etc.), books (non-issue type books such as trade paperbacks, etc. - I'll probably treat the 1000 page ones as a regular title/series since it's essentially just a giant digest; I'll figure that out soon though), albums, films, TV series...

I also want to determine how we handle information about characters in different universes - for instance we'd want a separate section about Archie in the Riverdale universe than the regular in-comic universe. I did find an extension that lets me add tabs to pages, so I might go that route.

Everything's coming along nicely though and I'll probably delve more into adding content in the next week or two.

Added pages for Fernando Ruiz and TIto Peña. Also enabled the Factbox feature (part of the addon I'm using that allows me to create properties and assign values to them - things like cover artists, writers, etc.), though I don't know if I'm going to keep that or not. It's an interesting feature though and provides some useful info at a glace.

I also added a description for the Creators category and hid the "Pages Using the RSS Extension" category on the main page because it's not really that useful to anyone browsing the wiki.

I still need to finish the other templates for series, books and albums, and decide how to handle the licensing templates. I think most things on our site would fall under "fair use", but I don't know if I'll need to add other non-free-licensed options or not.

I also still need to figure out the best way to handle relatives. I think for now the best way is to just add properties for everything we need and specify them manually in the template. It is a bit more work that way but it's easier than trying to get it to work automatically.

A few more updates:
Got an initial issue template set up. Still debating whether to tweak it a bit to handle specifying if it's a crossover or one-shot. I also set up a property to specify characters that appear on the cover (so you can search for all issues with a specific character on the cover for instance) but don't know if I want to integrate that into the template as well or just specify that in the article itself.

Also enabled an extension to improve the talk pages.

Created a couple more templates:

Issue - for individual issues (fields include title (only used when the issue title is different than the series title - mainly used for things like the Showcase Series digests and Archie Giant Series), release date, artist(s) - a comma-separated list of people who are credited for the cover art and number of pages along with one where you specify the name of the file that shows the cover art, though you can also upload a file directly from the form). I still need to add a section where you specify which stories are included in the issue as well, but that's fairly easy to do.

Creator - for artists, writers, etc. This is a simple thing that includes fields for an image, birth date, death date and website.

Still need to make one for series (individual titles such as Life with Archie or Pep), stories (title and creator credits, plus an optional "series" field for things where the story was part of a series such as "Love Showdown", "Archie Marries", etc.) and a few other things, but making progress pretty quickly.

Also need to decide how to handle people who aren't/weren't creators. I'll probably create a separate template for that based on the one I made for creators, just with some extra fields such as years active, titles, etc.

Brief update on things...

Still testing the Login with Facebook thing. It should work just fine, but Facebook's app thing is broken. You have to specify one or more domains to use the app on (for security reasons), but even specifying a single domain results in it telling you you're "sending too many domains".

I updated the Character template:
- Fixed syntax so the parameter checks work properly (each parameter is optional so I have code to only display an item in the infobox if the parameter for that item is specified)
- Added a "universe" parameter to categorize character articles by which universe that character primarily appears in (Archie, Sabrina, Little Archie, Josie, etc. - currently it accepts any value but we can change that in the future)

Created a basic "Archie" article to test the Character template
Updated the form for creating/editing character articles:
- Added a field for the new "universe" parameter
- Added code to allow the VisualEditor to be displayed in the "Free text" field

Created a template to link to specific issues.

Still to come:
Finishing up the licensing templates (I'm still not entirely sure how thorough I want to get with that - a lot of the ones Wikipedia uses wouldn't apply to us, and the vast majority of the images we'll be uploading would be copyrighted but considered fair use; the biggest area there would be pictures of people and non-comic stuff, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it).

Finish up the rest of the article templates (at the very least, series, issues, stories and creators - I want to focus on documenting the important stuff first, then focus on stuff like the movies, TV shows, music, etc. as that's not as important).

I'm hoping to have this done in the next couple of weeks, especially as I'll be going out of town for a week in about a month.

Making a bit more progress now. I'm basically done with the properties and made a template for characters that I need to test out soon.

At this point I don't have a lot left that I want to do...
Still need to finish up the licensing templates
Need to add templates for other things (albums, songs, TV shows, movies, creators, series and issues)
Need to add forms for the other templates

Still in testing:
Ability to login or create an account with you Google or Facebook account. I need to make sure these don't conflict with one another (just in case someone tries to link a single account to both Facebook and Google), need to see how they handle linking to an existing account and also make sure they're configured such that a local account will be created as well, so you can still login if you lose access or unlink accounts in the future.

I'm guessing the profit margins on the digests are pretty high since they only have to pay for the cover art and maybe one new story, compared to the cost of three or four new stories in a standard sized book. At this point most of the artists that do work for them are independent, so they only pay per job, which is cheaper than having a full-time artist on payroll as well.

I'm not sure how these collaborations like the upcoming Jay and Silent Bob issue work though. I'd imagine Kevin Smith is getting something out of the deal. I may ask Fernando if he knows anything about that (I'm friends with him on Facebook).

Either way, there should still be some interest in the floppies. In 20 or 30 years it'll be hard to find Archie back issues in comic book stores because they rarely publish floppies anymore (finding digests in comic shops is nearly impossible)

Quote from: PTF on May 09, 2025, 08:25:25 PMSo I guess it has to include all the horror comics, too, huh?

Yes, I'll also include pages relating to the Archie Horror issues. I'm not into that at all, but it's still relevant for documenting everything relating to Archie. I'll probably also include pages for non-Archie titles published by the company such as the Sonic and TMNT things they published for a while (especially since they even did an "Archie meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" issue)