Written by Ian Flynn, Caty Koehl,
Gillian Swearingen, Jamie L. Rotante
Artwork by Varied
Cowl by Dan Mum or dad
Printed by Archie Comics
In contrast to the Marvel and DC Universes, the Archie universe doesn’t have practically a century of more and more convoluted continuity in its background.
Despite the altering occasions, the Riverdale gang has by no means actually seen that a lot change of their characters.
Nonetheless, having, myself, labored in varied capacities on greater than half-a-dozen Archie historical past tasks over the previous decade-plus, now, I’ve lengthy stated there must be jumping-on level for brand spanking new followers, someplace they’ll merely and simply lookup simply the fundamentals…of every part.
The Archie Encyclopedia, credited to a committee of writers, is just about simply that, providing capsule profiles of the varied multiversal Archie sequence such because the traditional model, the tween model, the kid model, the traditional model, the futuristic model, the spy model, the superhero model, and, in fact, the hit TV model, Riverdale.
There are separate however equal listings on the Sabrina and Josie franchises, and a protracted checklist of stray characters the corporate printed by way of the years, from Cosmo the Merry Martian and Tremendous Duck to Younger Physician Masters and Seymour. Even comedy characters like Captain Sprocket get their due, though solely a few the unique MLJ superheroes flip up right here—Captain Flag and Captain Commando.
Sadly, the e book has some incorrect data, as in when it states, “Reggie debuted on his personal in 1942’s Jackpot Comics #5 and went on to be folded into the better Archie universe later.” Uh…that individual comedian is well discovered on-line, and while Reggie does certainly make his first look there, it’s already in an Archie story.
Then there’s the dearth of any clarification as to why Sabrina’s cousin Ambrose is now Ambrose PIPPS, which is the very same final identify as Archie’s childhood pal, Little Ambrose.
And whereas I’m certain it’s a typo, Katy Keene creator Invoice Woggon’s identify is misspelled within the acknowledgements, too.
Unforgivable to me, although, is the entire omission of Scarlet Saltee, the autistic teen launched into Archie’s world with a substantial quantity of publicity just some years again. When essentially the most obscure supporting characters in strips the corporate hasn’t printed in a long time get a paragraph or two, and this contemporary addition doesn’t, I’m pressured to consider that it’s as a result of ongoing animosity between the 2 sides of the corporate.
Sadly, it’s the followers who are suffering right here as with out Scarlett, The Archie Encyclopedia is clearly not full in any respect.
Even with all that’s coated, I’ve to ask myself what else might need been skipped, purely out of spite. Whereas I’ll admit to having fun with studying most of this e book, I can’t actually advocate it.
