Riverdale (Archie Comics)

Riverdale is a fictional town somewhere in the United States that is the setting for most of the various characters that appear in Archie Comics.

Overview

Riverdale is usually shown as being a medium-sized town (possibly a suburb of a bigger city), with all the usual amenities of such—a shopping mall, restaurants, and parks. Riverdale has been shown to have beaches, lakes, rivers, mountains, plains, and four distinct seasons with changes in climate. The local populace is usually fairly friendly. While Riverdale's location was never clearly defined, other nearby towns include Greendale, home of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (who once lived in Riverdale but eventually moved, Midvale, the hometown of Josie McCoy and the characters associated with Josie and the Pussycats (although in the film the characters come from Riverdale) and Springfield (not necessarily the Springfield associated with the cartoon series The Simpsons, although Archie and friends do appear briefly in one episode). In one strip, a letter sent to Riverdale has "U." where the state should be, and a zip code of 10543 (which in real life is Mamaroneck, NY, the home of the editor Michael Silberkleit). It is worth noting that there is a neighborhood of the Bronx known as Riverdale.

In one of the issues of Archie and Jughead Digest, when one of the readers wrote in with the question of "Where is Riverdale located?", the editor replied that "Riverdale is more of a state of mind than an actual physical location. It could be anywhere that kind people live and just have fun, like Archie and his friends. It could be in the Midwest, or along the Eastern Seaboard, or even a town in Canada, Mexico, or England."

Origin

Riverdale and many of the characters and sites are based on Haverhill, Massachusetts, hometown of Archie creator Bob Montana. A replica of Auguste Rodin's statue The Thinker sits in front of both Haverhill High School and Riverdale High School.

Notable places

Notable places in Riverdale include Riverdale High School, Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe (the soda shop frequented by the teenaged cast), and Pickens' Park.

Cultural references

• In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts" (Episode 2F02), several Archie Comics characters, including Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Moose Mason and Jughead Jones, make a brief cameo appearance. They are shown pulling up to the Simpsons' house, tossing Homer Simpson out of their car. Moose warns Homer to "Duh, stay out of Riverdale!". Later in the episode, Homer is reading an issue of Archie Comics and mutters, "Stuck-up Riverdale punks, think they're too good for me!".
• The punk rock band The Riverdales takes its name from the town of Riverdale.

External links

• Archie Comics's official interactive map of Riverdale (ArchieComics.com)
• "Where's ?? In Riverdale?" (ArchieComics.com)