The Road So Far Archive
Contents
About The Archive
The Road So Far Archive is a fan-run project located on tumblr that aims to collect and preserve SPN fandom artworks, both as a time capsule of talent and as a resource for the fandom. The Archive collects art of all characters and all ships.
One of the archive’s goals is to connect all archived art back to its original creator, regardless of which platform the art was originally shared to. The archive’s artist page has almost 1,800 artists with links to their Tumblr, Deviantart, Pixiv, or other relevant account.
Genesis of The Road So Far Archive
The blog was established on June 12th, 2017 by Sarah @jaredsnuggles after frustrations surrounding the lack of ease when browsing for Supernatural related artworks on Tumblr. Within a month of creation, the blog hit its first 100 followers on July 6th, officially archived over 4,000 pieces of art by July 7th, and amassed a total of 200 represented artists by July 13th.
Triss (@trisscar368) later joined as an additional archivist.
The blog currently stands at a total of over 21,000 archived pieces.
Set in the world of Supernatural, the blog features many themed elements which correspond with its various functions. For example, sending an ask to the blog will see you 'sending a text to Sam' to which you will be met with the reply, “This is Sam, leave a message.”, and viewing the tags page is instead 'reading John's Journal'.
The Road So Far Archive can now also be found on Twitter.
Tagging System
The tags page originally consisted of nothing more than character names. These, along with the usernames of the artists who'd produced the pieces, provided the blog's initial structure.
The tagging system quickly began to expand to accommodate a more sophisticated browsing experience for those searching for more niche pieces, and before long, the tag page was home to over 900 tags.
Current Tag Categories:
- Winchesters
- Angels
- Demons
- Hunters
- Monsters & Supernatural Beings
- Humans
- Wayward Sisters
- Cast
- Friendships
- Ships
- Alternate
- SPN Family
- AU's
- Decades
- Locations
- The Bunker
- Professions
- Sports
- Seasons
- Holidays & Celebrations
- National Days
- Objects
- Styles & Modifications
- Clothes
- Instruments
- Specifics
- Affections
- Creature AU's
- Animals
- NSFW
- References
- TV Shows
- Movies
- Alt TV/Movies/Theatre
- Alt Roles
- Promotional
- Appearances & Events
- Charity
- Other Shows
- Birthdays
- Series
- Monthly Events & Memes
- Summary of Art
- Art Mediums & Styles
- General Season Art
- Other
The blog also hosts an Episode Tags page featuring every episode of Supernatural ready to browse.
Artists Page
The Road So Far Archive Artists Page showcases nearly 1.8k talented creators of the Supernatural fandom.
The Road So Far Challenge
Hey, Sam here.
Since we moved into the bunker a couple years back, I have been trying to archive as much as possible to help the Men of Letters filing system grow. Dean’s interest in the whole concept stretched as far as browsing through the archives storage room, complaining that everything was too dusty down there, and then going off to search for the prices of some vintage Busty Asian Beauties mags he’d found on Ebay, so I’m going to need your help.
There are so many amazing things in this world that need properly documented, and that’s where you come in. I need you to record what you see so that I can add it to the archives. Now, as you probably already now, my art skills are far from gallery worthy, and so your artistic talents will be very much appreciated.
As budding Men of Letters (and Women of Letters), it is our duty to carry out the work of operatives before us (the ones that weren’t dicks of course), and keep the knowledge alive for generations to come. I already have all your contact details in the database, all I need from you is a name, and then you’re ready to go. Just keep an eye out for my communications, I will write to you at the beginning of every month with a choice of three briefs. It’s up to you how many of them you complete, and you absolutely can complete all of them (even multiple times if you’d like). Then all you need to do is upload them and use the hashtag (yes, I understand all this social media stuff, how old do you think I am???) so that I can find them, and add them all to the archives.
Thanks, and hope to hear from you all soon,
SAM– Sam, Note From Sam
Each month, The Road So Far Archive host an art challenge where, on the 1st of the month, they send out a brief featuring three tags from their extensive tags page (or even some new ones), and then artists have a month to create a piece of art relating to one of those tags.
Sign ups are always open and more details on how you can also take part can be found on the Challenge Details page.
Bunker Library
"For the sake of my OCD, please put the books back where you found them. I've catalogued them all to make searching easier, and just ask if you need me to reach you anything down, some of the shelves are pretty tall. Enjoy."
– Sam, Bunker Library
Home to fanfictions and their artworks, the Bunker Library has been catalouged by Sam and includes 30 categories ranging from favourites of the archivists, to Stanford, and case fics.
