Monday, July 22, 2024

Comics Review: The Best of Josie and the Pussycats Part 1


I don’t want to look through my Archie collection of digests and trades.  I don’t know how many of them I thought I reviewed, but haven’t.  I don’t know why I missed this one.  I think I picked up this up in 2017 at Barnes & Noble.  I’m sure I was pretty excited about it, though I think this is the second Best of the Pussycats volume that I’ve owned. 

 

As I vaguely remember, the first one was full comic book sized, but only a bit more than 100 pages.  It wasn’t that great and I traded it off.  This one is slightly larger than digest-sized, but 400 pages!  What makes the difference is that this one covers a much greater breath of stories over the decades.  There’s a little bit of interspersed text about Josie and the Pussycats, but none of it really worthwhile on the history of the group, hence this blog post.  

 

I’ve already reviewed the comics from Josie’s origin and early days in She’s Josie.  She was maybe a female version of Archie with her own set of interesting friends.  I don’t know how popular she was, but the comic was blessed with Dan DeCarlo’s excellent artwork, so it probably did okay.  That said, Josie was likely destined to end up in the graveyard full of failed teen comics that couldn’t compete with the Archie gang.  (And there are a lot of them.)    

 

In 1968, Filmation premiered an Archie cartoon show.  It featured the Archies.  The band had debuted in the comics the year before.  This was followed a Sabrina show (sept 2023) in 1969.  These shows were very successful and spawned several versions over the years.  (There was a later 70’s Archie history show, US of Archie, which included an episode where the gang joined some escaping slaves in the Underground Railroad.  Yes, really.)  Filmation was thrilled with comic book support they got from Archie to promote their shows.     

     


Rival animation studio, Hanna-Barbera, wanted in on the Archie action.  In 1969, Josie and Melody decided to start their own band in the comics.  Like before with the Archies, a year later, the girls' H-B cartoon debuted heavily featuring a musical component.  (Check out their groovy theme song above.)  I don’t know how popular the cartoon was, but like Sabrina after her cartoon, Josie and the Pussycats were now iconic.    

 

In both cases, the band concept in the comics may have been a pilot for a proposed cartoon.  Or maybe not.  The Archies might have just been a reaction to the Beatles.  It’s hard to say.  Don Kirshner, who produced the cartoon Archies’ music, was The Monkees’ producer, who were definitely inspired by the Beatles.  However, it’s likely the Pussycats were a cartoon pitch.     

 

Unlike the Filmation shows which sort of followed the comics (and also the format of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In), this show had more in common with H-B’s Scooby Doo, Where Are You? with the girls travelling the world and getting mixed up in plots with weird villains.  (And then getting shot off into space in Season Two.  Yes, really.)  Oddly, this story formula didn’t show up much in the comics.  Most of the comic stories were much more down to earth (pardon the pun) and in line with a typical Archie comic.      

 


The volume begins here with Josie and Melody trying to start a band with Alexandra Cabot, who insists on naming the band after herself.  Her brother, Alexander, wanting to upend his sister’s ambitions and get in good with Josie, introduces the new girl at school and musician, Valerie, and the group clicks immediately.  Why is Alex trying to impress Josie instead of Melody is my question.  This issue is made even more poignant in the next story, as we are introduced to Alan M., who would become Josie’s love interest that Alexandra is also after (thought actually, he was introduced a couple of issues beforehand).  (Is Melody nothing to you guys?) 

 

Except for Alexandra’s mischievous cat, Sebastian, the cast of the cartoon is basically introduced here.  They all look about the same as their cartoon counterparts.  The Cabot twins look completely different than their original versions when they were introduced in She’s Josie a few years before.  The other original cast members from that comic have also disappeared. 




Some of these early stories, pre-cartoon, prominently feature Alexandra using magic trying sabotage the group.  I thought I remembered somewhere that she only had powers while she was holding the cat, but that isn’t shown anywhere in this book.  This gag was dropped in any case.  Hereafter, Alexandra is just obnoxious (and glamorous) trying to horn her way into the group.  (Has there ever been a witch’s battle between Alexandra and Sabrina in the comics?)    



Here the group gets a tour of the Hanna-Barbera studios.  The Archies likewise got a tour of the Filmation studio when their cartoon started. 

 






Somehow, Alexandra never quite fits into the group whenever she’s given a chance.  (The banjo cover isn’t in this book.  I just love it, though.) 

Part 2

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