Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Comics Review: The Best of Josie and the Pussycats Part 2

Part 1



For some odd reason, the Pussycats took an odd turn into the horror genre.  This seems like an extreme version of a Scooby Doo cartoon.  This is weird and how dare the writers put Melody in this kind of danger!



 


And then there’s this infamous story from 1973, Vengeance from the Crypt.  Unlike the nice clean reproductions in the rest of this volume, this one looks like color photocopies of the comic.  It’s almost like the originals were lost or perhaps burned in a furnace, which would make all sorts of sense.  In short, Josie is possessed by an evil book and has to undergo an exorcism led by Alexandra of all people.  I can appreciate the message, but was this really the place for it?  Also, the girls are mostly in bikinis in this just like a teen slasher film.

 

The rest of the 70’s, 80’s, and the 90’s passed with much more standard Josie and the Pussycats hijinks.  I bought a couple of Josie comics off the rack in the 80’s.  I did love them, even if they were a bit goofy and totally not fitting in with the other comics in my collection. 

 

Josie’s publishing was spotty during this time, as the group lost their own title and were mostly in Archie’s TV Laugh Out and then, Laugh.  (The Archies/Sabrina/Pussycats crossover story isn’t reproduced here.)  My comics were from the Archie Giant Series, which would feature Sabrina at times, who also didn’t have her own title.  Sabrina would make a comeback in the 90’s supporting the Melissa Joan Hart TV show.  The Pussycats would briefly get their own title back in the mid-90’s.         




The Pussycats returned in the early 2000’s supporting their theatrical movie.  (I actually enjoyed it, though I think I’ve only seen it once on TV.)  They were a regular feature in Archie and Friends.  Holly G and Rex Lindsey did a good job on these stories.  





It was the Archies versus the Pussycats in a video game battle of Rock Hero.  Only Part 2 of this two-part event is reproduced here, but you aren’t missing anything.  The Archies/Pussycats/Madhouse Glads/Bingos battle of the bands is not mentioned in this volume.  Maybe that happened after it came out.  




This sort of, but not directly, led to Archie’s romance with Valerie and a wedding story.  Hey, why not?  He’s dated everyone else.  While Josie might be his cousin (possibly not canonical) is there any explanation for his lack of interest in Melody?  Why aren’t of these guys interested in Melody (except me)?  Heck, Alexandra looks pretty good.  Why didn’t Archie date her?  He’s got plenty of experience with rich, unpleasant young women.  

 


Gisele Lagace took a turn with the Pussycats.  I adore this woman’s work on Archie comics, as well as her own creations.



In 2016, a new look Pussycats were introduced to go with the new Archie series.  This departs from the standard “house style” for the characters and maybe updates them a bit.  It’s okay.  I’m ambivalent towards the more “modern” Archie that I’ve read. 

 

I’ve felt that Archie should have been relaxing their directives on style well before they finally committed to it.  (They did disastrously try it earlier with the New Look in the early 2000’s.)  As far as content-wise goes, you can’t really make Archie comics “realistic” without making them not Archie.  By definition, the Archie gang is always perpetually stuck in high school (except for Lil’ Archie, of course).  They can’t age.  This Josie story does a good job though of being kid-friendly without being childish.      



As if to prove my point, the volume finishes with this Riverdale crap.  Why even discuss that show?  Did it have its merits?  The show’s producers did know their Archie lore very well.  It’s what they did with it that’s so questionable.  For the show, they race-swapped Josie and Melody to black and made Valerie irrelevant. 

 

I saw one episode with these “Pussycats.”  “Josie,” while standing in her mother, the mayor’s, mansion lectured Veronica on what an intrinsically hard life she lives.  How could a musician be so tone deaf?  (Her dad was also rich and famous in the music industry.  I’m sure that wasn’t helping her musical career.)           

 

In sum, except for the ending and a few weird horror interludes, this volume is a must-have for any Josie and the Pussycats fan.  It is by no means complete, but it’s completely fun.  The Pussycats haven’t had a great publishing history and only a two-season cartoon and a failed movie to their credit, but they’ve had an outsized influence on the culture.  I seem to remember the other Best of I had quoted the Bangles and the Go-Go’s as being inspired by them.  For that alone, the Pussycats were a great idea.    

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