Customer Reviews

Best Of Josie & The Pussycats

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This is a nice collectors item that no doubt will be worth something someday. It's a collection of the "best" Josie and the Pussycat stories that have appeared in Archie Comics over the years. It features the very first story with Josie, Melody, Alexander, Cabot, Pepper and Albert titled "A Gym Dandy" from the comic "She's Josie" #12, February 1963. They also have little samples from when Alan M. and Alexandra first appeared in the stories, and when Valerie also first appeared. It goes through their music career as a band and their various friendships. It was nice to relive these stories. One of my all time favorite stories was not in here though, it was titled "The Ghostly Guardian" which appeared in the October 1990 issue of Betty & Veronica #21 Double Digest, where the gang visits an old mansion and discover a hidden passage, and a treasure. Overall this is a good paperback to own!

I've always been a fan of both the "Josie" comic books (created and drawn by the one and only Dan DeCarlo) and the "Josie" cartoon. With this collection of classic stories from the entire run of the series, I get to relive my childhood in a way. Here's hoping that Archie Comics has more coming on the way.

Really great stuff about the evolution of a beloved cartoon series particularly of sixties and seventies children.

Those of us who know this stuff primarily from the 1970 Hanna-Barbera cartoon show are in for a few surprises. Josie was not originallly about a group of girl rockers, Alexandra was actually a witch (and NOT metaphorically speaking as she was in the TV show), Brother Alex was actually an egomaniac as opposed to his cowardly TV persona, etc.

We have here the comic book evolution of the Josie concept and even how it eventually got to be a television show. We have here how Valerie joined the band and even Hanna-Barbera themselves (in cartoon form) welcoming the girls to their cartoon show (of course, nothing is mentioned here about Hanna-Barbera originally balking at including the African-American character of Valerie, a sad chapter in cartoon history that fortunately ended with them doing the right thing and welcoming Valerie aboard).

Incidentally, the comic book stories, as evidenced in this collection, were usually more interesting than the cartoon tv series, which pretty much told the same story every time about "meddling kids" foiling the misdeeds of archvillans.

But anyway, buy this and get some pretty cool cartoon history.

Think the Go-Go in an animated format...Think the Beatles in cartoons...Think Bananarama with teen angst...and you have Josie and the Pussycats.

in Archie comics, in the early 1960's, There was a female version of Archie, Josie McCoy and she had her own book, She's Josie comic. Josie was a female Archie.... All red hair and things always happen to her. In 1963, Josie created a band , The Pussycats.

In 1966-1967, The Archies were on animated on TV and into the music scene with Sugar,Sugar. By 1968, Valerie joined the group in the comics and the rest is Pussycat comic history (or is it HER-story). This was before the Pussycats hit Saturday Morning TV themselves. If you havent gotten Josie and the Pussycats - The Complete Series(See my review), go get this treat! BUT do miss Josie and the Pussycats (PG-13 Version), this movie does not capture the cartoon in live action...it is a piece of trash

These 12 stories and short selective panels in this collection created a Pussycat history.The best of these in a wonderful story from 1988, (Cat at the Crossroads) where Josie wants to quit the band.

It is a nice way to get the best of the Pussycats. The art will never win awards for best comic, but it is in the classic Archie comics style. I wish those at the helm at Archie would do a second comic graphic novel volume of the Pussycats and well as a DVD of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space

Until then, remember this, PUSSYCATS RULE!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

"The Best Of Josie And The Pussycats"
(Archie Comics, 2001)
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This is a fun collection of old comicbook adventures of Josie and The Pussycats, an Archie-related strip best remembered from the late 1960s Saturday morning cartoon show of the same name. Originally, Josie was a regular, old teen cutie/good girl art comicbook created by Dan DeCarlo in 1963, with tales of teenage hijinx and feminine wiles that were pretty similar to the "Betty And Veronica" stories, just with a different cast of characters. In 1969, "Josie Comics" was revamped to become "Josie And The Pussycats," with Josie and her pals in an all-female band that was sort of the "girl" equivalent of The Archies. If you set aside the mild sexism of having the band dressed in Playboy bunny-ish leopardskin costumes, these are pretty fun stories.

Although this is a great collection, it could be better. The focus is on the band, a concept that came after Josie had been around for years, so the earlier, perkier episodes of the original "Here's Josie" comic are passed over pretty quickly. The first Josie story, from 1963, is included, and the artwork is so stylish and so cool, you'll wish (as I do) that they would go back and reissue all the original stories in chronological order: this was vintage DeCarlo, the sort of stuff that inspired "Love And Rockets" artist Jaime Hernandez, so good, you'll thirst for more. Also, several stories are referenced by having only one page of touched-up artwork included, so that we "meet" various characters -- it's an okay idea, but it interrupts the flow of the book, and just doesn't feel very satisfying. The late '60s and early '70s take up most of the book, which is rounded off by a couple of later episodes from the 1980s, when the Pussycats got a mild punk/new wave makeover. While no mention of it is made in the book, this volume was issued in conjunction with a 2001 live-action movie which some consider a camp classic. All in all, this is an enjoyable collection, definitely worth picking up if you like to read vintage Archie stuff. But put me down as voting in favor of a more complete reissue of the earliest, most DeCarlo-icious episodes. That would be awesome! (Joe Six, ReadThatAgain book reviews)