Book Review: The Best of Josie and the Pussycats

Book: The Best of Josie and the Pussycats by various writers and artists

Compilation Editor: Paul Castiglia

Cover Art by Rex W. Lindsay and Color by Rosario "Tito" Peña

Edition: Paperback

Description:

Josie! Melody! Valerie!

Grab yourself a backstage pass, and rock around the globe with the greatest all-girl band the world has ever known! Witness the group's formation and the first time they wore their catsuits! Get to know their hunky roadie Alan M., their shifty manager Alex and his conniving sister, Alexandra! Travel to Tinseltown as the girls shoot their first movie! Help them solve intriguing mysteries, and relieve the antics that have made them the most popular fictional band in comic and cartoon history! From Josie's very first appearance to the day she almost quit the band, this collection of "greatest hits" will be music to your ears!





Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Review:

The Best of Josie and the Pussycats anthology included some good stories as it follows high school students and teen rock band Josie and the Pussycats and their teen manager Alexander Cabot III and his sister Alexandra. I enjoyed reading all the stories (there's even one that features Archie Andrews) but since there's 15, I want to highlight some of the stories. The first story in this book, A Gym Dandy has Josie McCoy and her friend Pepper going to Alex's mansion and using his barely used home gym. They were trying to get in shape for their school's physical fitness program. Reading this story, it's easy to see why the gym was barely used, Alex would rather lounge around on some of his modified equipment instead of using any of it to work out. Because when Josie and Pepper got him to use the equipment, he didn't do very well with it.

Another story that I liked is Decisions Decisions, because this is the first introduction of the final member to the iconic band, Valerie Smith. In this story, Alexandra was trying to force her way into the band but Josie and Melody Valentine had no interest in her joining them. And thankfully the Pussycats' manager Alex had a better plan. He thought new student Valerie Smith would be perfect for the group. As good as his plan was, he did have an ulterior motive for it but his sister Alexandra would be a foil to one of his plans. I noticed that Alexandra was always trying to get her way in a few of the stories and when she does, things don't work out the way she wanted such as in the stories Quiet on the Set and Cat at the Crossroads.

Another story that I really enjoyed reading was The Ghost of Dark Valley Manor, when the band needed somewhere to practice, Alex offered up his home. However, his father didn't think that was a good idea and offered the Pussycats another place to practice at, a manor that's on some real estate that he owns. The spacious manor should have been the perfect place for the band but it's rumored that the place is haunted. From creepy sounds and weird things happening, Josie, Valerie, Melody and Alex were having a terrifying experience but there's an interesting reveal to this story.

The final story I want to mention was Cat at the Crossroads, in this story Josie was doubting herself and her place in the band. And it didn't help that she received a bad review of her performance in the newspaper that Alexandra relished in showing the band. Needing some time to think, Josie went on a camping trip with her family. However, she did something really unexpected, she gave Alexandra exactly what she wanted by giving her the opportunity to take Josie's place for the Pussycats performance at a teen night club that evening. This gave Alexandra the chance to be a member of the band and be on stage like she's wanted to. As I previously mentioned, things didn't work out for Alexandra the way she wanted but it did for Josie because she was conflicted and needed that time to figure some things out. And also talking with her dad really helped her get a clearer understanding of her thoughts.

As much as I enjoyed reading this group of stories, I had a slight issue with this book. The issue I had, was that four of the stories included were incomplete with only a page shown for each of those stories. The reason which was stated was due to limited space. I don't see the point in including those stories if all that could be shown was one page. And not to mention there was another page in the book to show an old ad that was used to promote the Josie and the Pussycats animated series. That was five pages that could have been used to include one more complete story. Anyway, aside from that, this was a good read. It was interesting reading some of the Josie and the Pussycats stories that have been published through the years.