Josie and the Pussycats, Vol. 1

This book is pretty cute and funny; it's got a ton of fun pop culture references and also a ton of adorable cats (Lord Cute-ington, Duke of Kittenshire), and the art is adorbs. There's not a ton of overarching plot–which is fine, I get that that's kind of how Archie comics are supposed to be–but there is a sort of back-and-forth character arc where Josie is trying to learn how to not be so bossy? I kind of appreciate that they're trying to show a difference between ambition and bitchiness, but the episodic nature makes it hard to have an ongoing arc and it basically makes it hard to root for Josie??

Melody and Val rule tho

2.5 stars.

I was excited when I saw this at B&N on the shelf. Of course, I love me some Archie Comics, and I grew up reading all the different characters. And I'm cool with the new take on the Pussycats. I really enjoyed Val and Mel, and I'm glad Alexandra has a bit more depth. But I don't feel like Josie's and Alan M.'s development was very well drawn. It's told rather than effectively shown, how Josie behaves. I wasn't quite buying it at first. The choice to make Alan M. nearly 30 was perplexing to me too. But whatevs, I can handle the choices. But I wasn't so fine with the absurdist plots with badly written action. It dragged the story down. And whilst it WAS very clever, I feel as though it was more interested in being clever than actually communicating a coherent story, even an absurdist coherent story. Yay for the feminism, but nay for the overweening cleverness.