Josie and the Pussycats #9

Story by: Cameron Deordio and Margueritte Bennett
Art by: Kelsey Shannon
Colouring by: Kelly Fitzpatrick

I was sad to learn that this issue will be the last of the current Josie and the Pussycats run. I’m sad because this fast became one of my favourite monthly reads with great, witty dialogue by Deordio and Bennett coupled with fantastic and crazy stories (so many chase sequences!) as well as top-notch art by Audrey Mok. However, like all good things, this series is coming to an end, and what an end it is!

Continuing from the last issue, our precious teens, The Archies, have been kidnapped by the UR-C Major and the diamond smugglers from earlier issues. Like pretty much all previous issues, things escalate quickly and hilariously. The Archies for one, are not the greatest of hostages, namely Veronica texting her disappointment and how bad the kidnappers are and the diamond smugglers, well, they should have stuck to their first profession since they are really bad at kidnapping.

With UR-C Major and the diamond smugglers, other returning guest stars include the biker gang that tried to originally kidnap the Pussycats (kidnapping seems to be a recurring theme in this series) as well as Pepper, the electric cellist, as well as Lord Cute-ington, Melody’s cat.

In the end, Josie with the help of Alexandra Cabot, take down the kidnappers using mechs (no joke, but appropriate I guess since they are in Tokyo in this issue) and we get a happy ending after the rescue of our precious teenagers.

For this final issue, Kelsey Shannon takes over from Audrey Mok on art and does an admirable job. At times I could forget that Mok was no longer on art, with one exception: facial features. Shannon is great at the long-distance shot, but the faces seemed a little “off” when in close-up. They felt flat and expressionless in some panels, but okay in others. However, this is a minor quibble on my part since in all, the art was dynamic as it should be for such a crazy ride.

Hopefully, this won’t be last we see of Josie and the Pussycats in this new Archie universe. With The Archies just around the corner, I hope that Josie, Valerie and Melody will get to guest-star from time to time, but a new series would be best.