Josie #18 pg,. 21 Dan DeCarlo & Vincent DeCarlo

I had the priveledge of meeting Dan DeCarlo and his lovely wife Josie at the Oakland Wondercon back in 1999. This was due to my wife at the time being a fan of the Archie comics series and wanting to meet him and get a sketch done. I was more focused on the super hero genre of comics, with a slight dabbling into fantasy and horror themes. Archie was pretty much the furthest thing from my interest. As was collecting original comic art at the time.

But reflecting back upon meeting Dan DeCarlo and Josie, was a fantastic experience. Dan did the sketch of Betty and Veronic for my wife, with a slight curmugeonly attitude and a twinkle in his eye as he slyly tried to talk her into a sketch of only Betty, and then complained about having to draw Veronica and wasting all the lead in his pencil having to color in her hair. Josie meanwhile was just a joy to talk to as she talked to us about Dan and his work on Archie. I can't remember much of the specifics of what she said, but I can remember that she thought the world of Dan.

So here we are in 2013 and I've thought back on that moment in time since reading of Josie's passing last year and I decided that I needed some Dan DeCarlo art in my collection. I wanted to get a page with Josie and the Pussycats on it, but in my searching I found this page that worked, even though it was from a bit earlier in the run, when the comic was just titled Josie. They'd pick up their instruments and put on the cat ears and tails a bit later in the series, around issue 45, but here we have some just great mid sixties Dan DeCarlo art on oversized art board. Really like this page as it features the cast of Melody, Pepper, Albert, Alexandra, and most importantly the main character of Josie.