WOADD #16 reviewed

World of Archie Double Digest number 16.
The company now knows enough that featuring a couple of items with sort of cult followings is something to do... sales-wise, I hope it works.  So here we have a series that reprints who issues of 1960s comic book series, Josie, which ...

The Centerpiece here, so far I'm concerned.  A 14 page Josie story from... 1967?  Maybe 1968?  The company has come to the point where (at least for these items) it doesn't wipe out anachronisms and date references arbitrarily while keeping out of date fashions and fad-based story-lines running around.  This 14 page story caught my eye well enough to go ahead and buy this issue:  that "oddball comics" nature of things.  To recap: Melody tries to escape winning a beauty contest by dressing as, in secession, a preteen girl, an old woman, and a dog.  She is thus chased by, in secession, a rabid group of boys, geriatric old men, and a pack of horny dogs.  Words fail me.  Frank Doyle and Dan Decarlo were sometimes flat out insane.
The other two five pagers reprinted... Hm.

The other highlight for this series: reprints from Madhouse Comics.  Craig Yoe did a collection series, so it must be receiving some cache these days.  For this comic, we get two five pagers featuring the duo of Lester Cool / Hipster (it switches in the two stories) and Chester Square.  The names tell their personalities -- the former wears a slicked back hair and sunglasses, the latter has a square (cube) head and crew cut and suit and tie.  I can't say this is "good" per se, but it's interesting pop culture snausage.  If you know writer George Glaider's formulas, you will recognize where this one is going:  Aliens pick up Lester Cool to test and demonstrate the technology they hope to scare Earth with... on... a typical Earthling.
The third story is... Archie's version of an EC Horror, or maybe Archie's version of a Mad parody of an EC Horror.  Make of it what you will.

Beyond these... we've got two Reggie stories... Doyle and Decarlo have Reggie get his comeuppance while trying a simple prank.  Al Hartley has him get his satisfaction with a grand carnival showmanship of pranks.  Then we get a Weatherbee and Stevenson piece and whatever you can say about Glaider, Samm Schwartz -- Tom Hart loves how he draws a suit ... I have to say... he can really draw a lot of rather mundane items in spectacular fashion.  I am stunned by how much I love how he draws a stack of paper.  (No wonder he was my first favorite comic book artist).

This gets you to 62 pages.  About half the comic book.  The other half is crap.