We know her from her iconic cheesecake pinup photoshoots and from Dynamite’s previous series that turned the model into a badass spy. Now “the Tease from Tennessee” is taking on Hollywood. Unfortunately, she is also a murder suspect in Bettie Page #1.
Writer Karla Pacheco (Spider-Woman) takes on the series that is described as “part pulp noir, part pin-up, stylized, yet realistic.” Vincenzo Federici (Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep) is on art, with Rebecca Nalty on colors and Becca Carey on letters.
“Bettie Page has always been a huge idol for me. Not just for her iconic style, but the way she brought such a sense of joy and delight to her performances and sensuality,” said Pacheco. “We’re taking Bettie Page’s amazing spirit, and imagining a timeline where she was finally given the chance to reach her full potential as a star—even though it’s far from smooth sailing! We’ve got twists, turns, secrets, and lies—the whole shebang! Plus we have Vincenzo, Rebecca, and Becca all coming together to create a drop-dead gorgeous, colorful dream of a book! It’s brassy, bold, (frequently criminal) fun, and I think it’s going to be a really exciting adventure for both readers and ‘our’ Bettie.”
Federici added, “Being on this book is simply…incredible! When I was a teen, I totally fell in love with Bettie as an icon. Now I have the opportunity to work on her stories and with Karla, one of the coolest writers in the industry! I know it will be a challenge because we have a lot of characters and maybe a lot of elephants (Karla says!), but I’m taking inspiration from my idol Alan Davis, a master in stories full of characters. It’s super fun—guaranteed!”
“I’m extremely excited to join on this new adventure with Bettie,” said Nalty. “She’s had a major influence on pop culture for decades, but it’s in both her image of pure, confident sexuality and the reality of her real life personal struggles where I think the world found our love for this woman who broke all the rules to be herself.”
In the new series, Bettie has moved to Hollywood sometime around 1954 where she is getting minor acting work in theater and B-movies. She faces what you’d expect —“producers, perps, pumps, and pushers who call La La Land home and want a piece of the pie—and Bettie.” The model signs on for a supporting role in a “tastefully sensual” fantasy film set on a tropical island, but then someone is murdered and the chaos begins.
According to Dynamite, the series “weaves together inspiration from dusty, dog-eared Hammett and Chandler novels, the breezy feel of vintage LOOK magazines, classic episodes of Murder She Wrote, the salacious naughtiness of Hollywood gossip rags, and even Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke’s Catwoman!”
Of course, fans have a plethora of covers from which to choose from artists such as Junggeun Yoon (Spider-Woman, Black Widow), Kano (Superman), and Joseph Michael Linsner (Dawn, Red Sonja). Riki Le Coley offers a cosplay cover and there are two photo covers of the real Bettie herself—one nice and one naughty. Fans can also seek out an homage cover to Frank Miller from Stephen Mooney (Grayson).
Bettie Page #1 will be available for preorder in April. Ask your local comic shop to reserve your copy. The new title is set to release in June. For digital, check out Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Dynamite Digital, ComicsPlus, and more.
How about the Betty Page who, when she became older, became a religious fanatic who not only rejected her past but who went to jail for attacking the children she was working as a nanny for because they did not respect religious teachings. She deliberately never mentioned that in her own autobiography but it was exposed in unauthorized biography where the author obtained the records of her incarceration.
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