Creative Staff:
Story: David Avallone
Art: Colton Worley
Colors: Colton Worley
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
She’s more modest than Ms. Blaise, but peels more than Ms. Emma. She out-vamps Vampirella, but she’s sweeter than Honey West. She put the mod in model, and the bangs in bang-bang. Now the world can know the truth: her classified adventures back in 1951 Hollywood have been declassified. Dynamite, David Avallone and Colton Worley are proud to present The Secret Diary of Bettie Page, in handy comic book form.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With Dynamite launching a new Bettie Page miniseries I was definitely interested but also wary. Other than being aware of the real person and some of what she did in terms of visuals, I don’t know her story or really anything about her as a person. So with a fictionalized “true story” based on the “secret diary” of the fictional character of Bettie Page, well, it’s an interesting angle to take. David Avallone works a good presentation here to give us a distinctive voice for her and Colton Worley has his work cut out in bringing it to life because there are certain expectations. But by the end of the first issue I have to admit that i’m pretty captivated by it and want to know more, both of those series and the real person.
The premise is one that starts in the real world side of it where she’s gaining some popularity as a pinup model, having gotten her hair done up right and taking the most appropriate of gigs to showcase what she’s got. While going through her current shoot, however, it goes badly when the feds raid it since they’re pretty much soft core porn shoots that were illegal in many areas at the time, and that has her on the run. Luckily for her she ends up meeting a guy named Rick Chaplain that has a company out in Pasadena and is in need of a new assistant, what with her going missing along with his wife and his best friend. It’s a little complicated and done in a brushed off kind of flair but it sets the stage where there’s mysteries abound and Bettie’s intrigued by what Rick is offering – and New York isn’t exactly hospitable at the moment.
The book gives us a look at stranger mysteries ahead for her as we get this secret life of craziness in store, notably when she starts looking into the disappearance of the former assistant only to discover some kind of cult operating out of the much more modern and high end facility that Chaplain has assembled. This is something that totally feels like it’s the 1950’s with the trappings that Avallone presents and how Worley illustrates it, and you can see an amusing blending of the real world shoots that Bettie did and how it can be reassembled into stories like this where she’s a quasi-secret agent of some sort and getting caught up in all these adventures. It’s something that moves at a fast pace to be sure, quick of wit and approach, but delivers in all the right ways.
In Summary:
I’m sure that those far more familiar with the real person and her work will come at this different than I will but I rather enjoyed this book. It’s light and fun, it moves fast but provide some good meat to it with the narration and dialogue, and it also looks fantastic. While Avallone sets the basics up it’s Worley that delivers with beautiful visuals as he captures Bettie in all the right ways and details and especially camera angles. It’s a book that’s very easy to re-read and soak up the visuals and all the details and just some of the expressions that she has combined with the dialogue of the time that just makes you grin. I have no idea what to expect with this book in total but I’m on for the journey.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 19th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99