Rest in Peace, Bettie Page.
As a kid and huge comic book fan growin up in the eighties, i had no idea who Bettie Page was. I just remember these amazing illustrations by this guy named Dave Stevens, comic books about a guy with a jetpack and his girlfriend, Bettie. I remember finding out that this comic book ideal was based on a real person, a real pinup legend, in fact. I remember her being this huge underground secret...if you knew who Bettie Page was, and you were under a certain age, it was almost a lock that you first saw her in the pages of the Rocketeer. So, unlike all these other famous models at the time, she seemed like 'our' pinup girl. Seeing her little magnets and stickers and what have you at the record store years later just affirmed what i already knew, that she was representative of something apart from the mainstream...the subcultures, the weirdos, the geeks...and that the mainstream was finally embracing aspects of those things. I felt strangely proud...like, hey, i was there for her second coming, lol.
The story about Dave Stevens being the first person to actually take her into a Tower Records to show her a Bettie Page display, to make her realize how iconic her image had become, and how hard he fought to make sure that she got her fair share from all of that, always made me smile. Inside I'd be screaming, "see? Some comic book guy, some guy with a pen, some paper, and some imagination....."
When I got older and started seeing more and more of Bettie's work....it was like buried treasure. The whole innocence/ sexuality dichotomy. The campiness and playfulness of her photos. A complete revelation to me.
Earlier this year, Dave passed away. His body of work was so relatively thin, that I scour bookstores and pore over the few items that I do have, wishing that an artist that good had been more prolific.
And now, months later, Bettie herself has passed. What must it have been like, I wonder, living in quiet obscurity, then to find out a whole world is in love with you, and credit you for inspiring them and setting them off on their own little journeys.
Dave Stevens and Bettie Page. Artist and muse.
I like to think that Dave was up in heaven months ago, churning out these great stories and beautiful drawings. And that somebody picked up a page and saw this angelic/devilish looking girl and asked 'heyyyy, who's this?'
"You'll find out," says Dave (in my head). "You'll find out.....but you won't be ready."
As a kid and huge comic book fan growin up in the eighties, i had no idea who Bettie Page was. I just remember these amazing illustrations by this guy named Dave Stevens, comic books about a guy with a jetpack and his girlfriend, Bettie. I remember finding out that this comic book ideal was based on a real person, a real pinup legend, in fact. I remember her being this huge underground secret...if you knew who Bettie Page was, and you were under a certain age, it was almost a lock that you first saw her in the pages of the Rocketeer. So, unlike all these other famous models at the time, she seemed like 'our' pinup girl. Seeing her little magnets and stickers and what have you at the record store years later just affirmed what i already knew, that she was representative of something apart from the mainstream...the subcultures, the weirdos, the geeks...and that the mainstream was finally embracing aspects of those things. I felt strangely proud...like, hey, i was there for her second coming, lol.
The story about Dave Stevens being the first person to actually take her into a Tower Records to show her a Bettie Page display, to make her realize how iconic her image had become, and how hard he fought to make sure that she got her fair share from all of that, always made me smile. Inside I'd be screaming, "see? Some comic book guy, some guy with a pen, some paper, and some imagination....."
When I got older and started seeing more and more of Bettie's work....it was like buried treasure. The whole innocence/ sexuality dichotomy. The campiness and playfulness of her photos. A complete revelation to me.
Earlier this year, Dave passed away. His body of work was so relatively thin, that I scour bookstores and pore over the few items that I do have, wishing that an artist that good had been more prolific.
And now, months later, Bettie herself has passed. What must it have been like, I wonder, living in quiet obscurity, then to find out a whole world is in love with you, and credit you for inspiring them and setting them off on their own little journeys.
Dave Stevens and Bettie Page. Artist and muse.
I like to think that Dave was up in heaven months ago, churning out these great stories and beautiful drawings. And that somebody picked up a page and saw this angelic/devilish looking girl and asked 'heyyyy, who's this?'
"You'll find out," says Dave (in my head). "You'll find out.....but you won't be ready."
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