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.
Bettie Page Vol. 1 was an odd graphic novel. It was almost like a pastiche of golden Hollywood era sci-fi cinema that didn't quite hit the mark. I think the most glaring reason why it didn't work was that it had absolutely nothing to do with Bettie Page, apart from the character having her name and face. Had this been developed as a standalone graphic novel with an original character it might have been a little more fun, but the way that it was rendered has resulted in a largely nonsensical, rambling plot with poor characterisation.
It wasn't all bad. David Avallone really hit the art with everything it deserved, putting together a great team. Colton Worley especially hit the mark with his representation of Bettie. There was an interesting mix of cartoon and pin-up style realism which made Bettie Page Vol. 1 at least fun to look at. If I could have just had a coffee table book of the art I'd have given this 5 stars!
All in all, Bettie Page Vol. 1 was a pretty forgettable read, which is a shame for a graphic novel meant to represent someone so completely memorable.
