bettie page blog

Two irreducible truths inform Bettie’s enduring popularity as a “good bad girl”:

Bettie is a devout Christian.

Bettie sees encouraging the erotic imaginations of strangers through very provocative photos as absolutely consistent with her beliefs as a Christian.

Hugh Hefner dubbed her, “The girl next door with a little touch of kink.” Bettie never played at being a “bad” girl. She was happy to be a good girl who loved to pose.

In our current politically and ideologically polarized society, the idea of combining faith with sexuality in such a free, joyous way seems strangely more dangerous and more outlandish than it did in the 1950’s.

Just such thoughts came to the fore on a compelling website, ADULT CHRISTIANITY, the brainchild of MISS POPPY DIXON. The site is a politically charged, bitingly sarcastic and intellectually disciplined critique of (in Miss Dixon’s words) “socially conservative and politically aggressive Christianity”. Unlike left-wing screeds, Miss Dixon charges that contemporary, politicized Christianity is, first and foremost, a betrayal of the Christian message. Although she doesn’t pull punches, Miss Dixon clearly understands religion and takes it seriously. As such, when it comes to the Religious Right’s stances on sexuality, sexual identity, eroticism, feminism and reproductive rights, Miss Dixon is able to make her arguments in a way that is powerful and logically consistent with the Religious Right’s own belief system.

Here’s a link to Miss Poppy Dixon’s article on Bettie Page. It’s a good read!

Following up on this article, Miss Dixon was kind enough to elaborate on her thoughts about Bettie Page, Christianity and her own personal experiences with faith…

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How did Adult Christianity begin?

In 1993 I was a student in the Conceptual Arts program at San Francisco State University. I used Hypercard, a precursor to the web, to create an art project based on my own non-linear relationship to Christianity. A couple of years later I reworked the project and put it online. At the time I felt that popular Christianity pandered to the smallest and meanest in Americans. Popular Christianity infantilized us. It depicted Jesus as little more than a harmless imaginary friend. Adult Christianity, in contrast, demonstrated a brainy, lusty, gin-soaked, risible model of faith.

What is your feeling about religion's role in your own life?

Religion played different roles during different periods of my life. I had a difficult childhood and religion made a big difference, both positive and negative. In the early 70s, as a young teenager, I was involved in Shiloh (Youth Revival Center) – a communal network of Jesus freaks.

It took me years and years, decades really, to undo the negative fear-based teachings I learned from Shiloh and the fundamentalist community churches I attended. As an adult my relationship to religion evolved through more benign forms.

Currently I would say that I am a practicing non-theist, though I dabble in antitheism. There is an amazing force of life that churns through the universe. I am part of it and always will be. But I, as this particular personality, will not survive. I do not believe in God as a being, with personality.

In America, there seems to be a fear of sexuality, especially from a female-empowered, feminist perspective. Americans at large -- male and female -- seem uncomfortable with women genuinely expressing or exploring their sexuality, yet America seems to have little problem exploiting male lust and women's desire to be beautiful in any number of ways... from burger ads to, perversely, diet ads. Why, in your considered opinion, will America accept a woman being crassly objectified to sell Doritos, but is outraged by legitimate erotic art?

There is an expectation, for everyone - male and female and those in between, to be the subject of their world, yet all the while we know we are the world’s object – we are dust, star stuff. We long to resolve this truth, either by being objectified ourselves, or by exploring that idea vicariously through seeing the other – women, children, gays, the poor - objectified. By seeing others objectified our role as subject is affirmed - I have the power to buy the Doritos that some other used her body to sell.

On the other hand, when the traditionally objectified woman acts in her own interest, it threatens the subjectivity of those in power. Bettie inadvertently made objects of those who consumed her. That’s where she ran afoul of the law. As long as she was a passive thinglet she was safe. But when she posed in bondage, explicitly spelling out the power roles, she stripped men bare. They, and their raw desires, were exposed.

U.S. Senators did not want impressionable American sons viewing power as dependent on consensus, or worse yet desire, but rather on absolute immutable truths trussed up tightly in gender, race, and class.

How familiar are you with Bettie Page?

I’ve read about her, seen her photographs, and watched her dance videos. I saw Mary Harron’s movie. It was beautifully executed, but the narrative fell flat.

I don’t think anyone really knows enough about Bettie to tell her story. It’s the same way with Jesus – he is this great erotic figure about whom very little is known. Because so little is known about Jesus or Bettie, they become perfect tablets on which to pen our own internal dramas.

If you were familiar with her photos prior to the movie, what were your feelings towards them?

I love the beach photos. The bondage photos are fine, but not my cup of tea - I’m all thumbs. I’m very fond of Bettie’s dance videos. I’m surprised no one has invented a Bettiesize aerobics class.

Have you seen Velvet Hammer Burlesque? It’s a Los Angeles performance group that overtly honors Bettie Page. I’ve seen them perform – they’re absolutely amazing. They’ve picked up where Bettie left off. They exude the same joy, the same energy.

It seems, as well as we can track such things, that Bettie has become more important as a sexual icon to women than as an object of desire for men... that is, Bettie's female fans (at least ardent ones) are increasingly female. What lessons do you think young women can draw from Bettie?

I suspect that Bettie Page had a lot to say. She suffered a lot of abuse over the course of her life. I don’t think that kind of suffering is something Bettie would want her fans to either experience or emulate. Young women need to be audacious, to tell their stories fearlessly and make sure that they are heard. When young women speak for themselves, I believe they’re speaking for a Bettie that few heard.

One of the reasons people are so attracted to Bettie as an icon is that she promotes a very healthy (and oddly un-American) view of sexuality: one that is not based on shame, guilt and secrecy; and a form of sexuality that doesn't view Christianity (in the "love thy neighbor" variety, not in the "world domination" variety) and erotic imagination as mutually exclusive. Why do you think this particular position is still one that provokes so much controversy?

Bettie Page confused the roles of subject and object through joy. She frustrated her own objectification by joyfully embracing it. That same joy made objects of the men who watched her. My sense is that men didn’t so much want her, as they wanted to be her. That was the real perversity.

I don't know that I found so much joy in Bettie's bondage shots - to me those are very technical, so I don't know that I'm the best person to comment on them. I’m speaking more of her photography modeling (for camera clubs) and the fellows who would photograph her. I think they longed for, what must have seemed to them, a freer and more joyful relationship to sexuality and the world - in that sense they'd rather "be" her - without, of course, acknowledging the downsides of being a woman (less pay, discrimination, etc.)

When I think of Bettie I think of Luke 7:36-50, a very saucy story of Jesus anointed by a fallen woman at a dinner party. The hosts of the party protested the woman’s status. Jesus replied,

“Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Luke 7:47

Loving and sinning (transgressing) and forgiving are all tied together. The sourpusses at the dinner party had little love or forgiveness, because they could not (publicly) trangress.

Bettie Page loved much.

Do you feel her bondage shots are demeaning in any way or encourage male aggression?

Men don't really need bondage to take out their frustrations on women. I've never been so humiliated in my life than when I worked in the corporate world. That's where the truly sick **** plays out. The Senators want to believe (and for others to believe) that power is ordained through a mystical and holy hierarchy. Bondage and kink lay that fallacy bare. Power is not ordained - it's gained either through consensus or through force and fable - like slavery and the Bible.

The conflict between faith and. atheism appears to be heating up . Either you are for Darwin, "San Francisco values" and sexual empowerment, or you are for Jesus, guns and repression. What's your assessment of the culture wars today? Who's winning, who's losing, who's right, who's wrong?

A very successful marketing guru once said, “Being right is the booby prize.”

Let them, whoever they are, be right. Let the babies have their bottles.

Our job is to tell the truth, irrepressibly, joyfully, continually, and if our bone structure supports it, with short bangs.

What role can fans of Bettie Page play in making the world safe for empowered sexual expression without fear of censorship?

There’s always a need for more bad girls in the world (female and male) – girls that can tell the truth, transgress, love the people, and forgive themselves and others. Bad girls needed.

Bettie was born in Nashville, Tennessee on April 22^nd, 1923, the oldest girl in a family of six children... three girls and three boys.

The following is from Dave Stevens' interview with Bettie, available on CD:

“...I was almost born in a movie theater.  My mother had labor pains when the show was over at eleven o’clock, and my father had to rush her to the hospital.  And I think that’s the reason I’ve been such a movie fan and crazy about the movies all of my life, because I was almost born in a movie house!”

Wish Bettie Page a Happy Birthday!
Express birthday greetings in the COMMENT section of THIS POST. We will make sure she has a chance to read them.

Q:
Your pin-ups, besides being very pretty and very authentically retro, touch on some themes that are near and dear to the Bettie Page Blog: body image, DIY spirit and bringing the retro into the digital age.

You've drawn the distinction between your feelings between PLAYBOY models and the pin-up models you draw. What is it about your pin-ups that inspires you in ways that a PLAYBOY model does not?

A:
Well first off Thank you very much!!

Secondly, don't get me wrong. I LOVE Playboy. I still subscribe to it. I actually used to read it when I was far too young to be reading it *laughs* and I acquired a lot of my political views from Playboy. It's an intensely liberal magazine because it can be. That’s great!

The models are a pre-fabricated fantasy, something wholly unattainable. That's the point, they don't apologize for it. Like the ancient Greeks used to weave stories about the beauty of goddesses and nymphs, over-exaggerating the reality of their beauty to a point that if you saw her you might die of a heart attack or something. That’s an interesting concept but it’s a little too mystical and ethereal for my tastes.

I like real women who I see face-to-face. They turn me on and motivate me in ways that an idea or a photograph could never do. You can't talk to an idea. My friends are so incredibly beautiful! Yeah they are real women! They wear badly fitted bras and their hair is flat some days, and they still have partners who are falling all over them in love. Most women do really, it’s just that some of us don't notice it.

What I always try my hardest to do is take the image of my friend or model and keep it genuine. I imagine what she would look like in the best undergarments the 50's had to offer, because that’s what makes a pinup look really retro. That distinctive look of a burlesque corset or the "I've got a BestForm girdle on right now!" curve to her hip. I give her nice hair, makeup and a rockin’ outfit. I don't make my models thinner or different than they actually are usually because they look AMAZING when I just let them be who they are!

Women CAN and ARE this sexy and amazing looking all the time, all around you. My last pin-up called Carly Pin-Up, the model doesn't leave the house without makeup and a nice outfit, she looks like that everyday. My girlfriend Shayna, who is often my model, looks JUST like her pin-ups all the time. I guess that’s really my point. I just make the image of the woman what she actually looks like to everyone around her, especially people who love her.

Real women are amazing, and even though there was a feminine ideal back in the 40's and 50's, it was a remarkably attainable ideal for most women. You take your curves, stuff them into some BestForm undergarments and rock the sweater set. It didn't matter how thick you were as long as you left the house with some semblance of support garments and a smooth shape. Men didn't buy into the ideal that women needed to be stick thin and full of muscles. They wanted tits, a pair of bright red lips, and a good martini to come home to someday. I can respect that much more than the heroin chic image and the Athlete-gone-suburban-soccer mom ideal I have seen paraded in front of me my whole life by the movies and the god box.

Q:
Is there a lifestyle or an attitude that you are trying to communicate through your art?

A:
Yes absolutely. Be proud of yourself and who you are! Don't be afraid to dress up everyday and celebrate how sexy you are, just like you are, right now! Don't wait for a special occasion, throw away your sweat pants. Put on your favorite shirt that makes you look like a million bucks everyday. Live for today and don't let some skewed messed up body image get you down. It’s not a joke or some silly positive guru crap. It’s reality....YOU ARE HOT, OWN IT.

Q:
You seem very proud of your status as a "blue collar pin-up artist" and are open about your techniques. This reminds me of the punk "DIY" spirit, in which part of the motivation for being an artist is inspiring other artists.

A:
Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm not going to pretend to be all sophisticated in ways I am not. I would never be able to pull it off. *laughs* People like you would catch me! But seriously, I come from humble roots. My father is a Harley-riding truck driver and my mother is an ATV fanatic. She even has her own ATV flag company aditudegear. com, if you go there you will see that our websites look strikingly similar. That’s cause she made my website for me, it was so cool.

We are all DIY'ers. We grew up poor - that meant you never paid someone to do something that you could learn to do on your own. That’s just pure wastefulness. If you didn't know how, you get your ass to the library and find out!

That's why I am so open with my techniques and tools. I use literally less than a hundred bucks worth of tools and I make art like I do on my computer. Anyone can do this, it is accessible, and it’s easy to get. Art should never be something that is mysterious or hard to attain. It should be available for everyone. We should all take part in it and try our hardest to inspire others to do it also. It’s really good for your soul to make something you're proud of!

Q:
Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or a movement?

A:
This is a harder question. I would never imagine putting myself up there with the likes of the people who are IN the pin-up tradition. That's kind of laughable to me. Saying I am part of a movement kind of makes me obligated to actually have momentum. *laughs* Okay, I would say that I see myself as someone who will be something someday. I'm not sure what that will be, but I am hoping it will be good enough for people to talk about.

Q:
What do you find inspiring about retro images or lifestyle?

A:
I think I may have touched on this a bit earlier but I didn't explain it, so thank you for giving me the chance. I really like the idea that we can make ourselves up. I like the adornment, the perfectly coiffed hair, the make-up, the clothes. I think when we pay that much attention to the way we look we have so much more confidence and motivation.

I think that in this world and in this time, since women are no longer obligated to wear these clothes and to do these things to be socially acceptable, it is now so empowering to be beautiful in that way. I think it was true that the feminist movement had a point, you can't EXPECT us to do this for you, but we can and will do it for ourselves. We can do it for good reasons that benefit us and give us a tangible sense of beauty.

Q:
Is your interest in retro images confined to your art or do you express it in your life?

A:
Man, I would love to say that I have ballgowns and pencils skirts galore. *laughs* I do have old cars and a leather jacket, but I am 6' tall and I am NOT skinny. I have a problem finding regular jeans that fit me let alone clamdiggers or cuban heel stockings in my size. If someone knows a clothing company that does make spectacular clothes in my size...please clue me in!

Thanks to my father, I grew up working on old cars and going to the car shows where everybody dressed and sometimes lived retro even when it wasn't cool at all. I own a 1963 Nova Wagon that is still a project car and my mother will someday soon be giving me her 1967 Camaro. SUCH a hot car. I lusted after it my whole youth, and I still do, so it’s been a long time coming.

The retro lifestyle is something I kind of grew up with, sometimes because our stuff was THAT old and sometimes because it worked better than new stuff, or because it was more attractive and incredibly awesome. Retro things weren't "retro" to me most of the time, they were just cool older things. They kind of still are.

Q:
Where do you see pin-up going in the future?

A:
I think pin-up is going to make a huge resurgence. Traditional style pin-up will probably become part of mainstream society again, but it will be a bit bent. I draw gay male pin-ups, retro pin-ups, modern pin-ups. We all need a pin-up.

A pin-up is an image you can take out of a magazine, or a paper, and put up on your wall because that kind of person is the kind of person you want looking down on you when your laying in bed, if you know what I mean. I think all kinds of people are beautiful, so I draw all kinds of pin-ups. People have always pinned things up on their walls but I think more artists will start drawing these images because people love them.

As a culture we celebrate all kinds of people much more readily than we ever did before, so I think it will naturally evolve just like everything else does.

Q:
You work in a digital medium that Gil Elvgren would not comprehend, yet you are painting in that tradition. From what I understand, you have severe allergies to paint and chemicals. Beyond these considerations, what are the "pluses and minuses" of working digitally? How has it affected your technique?

A:
Gil Elvgren would probably call me cheater cause I can erase. I have the CTRL Z powers and he just had to swear a bunch and start over, or try to fix it as best he could. THAT is my plus. That is the big way it has affected my technique. I am not nearly as uptight about my art. *laughs*

My minus, the one that just about kills me, is that I can't touch my own work. I can't hold a brush and make art like I used to. I hate sounding even remotely pitiful really, but I am so severely allergic to the chemicals that I get tonsillitis if I breathe in the fumes from the oil paint solvents. It wasn't always like this but my grandmother developed these same allergies later in her life. They say that people like her and I are the world's canaries. That when we get sick you know the world is too toxic. But eh, this is my world.

I found a way to keep on making art and I do the best with it what I can. Just the same as any other curve ball life throws at you. I love my laptop and my little wacom tablet. I can take them anywhere and make art anytime. I can't do that with a canvas and a big lug of oil paints and chemicals.

Q:
I see that you take commissions for stickers and tattoo designs. Do you work from live models, from photo reference or do you draw from imagination?

A:
I almost always have some sort of photo reference, but sometimes not. I have a very firm grasp of the human anatomy so I can draw you just like you look if I know you well enough with no reference at all. That is where my traditional training comes out. I never went to school for any of this but I trained myself to do things without any help from any tool except your media and your medium and your own imagination.

I never use live models, only pictures. I can't stand to make people sit still like that. It seems kind of cruel. *laughs* I like using pictures because it saves me a lot of time. Plus all my friends get hot pictures and hot art so that’s fun!

We have a good time doing photo shoots on occasion. We get out the computer and the girls get dolled up and emulate the pin up poses of the professionals, especially Bettie- everyone loves looking like Bettie, and we go to town taking pictures. It’s a great time!

Q:
How did you discover Bettie Page?

A:
Bettie Page was one of the first truly iconic figures in my life. I was a poor lonely goth kid stuck in rural Southern Oregon. This was before internet was common in households, and I was so closed off from the world I was sure all the other goth kids lived in England. *Laughs* I would travel up to one of the bigger cities and go to this gift shop ran by a man who was twisted and hilarious. He stocked poster after poster of Bettie Page and I began slowly collecting them all. I was so poor and I almost never got up there, but I would stash money away in my German text book that I in fact NEVER opened otherwise, and when the opportunity arose, I would go with whatever friends were traveling. It soon became common knowledge that I LOVED BETTIE. Some of my closer friends would pick me up stickers and postcards if they saw them, or treat me to posters - once even a clock on my birthday!

We all know the girls now wear the Bettie bangs but back then, in that small town, no one did. I dyed my blonde hair black and pulled my thick hair down over my forehead and had the shiniest, most rockin' Bettie Do I could muster. I loved it! When I got my first job at 16 one of the first things I bought was a black Crownette open-bottom girdle from a catalog. I had never owned something so sexy or luxurious. I wore that damn thing everyday for two years straight. I wore dresses to work at my job as a cashier and my bosses thought I was so traditional and well kept, if only they knew I just wanted to wear stockings everyday!

Bettie Page was an icon of epic proportions in my youth. I looked at this woman who I thought was gone and only remembered in select subcultures, and I saw something undeniably sexy and so enticing I wanted to emulate it, own it, and flaunt it. She has been in my art over and over again. I probably used her as much as Olivia ever did to learn how to draw women, and how to perfect all the right curves. Every day I wished I was as talented and accomplished as Olivia, and I still hope to be someday. If I ever am you can be sure I will be paying tribute to Bettie just as much as she does. Bettie Page IS the world’s best and most famous Pin-Up.

Q:
Finally, any thoughts on Bettie Page as a retro icon?

A:
Oh man do I have thoughts, and most of them are NOT introspective or intelligent. She is sexy!

I think Bettie Page is one of the most accessible and attainable icons because she is a real woman. She was just out there making a living, and she did for a while by looking great for photographers. She was never a movie star, she never had oodles of money for cosmetics, or beauty products, or treatments, surgery, or doctors to augment her natural beauty. She showed up with what she had, she made herself some sexy outfits, and she got it done!

Bettie Page is the godmother of my art. She showed me that women are sexy just like they are, with no airbrushing and no bolt-on plastic parts. I think that even if you don't realize it right away, it's that very genuine nature to her work and image that attracts everyone. It's what inspires droves of women to want to look like her and be like how they interpret her.

Karina sells her pin-ups as decals through her web-based store. She also takes commissions for custom pin-ups.

Reach her at www.karinadale.com.

The inaugural post of this blog concerned pin-up artist extraordinare, Olivia De Berardinis' "California Cheesecake" gallery show. Here is a cool short documentary her company produced concerning the event.

A hat tip to Bernie Dexter, on who's MySpace page we discovered this video.

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 1' CD.
The Sparkes - Hipsville 29 BC
Dwight Pullen - Sunglasses After Dark
Link Wray - Fatback
Sheriff & The Ravels - Shombolar
The Riptides - Machine Gun
Bo Diddley - Dancing Girl
The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
Walter Brown - Jelly Roll Rock
The Sonics - Strychnine
The Rumblers - Boss
The Third Bardo - Five Years Ahead Of My Time
The Busters - Bust Out
The Phantom - Love Me
Jett Powers - Go Girl Go
Ronnie Cook - Goo Goo Muck
The Runabouts - The Strangeness In Me
The Groupies - Primitive
The Frantics - Werewolf
Elroy Dietzel - Rock-n-Bones
Dale Hawkins - Tornado
The Shells - Whiplash
Keith Courvale - Trapped Love
Freddie & The Hitch Hikers - Sinners
Charlie Feathers - I Can't Hardly Stand It
Andy Starr - Give Me A Woman
R Lewis - Get Off The Road
Hayden Thompson - Blues Blues Blues
Lee Dresser - Beat Out My Love
Andre Williams - Bacon Fat
Jack Scott - The Way I Walk
Elvis Presley - Do The Clam

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 2' CD.
Hasil Adkins - She Said
Buddy Love - Heartbreak Hotel
Dean Carter - Jailhouse Rock
The Fender Four - Margaya
Johnny Burnette Trio - Tear It Up
Lightnin' Slim - It's Mighty Crazy
Glen Glenn - Everybody's Movin'
Carl Perkins - Her Love Rubbed Off On Me
Slim Harpo - Strange Love
Charlie Feathers - It's Just That Song
Randy Alvey - Green Fuz
Bill Allen - Please Give Me Something
Captain Beefheart - Hard Working Man
J J Jackson - Oo-Ma-Liddi
Three Aces & A Joker - Booze Party
The Spark Plugs - Chicken
Jimmy Stewart - Rock On The Moon
Sonny Burgess - Red Headed Woman
Kip Tyler - Jungle Hop
Don & The Galaxies - Sundown
Roy Orbison - Domino
The Readymen - Shortnin' Bread
The Novas - The Crusher
The Tune Rockers - The Green Mosquito
The Jesters - Peter Gunn
The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
The Flames - The Bird
Red Crayola - Hurricane Fighter Plane
Kasenatz Katz Super Circus - Quick Joey Small Ricky Nelson - Lonesome Town
The Huntsmen - Fever
Jim Lowe - The Green Door

'Songs The Cramps Taught Us - Volume 3' CD.
Nat Couty - Woodpecker Rock
Macy Skipper - Bop Pills
The Blues Rockers - Calling All Cows
Mac Rebennack - Storm Warning
Larry Phillipson - Bitter Feelings
Terry Dunavan - Earthquake Boogie
The Sonics - He's Waiting
The Fanatics - I Will Not Be Lonely
The Instrumentals - Chop Suey Rock
Dell Raney - Can Your Hossie Do The Dog
The Shades - Strollin' After Dark
Jackie Lee Cochran - Georgia Lee Brown
Lonnie Allen - You'll Never Change Me
Jerry Warren - Rompin'
Kai-Ray - I Want Some Of That
Junior Thompson - How Come You Do Me?
The Rhythm Rockers - Madness
Warren Smith - Uranium Rock
Kit & The Outlaws - Don't Tread On Me
The Flower Children - Miniskirt Blues
The Standells - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Dave Day - Blue Moon Baby
Shorty Long - Devil With The Blue Dress On
Ronnie Dawson - Rockin' Bones
Mel Robbins - Save It
Jimmy Lloyd - I Got A Rocket In My Pocket
Charlie Feathers - One Hand Loose
The Fendermen - Mule Skinner Blues
Paul Revere & The Raiders - Hungry
The Embers - I Walked All Night
The Bostweeds - Faster Pussycat Kill Kill

Rick Klaw is a Renaissance man, who has experienced nearly every angle of the business of publishing. He has been a fiction and non-fiction author, a journalist, a book "buyer", a prodigious reviewer of books, comics and film, an editor and a publisher. Does he sleep?

Mr. Klaw also has a somewhat "infamous" last name. That's right, the same name as a Fantastic Four foe (as Rick often jokes). While that is true, here at the Bettie Page Blog, Rick's last name evokes his paternal grandfather, Movie Star News proprietor Irving Klaw.

Rick has kindly given the BPB permission to post his article about his grandfather:

As a child all I knew of my grandfather was that he was a pornographer, albeit a very tame one. My mother's exact words were, “They show worse things on Cinemax.”

I first learned more about him while attending the 1989 San Diego ComicCon when publisher/artist Ray Zone first told me of my family legacy. Initially my grandfather Irving Klaw ran a mail-order business that sold pin-ups of Hollywood stars. He later expanded into pictures and films of attractive women in bondage and other fetishistic poses. Klaw pioneered both the movie star image and adult entertainment industries. His best known model, Bettie Page, was one of the most photographed women of the 1950s, appearing on more magazine covers than anyone else in the decade.

Inspired by the success of Jerald Intrator's 1952 burlesque film Striporama, my grandfather produced and directed Varietease (1954), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). The films featured burlesque acts with stripteases, comedy acts, and musicians with famed beauties Page, Lili St. Cyr, and Tempest Storm.

Also during this period, Klaw produced thousands of feet of black and white film loops featuring striptease and fetish acts. These shorts featured only women, either by themselves or sometimes in pairs, in a variety of situations often involving bondage and spanking. The models-- most famously Page-- never appeared terrified and seemed to be enjoying themselves in a non-sexual, no-threatening way. As with his photos, these movies contained only the suggestion of nudity. My grandfather often required the models to wear two pairs of panties so no pubic hair could be seen. Not a pornographer, Klaw was all about the tease.

Thanks largely to his fetish business, Klaw testified before the 1955 United States Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. The subcommittee, one year before, had famously forced the comic book industry to adopt a code to stop the publication of "inappropriate" comic book material. Now they were investigating my grandfather. The New York City press plastered the sensationalistic episode throughout the city, where Klaw became known as the "Smut King."

My grandfather's legal problems persisted for nearly ten years. Federal authorities intercepted his mail and bugged his phones. As late as 1964, Klaw was brought before a federal court on charges of conspiracy to send obscene material through the mail.

With the shifting political and social climate, Irving returned to filmmaking in 1963, producing two "lost" films: Larry Wolk's Intimate Diary of an Artist's Model and Nature's Sweethearts, co-directing the latter. Unlike, his previous films, both pictures featured a lot of topless women.

The legal and cultural ramifications of his twenty year career ushered America from the sexually conservative 1950s to the sexually charged 1960s. His impact on the exploitation films of the 1960s was profound influencing everything from Barbarella to Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!. In his book Sinema, Douglas Brode argues that Klaw's pictures of Bettie Page and "friends" inspired lesbian chic-- the notion of women as "bisexually sensuous"-- in both film and television. Rachel Schteir in the excellent Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show (Oxford, 2005) asserts that "[Klaw's] movies did more to spread striptease across the country in this era [the 1950's] than any one burlesque short. [...] What they did was spread striptease, drag strips, and burlesque comedy to a provincial audience. In essence, they were giving these audiences what they might see in Miami, Las Vegas, or some other cosmopolitan city." The contemporary popularity of his movies inspired the current neo-burlesque revival in major American cities.

In late 1955, legendary exploitation filmmakers David Friedman and Dan Sonney acquired the rights to both Teaserama and Varietease for $5,000. Sonney owned burlesque theaters on Main Street in L.A. and earned back the initial investment within a year. During the 1980's, Something Weird Video introduced the movies to a new generation. Both Teaserama and Varietease are currently available on DVD.

At the time of his death in 1966-- sixteen months before I was born-- my grandfather lived in relative obscurity. Few imagined that nearly forty years later, his movies would be considered softcore classics and major precursors to the sixties "nudie-cuties" and the later hardcore porn films. Or that two features (The Notorious Bettie Page [2006] and Bettie Page: Dark Angel [2004]) would be made about Bettie Page with my grandfather as major character and that DVD compilations of Klaw's films are bestsellers. Klaw's work influenced a generation of filmmakers, photographers, and entertainers including Russ Meyer, John Waters, Madonna, Missy Suicide, and others. Ironically, without my grandfather there would have been no Cinemax.

---

Thanks for the great article, Rick! We look forward to hearing more from Rick Klaw in the near future.

In the meantime, consider reading two more of Rick's pieces which touched on his grandfather, both found in the Austin Chronicle:

Little Underground Worlds"

"The Notorious Irving Klaw"

Discover Rick Klaw's Writing:

RevolutionSF

Blackbird Press

Mojo Press

The graphic novel, Weird Business

Geeks With Books

Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century

Austin Chronicle

This is one of those columns I dread writing. Dave Stevens, one of our industry's brightest stars, died in March. Dave was a very special talent, but what's more important, he was a very special person. As an illustrator and writer, he created one of comics' great characters, The Rocketeer, a series that spawned a movie as well as renewed interest in '50s pinup queen Bettie Page. Dave was a private person who chose not to share his illness with the public, and, as a result, his death came as a shock to many. Sadly, this meant that he did not get a chance to see the degree to which he was loved by his friends and fans. Blessed with movie-star looks, Dave was a perfectionist in both his appearance and his work. Professionally, he refused to compromise his art, taking painstaking care in the creation of each painting or comics page. This was an approach that certainly cost him a fortune in potential fees and commissions, considerations which, to Dave, were secondary to the work itself.

Dave went to Madison High School here in Portland. It was during this time that I first stumbled into him at a local comics shop, Old Weird Herald's. He had been commissioned to re-create a Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing cover. Though based on an existing work, that one painting made it clear that Dave was going to be a major talent. As the years passed, I was lucky enough to become one of his publishers, as well as one of his friends. All of us who knew him will miss him dearly. Our only consolation is that he will live on in the work he left behind.

Goodbye, Dave. You are truly one of the greats.

Mike Richardson
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY put the spotlight on a new law in Indiana that could have a chilling effect on literary expression of erotica or sensuality of any kind.

If you're reading this blog, chances are you have an appreciation for "cheesecake", at the very least, and are able to understand that a book with some photos of Bettie (or paintings by Olivia, Jim Silke, etc.), don't belong ghettoized in "adult" bookstores. Well, in Indiana, to buy LET THEM EAT CHEESECAKE: THE ART OF OLIVIA at a Barnes and Noble, the bookstore will need to register with the state government!

Alison Morris, blogger on PW, explains:

One of the big topics in the bookselling world recently has been the news that the state of Indiana has put a new law on the books that will require any businesses that sell "sexually explicit material" to register with the state government. To quote from PW's article on this subject, "'Sexually explicit material' is defined as any product that is 'harmful to minors' under existing law. There is a $250 registration fee. Failure to register is a misdemeanor."

Indiana booksellers...are concerned that the state's vague definitions of "sexually explicit material" could get them into trouble for selling books on health and human sexuality, many titles considered classic literature, and who-knows-how-many young adult novels.

...How many art books can you think of that DON'T contain nudity? Or, to play the opposite end of the age spectrum, how many potty training books avoid images of naked toddlers?

...The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has condemed the law on grounds that it is a violation of Indiana booksellers' (and customers') First Amendment rights and therefore unconstitutional. They are considering filing a legal challenge to the law.

MORE...

The Bettie Page Blog would appreciate a "scene report" from Indiana. We'll help raise hell any way we can.

Lea Heranadez is an acclaimed comic creator with a long, distinguished career. Besides tackling every aspect of the business, including pioneering work in the emerging technology of web comics, she is the creator of "Texas Steampunk" graphic novels Cathedral Child, Clockwork Angels and Ironclad Petal, the author of Manga Secrets and the creator of the groundbreaking American manga, Rumble Girls. Lea was also a friend of Dave Stevens. In seeking to honor his family's wishes for donations to be sent to The Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation, she has discovered a way to use her talents to possibly help save others.

If you email Lea a receipt for a donation to The Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation, in the amout of $10 or more, she will draw you in as an "extra" in her new work, Rumble Girls RLO.

Unfamiliar with Rumble Girls? Here's a review of the first collection, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie:

"Lea Hernandez has mixed a prep school soap opera with fighting girl manga and forward-looking science fiction to skewer popular culture and media manipulation. There are more ideas here than most comics, and they're incorporated into the story, even tossed away. Other concept-driven books make a big deal out of their 'mad ideas', trotting them out and asking us to admire their display. This one uses them to build a world to support the story."
-www.comicsworthreading.com

Finally, here are Lea's rememberences of Dave Stevens:

Part One

Part Two

Two uncompromising artists. Two masters in their respective fields. Both began humbly but rose to great heights, earning the respect and admiration (and, at times, the envy) of their peers and the undying loyalty of millions of fans. Olivia and Dave Stevens have many things in common, but the most obvious is that both visionaries found a muse in an all-but-forgotten pin-up model. It is certain that Bettie's contemporary popularity would not be as great without their inspired interpretations of her. It's arguable that Bettie would barely be remembered were it not for Olivia and Dave Stevens.

It is with extreme gratitude to Olivia De Berardinis that the official Bettie Page blog shares:

I've had a real block writing this, I think I'm in the sea of denial still thinking Dave is not answering my emails as usual, it's so much easier thinking he's still kicking around ignoring me.

Dave was a shy, secretive man, I never really became close to him. We were together, our con booths, our art, our subjects, all that and so many years knowing him made me feel connected to him, we shared friends and dinners together. I remember trying to contact Dave to see how he was doing, emailing, calling, finally I sent him a really over the top cute picture of my boy pugs, and only then within the hour he called.

Dave's Comicon booth was one of the few places where I could actually see the elusive Mr. Stevens for any length of time. Sitting, sketching away, a line of idolizing fans watching, I would always slip in to smooch with him and admire his beautiful work. Afterward, I would see him with his pretty women, take off into the night, wearing a leather bomber jacket with a white scarf. He was such a handsome, gentle guy.

I loved his work, his Rocketeer.

There were a few of us painting Bettie back then, but Dave brought her back into the limelight. Then when she appeared in the 90's, he sought her out, and got to know and take care of Bettie, becoming her best friend until he became too sick to see her.

It's been pretty sad to see Dave spend so many years fighting so hard to stay alive and work in such a weak state. He will always be a part of pin up history.

Dave Stevens' obituaries...


Los Angeles Times

...and a great tribute by his longtime friend William Stout.

In lieu of flowers, Dave's family would like people to make donations in his name to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation. There is a PAYPAL button on the site to accept donations of any amount in a convenient, secure manner.

The Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation is a non-profit, all volunteer, patient run organization whose primary goal is to provide support and information. Research is supported with funds received from patients, their families and their friends.

You can pay your last respect to Dave Stevens on the Memorial page of the Authorized Dave Stevens Website, which has been and will continue to be maintained by his friend Tom K Ranheim.

David Scroggy is Vice President of Product Development for Dark Horse. He is currently overseeing Dark Horse's product lines for the high profile properties DILBERT, HELLBOY and Frank Miller's feature adaptation of WILL EISNER'S THE SPIRIT.

David has gratefully allowed us to publish what began as a private journal/email reflection of Dave Stevens, originally intended for his private circle.

It is with tremendous gratitude that we present:

Going to Denny’s across from the El Cortez at the 1975 San Diego Comic-Con late one night with magician/actor Patrick Culliton. We encounter our friend Dave Stevens, who obviously has decided for the first (and only, in my experience) time to get drunk. Very drunk indeed, as he was half in the gutter sort of half-hanging and half-leaning on a lamp post. We tried to cajole him inside with us so we could pour some coffee into him. He absolutely would not budge; mortified by the situation. He was still there when we left, but wouldn’t let us give him a hand.

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Bringing in Dave to Pacific Comics, with the blessing and support of Bill and Steve Schanes. Dave wanted to do a strip about Rocket Man from the Commando Cody serials, who he had just done a nice illustration of. We were so young and clueless about licensing and intellectual property ownership - we thought the character might be in public domain, but weren’t really sure how to find out.

So Dave said he would play around with it and change it enough so that we wouldn’t get sued someday. He came back with The Rocketeer.

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Going with Dave to Las Vegas when The Rocketeer was new to do a book signing at Lyn Pederson’s Page After Page store. Lyn’s dad Pete picked us up at the airport and took us around town, ensconcing us in a lavish two-story suite with a spiral staircase at one of the hotels. Lyn had arranged for a 1930’s vintage car to deliver Dave to the signing. Dave dressed up as close to Cliff Secord as he could - jodhpurs, boots, vintage pilot helmet. He stood on the running board as the pristine old car slowly approached the store. Quite a sight.

We also had a Bettie lookalike contest at the store, and to everyone’s surprise, some fan’s mom won. She had no idea who Bettie or The Rocketeer were, but she was a hottie and a good sport about the whole thing.

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Discovering Thai iced tea at Dave’s suggestion at a little restaurant across from the Farmer’s Market in L.A.

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Being given a “karma test” by my higher power one afternoon in the late seventies when, while waiting for my friend to get done with his ceramics class at San Diego City College, I wandered into an empty classroom where a drawing class must have just taken place. Leaning on the blackboard was what was obviously a successful completed assignment by a former student that was being used as an example. It was a big sheet of detailed pen & ink renderings of an M.C. Escher-like treatment of some ants moving through an elaborate spiral construction. The student had his grade (A+) scrawled on it in red by the teacher, and it was signed Dave Stevens. I was sorely tempted to lift it, but in an uncharacteristic burst of ethics left it behind.

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Hiring Dave for what I believe was his first commercial assignment, which was an illustration for my then-girlfriend and now-wife Rosemary’s dress shop in Ocean Beach.

She sold a lot of the then-popular t-shirt dresses, so had Dave do a pen and ink drawing of a pretty girl wearing one, which was used in a print ad in the San Diego Reader newspaper. The price was $35.00 and we got to keep the original. I think Dave raised his prices after that.

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Going with Dave to a stripper bar in San Diego one evening. He was quite enamored (obsessed was more like it) with an exotic dancer who went by the handle Jackie Brooks. Dave was coming down to San Diego to work on the coloring of The Rocketeer with fellow artist Joe Chiodo, and they would work late and Dave slept on the couch there. He would drag along anyone he could to see the estimable Ms. Brooks as often as possible.

After one of the preliminary dancers had finished, Dave, in the spirit of appreciation, said to the young lady that she had “a hypnotic bottom”. Unfortunately for Dave, she heard it as “hippo bottom” and nearly clocked him one. His flustered attempts to correct this impression had the rest of us in stitches.

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Asking Dave and writer/artist Bruce Jones to come with me to Roz Kirby’s house one night in the early 1990’s. After Jack died, I kept in touch with Roz, and, with Mike Richardson’s support, created a portfolio of some of Jack’s unpublished original art that hung in their living room, which was signed by Roz and published by Dark Horse. We wanted to do an interview with Roz that would be excerpted for publicity purposes. The four of us sat around her kitchen table with a tape recorder going. One question led into another, growing increasingly loopy as Dave and Bruce tried to outdo each other with snappy patter. Once they were really warmed up, they had to remind each other that they were in fact supposed to be interviewing Roz instead of rehearsing a bit for the next Friar’s Club roast. I am not sure if the transcript of this session survives, but it was hilarious and touching at the same time.

---

Dave was one of Jack’s best inkers ever, as evidenced by his annual inking of Kirby’s contribution to the San Diego Comic-Con souvenir program book.

Once, when I was working at the Pacific Comics retail store, a collector named Mike Price came in. he had just received a Kirby pencil drawing he had commissioned from Jack re-creating the panel where Doctor Doom stands over the fallen Silver Surfer, with the Surfer’s cosmic power arcing between his iron-gloved hands. Mike wanted to see if I could locate Joe Sinnot for him and have him ink it. I persuaded him to instead have it inked by young Dave Stevens. Mike was very skeptical, but I talked him into it. I think Dave charged him fifty bucks, and not only that, did it on a vellum overlay on a light box so the collector could display both the original pencil and the inked version side-by-side. He did this, and had it framed. Magnificent! Now why didn’t I get one like that for me?

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Watching Dave sketch in Kate Crabb’s book one night at a party at the Athens Market restaurant in downtown San Diego during Comic-Con. Dave seldom drew for fans other than a standard head shot of The Rocketeer, but this time Kate caught him at just the right time, and as a group chatted and had drinks, he slowly but steadily penciled a simply gorgeous glamour rendering of a pretty girl. It was fascinating to watch it take shape, and it is a companion in the file cabinet referenced above - why didn’t I get one like that for me?

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There were innumerable conversations trying to wrest Rocketeer pages out of Dave. Like many editorial folks after me, I got pretty much nowhere. I tried everything. I cursed, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, appealed to his sense of logic and fair play, threatened suicide, advised, commandeered, pulled rank, rationalized, implored, tried bribery and exhausted my verbal and mental bag of tricks to no avail. Perhaps the most telling response was Dave is his whiniest mocking voice saying “Waaaaah…. I’m not on some fanboy’s feeding schedule…. I’m not their big tit.” It was interesting to arrive at Dark Horse ten or twelve years later and observe then-editor Bob Shreck going through the same routine trying to wrangle in the final few pages. That was one graphic novel that came at its own speed for sure.

---

Being a fly on the wall at the various stages of Dave’s Bettie Page relationship- discovery, pursuit, obsession and his eventual discovery and recognition of a muse, kindred soul and lifelong friend. Hearing of her small doings and large achievements. Deconstructing a wide variety of artists and sculptors attempts at depicting her, and hearing in detail how and why they all failed. Working with Dave on the Bettie Page dress-up magnet set, an elaborate and deceptively difficult illustration assignment that succeeded admirably and thankfully provided Dave with a small but steady royalty stream for several years. Getting a phone call from the great lady herself. She was concerned because Dave wasn’t returning her calls, and was worried about his health (he was sick for a long time). She called Dark Horse to see if we knew how he was. After a delightful 45 minute chat, I called Dave and discovered that he had indeed been returning her calls, but that she had turned the ringer off on her phone and wasn’t answering because she couldn’t hear him.

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Early in Dave’s fascination with Bettie, he was kind of like a broken record with it. One afternoon he and me and Rosemary were eating at the legendary San Diego culinary institution The Chicken Pie Shop. Dave kept saying that our waitress kind of looked like Bettie. We didn’t quite see the resemblance the way he did, but he kept mentioning it. When she came over to see if we wanted dessert (you got dessert with your chicken pie dinner- what a good deal that place was), he asked her what they had. She looked at him and said “why don’t you try the ‘apple brown bettie’. Dave’s eyes widened as though it were some kind of cosmic convergence. We teased him for being silly.

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Attending the Playboy Expo in LA with Dave, Jim Silke and Olivia. Standing there chatting with those three was like some kind of pinup art heaven.

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Being the chauffeur in Portland for a group of artists in town for the now-defunct Dark Horse sponsored local comics convention. Dubbing themselves “The Lizard Men”, the group prowled our local old book stores with me at the wheel. It was Dave, Al Williamson, Mark Schultz, William Stout and Cam Kennedy. Such talk! And some of these guys were old enough to be your father.

---

Speaking of “such talk”, there was no stopping Dave and former Comic-Con President Richard Butner when they got going. For two reasonably erudite guys, their immature and incredibly crude rapid-fire banter was unbelievable. And it never stopped - they cracked each other up. Oh Yaaz. This style of repartee continued when Dave was in William Stout’s art studio on La Brea in LA. Only this time the willing foil was painter and studio mate Richard Hescox. They were a couple of sick puppies once they got started.

Dave did a hilarious strip of himself and Butner at the Comic-Con masquerade, which was published in the 1979 Comic-Con program book. It reflects the tone described above pretty accurately. I posted it on my office door this week.

---

Dave was very patient. One of the finest pieces he ever did for Pacific was a lushly-rendered cover of Sheena. It was really one of his best jobs ever. Imagine our consternation, not to mention Dave’s, when it turned up missing. We tore the place apart but couldn’t find it. Dave was not only convinced that it was stolen, but positive he knew who had done it - a freelance colorist who was around at the time. Dave tried to convince me that we should burgle this guy’s house and find it. He wasn’t kidding. Imagining us getting shot or arrested, I was able to defer this scheme, but it always gnawed at Dave.

He kept his eyes open and twenty or more years later it finally showed up on ebay. Dave got the right kind of legal help this time, and to his immense satisfaction regained the original, which he sold for a very handsome sum. And he was right all along - the thief was just who he suspected.

---

Going for a sumptuous dinner with Dave, Rosemary and our niece Kristin to Plainfield Mayur, a posh Indian restaurant in Portland situated in an old Victorian house.

---

Dave never bragged, and although he met lots of famous people, he didn’t talk about it very much. But you could kind of pry it out of him if you were persistent. I recall him telling about working on the Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboards, working out of a bungalow somewhere in Hollywood. They were auditioning actresses for the Karen Allen role, and Dave’s drawing board was situated where he could look out of a window and see the candidates, a parade of gorgeous ingénues, approach the place for their meetings. He had a favorite, who didn’t get the part, but certainly enjoyed observing the process.

He also described working with Michael Jackson, doing storyboards for him for his star turn in the Jackson’s “Victory” tour. He would drive out to Neverland every day, and Michael and him would work on the project - just the two of them. Michael would demonstrate his dance moves and Dave would draw. At the time, Michael was probably the biggest star in the world, but to Dave it was just another job.

---

Listening, in more recent years, to Dave explain why he had gone back to art school because “he couldn’t paint”. While this sounds kind of ridiculous, he was quite serious and worked hard to learn figurative oil painting. He emailed me some of his oil painting head studies, because he said he “didn’t have the skills to do bodies”. They are stunning, in my opinion, but Dave was hypercritical about his own work and savage about most everybody else’s. His dedication to his craft was inspirational, and when I encounter some hot shot “flavor of the month” practitioner who is enjoying a little popularity and has his art skills in an arrested state while his ego hypertrophies, I think of Dave’s refusal to rest on his laurels and just shake my head. I hope these oil pieces are in the big Stevens art book that is coming together, because they deserve to be seen.

---

Toward the end of 2007, I worked on my last project with Dave. We made one of our "syroco"-style 1940's-looking statuettes of the Rocketeer. Dave was very involved, at least via phone and email. Some days he wouldn't respond when he was too wiped out, but most of the time he would, and was as fussy as ever.

We'd speak a little bit about his situation, but he wasn't real forthcoming after a point, although we did talk about his treatment (awful) and prognosis (not good). One moment that sticks with me is that he wanted us to photograph the statuette so it could be included in this big art book (as yet unpublished), that he was desperately trying to see to a finish before he croaked. We still hadn't worked out all the details to his satisfaction, and I told him I wanted it to be just right before we took pictures of it. I said: "C'mon, Dave... we're not on a deadline." He said: "Well, I am!".


Thanks to David Scroggy for this wealth of warm memories for us all to enjoy. Thanks as well to Joel Beren of Ozone Productions for making this possible.

If you have any personal memories of Dave Stevens, especially as they pertain to his relationship with Bettie Page, please EMAIL THE BETTIE PAGE BLOG!

Dave Stevens, the profoundly gifted comic book creator and illustrator, passed away on March 10th at the age of 52, after a long (and privately fought) battle with leukemia.

His life and work have have a profound impact on Bettie Page the person and Bettie Page the enduring icon. Falling in love with her photos and film reels, Dave honed his clean-lined style by faithfully bringing the then-"missing" Bettie to life on bristol board.

Eventually, he would incorporate her likeness in his title, THE ROCKETEER, as a character named "Betty", the girlfriend of the title's hero, Cliff Secord. A retro-pulp adventure about a boy who uses a jet pack to fight for justice, began modestly as a back-up in Mike Grell's STARSLAYER in 1982. THE ROCKETEER's fame snowballed, raising the profile of both artist and "model".

Dave's stunning renditions and interpretations of Bettie Page ( in ROCKETEER, scores of pin-ups and in the authorized BETTIE PAGE COMICS) created a legion of fans, priming the pump for Bettie's return to the public eye. Ironically, when THE ROCKETEER was finally translated to the big screen, "Betty" the character was deemed too hot for a Disney title, leaving Jennifer Connelly to play a re-named, toned down girlfriend to Billy Campbell's "Cliff".

If Dave's only contribution to Bettie's life was through the beauty and impact of his art, that would warrant eternal gratitude on the part of Bettie and her fans. However, once Bettie resurfaced, Dave was among the first to seek her out and compensate her for using her image without her (admittedly, impossible to attain) permission. Thereafter, he not only lobbied within the creative community to urge artists to do right by Bettie, he also became one of her few close friends and confidants, driving her to doctors appointments, the grocery store and the like.

Dave Stevens, the friend and the artist, will be missed by all who have been touched by him. Bettie fans, whether familiar with his work or not, should be profoundly grateful for the ways his humanity and genius have help cultivate Bettie's current popularity.

Read an in-depth interview with Dave Stevens in COMIC BOOK ARTIST, in which Dave discusses his entire career and his relationship with Bettie Page.

Hear snippets of an interview Dave Stevens conducted with Bettie Page.

Buy Dave Stevens products from Dark Horse.

Read scores of tributes compiled by Tom Spurgeon at THE COMICS REPORTER.

The following touching tributes discuss Dave on a personal level:

Mark Evanier (a talented writer in many mediums and a particularly erudite blogger on matters that affect comics, animation, film and TV)

Heidi MacDonald of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'S BLOG, "THE BEAT"

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News

Artist Rich Dannys

Mike Richardson, Publisher of Dark Horse Comics, provided a statement to COMIC BOOK RESOURCES

Learn more about Dave Stevens, courtesy of Wikipedia and his own official Dave Stevens site. The official site contains a tremendous amount of artwork and a list of nearly all his published work.

Jenna promises to be gentle to animals... humans get no such guarantee!

Looking more than a little like our favorite gal, Jenna's pin-up for PeTA is getting big play all over the internet, proving once again that Bettie's iconic status.

As a promotion of the campaign, PeTA is giving away the pictured pleather bikini (entries due by April 5th). The PeTA site also features wallpaper of the ad and a video about the shoot.

The only thing missing from PeTA's press? The name of the lady who inspired the photo's theme. C'mon, PeTA, how about a little credit where credit is due!?!

Bettie Page adorned the walls of the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica, Feb. 22-24, courtesy of pin-up artist extraordinaire, Olivia De Berardinis! "California Cheesecake", Olivia's first gallery showing in four years, kicked off with a gala party. The VIP guest list included Hugh Hefner and The Girls Next Door.

While Hef's gal pals may be pretty, it's Bettie who stole the show as the subject of multiple Olivia paintings.

Click on the image to see what you missed!

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5. RIGHTS GRANTED TO THE BETTIE PAGE BLOG:

(a) RIGHTS IN SUBMISSION: By sending the Bettie Page Blog your Submission, you hereby acknowledge and agree that you are granting the Bettie Page Blog, its licensees, successor and assigns, the perpetual and irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to (a) reproduce, distribute, display, exhibit, host, cache, store, archive, index, categorize, comment on, tag, transmit, broadcast, stream, edit, alter, modify, synchronize with visual material, create algorithms based thereon, and transcode the Submission to appropriate media formats, standards or mediums; and (b) otherwise use, exhibit, exploit, sell, license, assign and otherwise transfer to third parties the right to use, exhibit and otherwise exploit the Submission (in whole or in part and as altered by the Bettie Page Blog in its sole discretion) throughout the world in perpetuity, in any and all media, whether now existing or hereafter devised, in any media format or medium and through any media channels and for any purpose, including, without limitation, downloads, streams, in audio visual recordings, motion pictures, television programs, productions, advertising, promotion and publicity, including, without limitation, advertising, promotion and publicity, all without further notice to, consent from or payment to you. You waive any and all "moral rights" you may have in the Submission.

Without in any way limiting the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that the Bettie Page Blog, its licensees, successors and assigns, shall have the right to sell, license, assign and otherwise transfer any and all of the rights granted by you to the Bettie Page Blog under this Agreement, and to display any advertising, publicity, promotional materials and distribution rights in connection with your Submission. You acknowledge and agree that the Bettie Page Blog, its licensees, successors and assigns, will be entitled to retain any and all revenue generated from any sales, licenses, assignments and other transfers of the rights granted by you to the Bettie Page Blog hereunder, as well as any and all revenue generated by the display of any advertising, publicity, promotional materials or distribution rights in connection with your Submission. Nothing in this Agreement obligates or may be deemed to obligate the Bettie Page Blog to exercise any of the rights granted by you to the Bettie Page Blog under this Agreement.

You grant the rights hereunder whether or not your Submission or any part thereof is actually used by the Bettie Page Blog. You acknowledge that your consideration for the rights you grant the Bettie Page Blog in your Submission is the possibility that the Bettie Page Blog or its designees' will review or use your Submission. You will not receive any further compensation of any kind for your Submission or the use thereof, and you will not receive credit for any use of your Submission. Your Submission will not be acknowledged or returned. You acknowledge and agree that your Submission is being sent voluntarily, and not in confidence, and that no confidential relationship is intended or created between the Bettie Page Blog and you by your submission of the Submission.
In addition to all of the legal and equitable rights and remedies available to the Bettie Page Blog in connection with this Agreement or your Submission, you acknowledge and agree that the Bettie Page Blog shall have the right, in its sole discretion, not to post the Submission on any website, to remove the Submission from any website on which it has been posted, and not to use, exhibit or otherwise exploit your Submission in any manner whatsoever. The Bettie Page Blog has no obligation to inform you of any decision not to post, to remove, or not to use, exhibit or otherwise exploit your Submission.

(b) USE OF NAME AND LIKENESS: By sending the Bettie Page Blog your Submission, you also consent to the recording, use and reuse by the Bettie Page Blog, its licensees, successors and assigns, of your name, voice, actions, likeness, appearance, performance, biographical material, and any other identifying information, including, without limitation, any information contained in your Submission (collectively, "Personal Elements"), as edited, altered or modified by the Bettie Page Blog, in its sole discretion, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world, in perpetuity, including, without limitation, in and in connection with the Bettie Page Blog.com or related website, in and in connection with any television programs and other productions, and in connection with advertising, promotion and publicity. You acknowledge and agree that the Bettie Page Blog, its licensees, successors and assigns, may use all or any part of your Personal Elements, and may make any changes that any of them may deem necessary, in their sole discretion, including altering or modifying them regardless of whether or not you are recognizable.

6. OTHER SUBMISSIONS: You recognize that other persons, including the Bettie Page Blog's own employees, may have submitted to the Bettie Page Blog or others, or made public, or may in the future originate and submit, or make public, materials that is similar or identical to your Submission. You acknowledge and agree that the Bettie Page Blog shall have the right to use such similar or identical materials, and that you will not be entitled to any compensation because of the Bettie Page Blog's use of such similar or identical materials. Nothing in this Agreement, or your submission of the Submission, shall be deemed to place you in any different position from any other member of the public.

7. INDEMNIFICATION AND RELEASE OF CLAIMS: You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Bettie Page Blog, its parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, each of their respective licensees, successors and assigns, and each of their respective officers, directors, agents, representatives and employees, from and against any and all claims, actions, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses of any kind (including, without limitation, attorneys; fees) which in any way arise out of or result from your breach of any of the representation, warranties or other terms or conditions of this Agreement or any use of your Submission or Personal Elements in accordance with this Agreement. You hereby release, discharge and hold harmless the Bettie Page Blog, its parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, each of their respective licensees, successors and assigns, and each of their respective officers, directors, agents, representatives and employees (collectively, the "Released Parties"), from any and all claims, actions, damages, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses of any kind (including, without limitation, attorneys' fees) arising out of, resulting from, or by reason of this Agreement, your Submission, any of the Personal Elements or your participation or appearance in any program or advertising, including, without limitation, any use, exhibition or other exploitation of your Submission or any of the Personal Elements, your appearance in any program or advertising, or the exercise by the Bettie Page Blog or any of the other Released Parties, of any of the rights granted by you under this Agreement, on any legal theory whatsoever (including, without limitation, idea misappropriation, copyright infringement, personal injury, rights of privacy and publicity, false light, defamation, intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress, or breach of contract).

8. RELEASE OF UNKNOWN CLAIMS: YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT AFTER THE EXECUTION OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MAY DISCOVER FACTS OR INCUR OR SUFFER CLAIMS THAT WERE UNKNOWN OR UNSUSPECTED AT THE TIME YOU EXECUTED THIS AGREEMENT, AND WHICH, IF KNOWN BY YOU AT THAT TIME, MAY HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED YOUR DECISION TO EXECUTE THIS AGREEMENT. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT BY REASON OF THIS AGREEMENT AND THE RELEASES CONTAINED HEREIN, YOU HAVE ASSUMED ANY RISK OF SUCH UNKNOWN FACTS AND SUCH UNKNOWN AND UNSUSPECTED CLAIMS.
THIS AGREEMENT SHALL CONSTITUTE A FULL, FINAL, AND COMPLETE RELEASE, ACCORD AND SATISFACTION OF EACH AND EVERY RELEASED CLAIM THAT YOU HAVE OR MAY HAVE, AT ANY TIME, AGAINST ANY OF THE RELEASED PARTIES.

9. OTHER MATTERS: This Agreement constitutes our entire understanding with respect to its subject matter. If any provision of this Agreement or any document incorporated by reference is found by an arbitrator or a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the arbitrator or court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of such documents remain in full force and effect, including without limitation, the ability to resolve all controversies and claims through arbitration, provided, however, that the aggregate of all such provisions found to be invalid or unenforceable does not materially affect the benefits and obligations of the parties to this Agreement as a whole. The Bettie Page Blog and its successors, licensees and assigns, will have the unlimited right to assign this Agreement and the rights granted by you under this Agreement at any time, in whole or in part, to any party. You will execute any documents (after being afforded a reasonable opportunity to review and confirm the same) and do any other acts as may be reasonably required by the Bettie Page Blog, with the Bettie Page Blog to bear reasonable expenses related to your execution of such documentation, provided the Bettie Page Blog is notified ahead of time and agrees to such expenses, to further evidence or effectuate the rights of the Bettie Page Blog as set forth in this Agreement. You appoint the Bettie Page Blog as your attorney-in-fact (which appointment is irrevocable and coupled with an interest), with full power of substitution and delegation, but only to execute any and all such documents, or perform such acts, which you fail to execute (after being afforded a reasonable opportunity to review and confirm the same). the Bettie Page Blog will promptly furnish to you a copy of all such documents that the Bettie Page Blog executes on your behalf. The construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of this Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of New York without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules.

10. MEDIATION/ARBITRATION: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. UNDER THIS SECTION 14, YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIM ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR YOUR SUBMISSION.

IF ANY CONTROVERSY OR CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT, THE BREACH OF ANY TERM HEREOF OR YOUR SUBMISSION CANNOT BE SETTLED THROUGH DIRECT DISCUSSIONS, THE PARTIES AGREE TO ENDEAVOR FIRST TO SETTLE THE CONTROVERSY OR CLAIM BY MEDIATION IN THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES BEFORE COMMENCING ANY PROCEEDINGS PERMITTED UNDER THIS PARAGRAPH. IF ANY CONTROVERSY OR CLAIM IS NOT OTHERWISE RESOLVED THROUGH DIRECT DISCUSSIONS OR MEDIATION, AS SET FORTH ABOVE, THEN THE PARTIES AGREE THAT IT SHALL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING ARBITRATION CONDUCTED IN THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES. ALL ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS, INCLUDING DOCUMENTS FILED IN THE COURSE OF SUCH PROCEEDINGS, AND THE FACT THAT THE ARBITRATION IS BEING CONDUCTED, SHALL BE CONFIDENTIAL. THE ARBITRATOR'S DECISION SHALL BE CONTROLLED BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. YOU MAY COMMENCE AN ACTION AT LAW FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF ENFORCING AN ARBITRATION AWARD. WITHOUT IN ANY WAY LIMITING THE FOREGOING, IN NO EVENT SHALL YOU HAVE ANY RIGHT TO SEEK INJUNCTIVE OR OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF AGAINST THE BETTIE PAGE BLOG, ITS PARENT, SUBSIDIARY OR AFFILIATED COMPANIES, ITS LICENSEES, SUCCESSOR OR ASSIGNS, OR ANY OTHER PARTY ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OR NON-USE OF THE SUBMISSION. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE BETTIE PAGE BLOG MAY NONETHELESS (1) SEEK TO OBTAIN INJUNCTIVE OR OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF FROM A COURT TO ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, AND (2) BRING AN ACTION TO ENFORCE THE DECISION OF THE ARBITRATOR BEFORE ANY COURT WITH JURISDICTION. YOU MUST COMMENCE A FORMAL ARBITRATION PROCEEDING PURSUANT TO THIS AGREEMENT WITHIN SIX MONTHS AFTER THE DATE ANY SUCH CLAIM ARISES; FAILURE TO DO SO WITHIN THAT SIX-MONTH PERIOD SHALL BE DEEMED AN IRREVOCABLE WAIVER OF ANY RIGHTS YOU MIGHT HAVE PURSUANT TO THIS AGREEMENT WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIM AGAINST YOU.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND UNDERSTAND THE RIGHTS THAT YOU ARE GRANTING AND THE REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRENTIES YOU HAVE MADE IN THIS AGREEMENT. YOU FUTHER UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE GIVING UP CERTAIN LEGAL RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIM ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT.