I was a bit skeptical when I saw this. I know the publishers will try just about anything, but this seemed a bit of a stretch. However, I found it to be a light and fun read that also pokes fun at some of the 1950s images and cliches.

The premise is that famous model Bettie Page kept a secret diary, a diary that tells her story as a secret spy. Of course, this could not be told at the time, but at last the truth can come out now. It all starts when a guy offers her a job as an office assistant in a secret facility, and it goes from there. Along the way she is chased by G-Men as well as mad scientists plus she is also trying to keep working in movies, B-movies in this case.

While the story can be amusing at times, the plot can feel a bit convoluted and confusing in some parts. Despite that, the story has a light sense of humor, like it does not take itself too seriously. For me, the best part in the art, which captures Bettie pretty well as well as the time period, enhancing the B-movie aesthetic in the comic.

Additionally, this volume features a covers gallery section combining photos of Bettie Page and art by Joseph Linsner. Linsner really makes Bettie look good.

Overall, I liked it. The story was mostly OK, but the art and humor help make up for it. I like it enough that I am willing to read the next volume in the series.

<p>So part way through my reading of the first story in this collection I was like <i>Wait...was Bettie Page actually a secret agent?</i> Obviously, as the story devolves into giant occult lasers I'm guessing the answer was no, but still, for a second, I really considered the possibility, so in that <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/21419001/book/155475043">Bettie Page Volume 1</a> by David Avallone succeeds. Where it maybe doesn't succeed as well is in pacing -- sometimes I felt lost. Sometimes it seemed like new characters were abruptly introduced or taken away. Sometimes I didn't really know what was going on. I'll chalk up my confusion to a combination of maybe there's something missing here and the low-res file I got for reviewing -- low res implies pixelation implies sometimes I have to squint and when I squint I get a headache and then I end up scanning quickly rather than reading. </p>

<p>It's fun. It's pulpy. But it isn't necessarily enough to keep you satisfied.</p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/21419001/book/155475043">Bettie Page Volume 1</a> by David Avallone went on sale May 22, 2018.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

I wasn't sure what to expect from this graphic novel but really liked the cover. It was such a fun read! Bette Paige as an undercover agent working for the government. A mix of noir, camp and sci-fi fantasy. The storyline is fun and Bettie is a great character. Plus the artwork is beautiful, capturing Bettie's pin-up style without going overboard. I loved action-hero Bettie Page and think the story and series would make an excellent animated series!

The comic is a retelling of Bettie’s allegedly secret diary (now declassified) and takes her in a completely unexpected direction. Starting with a photo shoot (not surprisingly), she escapes a raid and takes off for Hollywood. Bettie ends up cast in a cheesy sci-fi flick, playing the Queen of the Space Commies… and that’s not even the strange part. She discovers there’s a cult attempting to use a mind control device as part of the film and, well, we get a bit of Bettie Page, action hero.

Volume 1 is a fun read, even if the plot is pretty predictable and not all that original. But it’s filled with a lot of Bettie’s iconic looks. Plus, there are evil scientists and secret agencies and Soviet spies… what more could you ask for?! It’s cheese plus cheesecake.

A fun, campy story. Set in the 1950s this reads like the comic book version of a classic B-movie. It hits all the '50s touchstones: Communism, (possible) invaders from outer space, an overriding sense of paranoia, and a dash of wholesome cheesecake by way of Miss Bettie Page.

The story is pretty basic, the art is nothing spectacular but it serves the story. Overall I would consider Bettie Page Vol 1 to be a fun, pleasant, time waster.

***Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

A strange combination of old sci-fi cannon and crime noir with a pin-up Bettie Page as the protagonist. I can’t say I disliked it, but can’t say I liked it either. It was very strange and I feel like it tried to hinge too much on have BP as a main character. It ended up being silly more than anything, and I love BP so that was a little hard to swallow. My favorites aspects were definitely the single page drawings of Bettie Page basically modeling different outfits in different positions since they had more to do with the Bettie Page I know and love.

Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

This really had nothing to do with Bettie Page. It could have been any woman as the heroine of this 1950's story. That being said, it was a fun, crazy romp through Los Angeles. Bettie takes a job out West as an assistant and quickly gets involved in some California mid-century lunacy when she goes searching for the missing assistant she replaced. Soon cults, spacemen, Hollywood and G-Men are knocking on her door.

A Fantastic and fun graphic novel featuring the one and only Bettie Page! I thought this book was fun and made me laugh on a few occasions. I definitely recommend this to those who love Bettie Page!💜

Underwhelming and felt very frantic and scattered. I'm not even sure what the author's purpose was except for doing a fantasy with Bettie Page.

Now the "Secret Diaries" of Bettie Page is coming to light and the hidden story of her time spent undercover as an agent in Hollywood is finally revealed! Find out how Bettie managed to infiltrate Sky Science while being the Queen of the Space Commies on screen! Find out what really happened during the LA Flying Saucer incident and Zombie attack of 1951! Plus, plenty of action, snappy retorts, and pin-ups! A fun volume that makes it hard to wait for a follow-up!

This new comics purely David Avallone's love letter to pulp fiction and our dear old (sorry) Bettie. Our heroine finds herself in one after another weird dangerous situation. The narrative is some-what over the top and it is a common problem when one tries to rope in real personas in fiction. The artwork is great, the story is quite engaging and enjoyable. The pseudo pin-up images hidden all over the pages are a delight. But the story has so much plot-holes that one has to rely on pure "because she is the heroine" - logic very often.
A tighter story would work wonders with the eye-candy artworks.

This was kinda fun, i guess. The story was interesting enough. But nothing to bowl you over. And the art was just ok. I might not recommend this unless you’re a hardcore Bettie Page completist.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and Dynamite Entertainment for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Excellently organized and entertaining. A real winner for the publisher and the reader.

A spoof of 50s hokum, that doesn't know any better than to revert to hokum. Plus the artwork can't get round an action scene. Not what the lady deserved.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this graphic novel and appreciated a perspective that didn't just portray Bettie Page as a sex idol, but as a woman with goals and personality in her own right. The art style was clean and not distracting from the story. I was hooked from the very beginning. I highly recommend this graphic novel for anyone wanting a fresh perspective and a good story.

This title is like Nancy Drew combined with Flash Gordon and a good dose of Bettie Page. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. In between the chapters are some lovely pinups.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. There wasn’t much of a story in this book but the artwork and pictures were cool.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This took me by surprise, and pleasantly so because it wasn't at all what I expected. Frankly I'm not sure what I expected except that I hoped it would be fun - and it was. It was a great romp and put the renowned Bettie Page in a spotlight I'm willing to bet she was never in before - that of government agent! bettie was a real life pin-up girl, probably the last of the truly "innocent" models there was; her pictures were very cheeky but seemingly to outside eyes to be all in good fun. At least, she seems from her expressions in her images to be having a rare old time.

But this novelization isn't about that at all. All of that is just background to her 'real' life, in which she helps fight pinkos and weirdos in New York and Los Angeles. The story collects a four part serial story and a bonus one-off story together into one volume. Bettie doesn't plan this career, it simply befalls her as her modeling plans take an unanticipated wrong turn at the start of the story. Everything else is more like a comedy of errors, with Bettie being in the wrong place at the wrong time until she takes charge of her own fate and starts making things happen instead of having them happen to her.

The story is right on - with a nice line of fifties banter, and the artwork is wonderfully evocative - except for once or twice when the blue-eyed Bettie is shown with brown eyes or even green eyes at one point! She's also depicted as being a little more lanky and boney than the more normally -proportioned real-life Bettie who was only five-two and comfortably rounded without being overweight.

No one obsessed about not being skinny enough back them - at least not as commonly as we encounter it today because women were not conditioned to feel inadequate in the way our modern society seems intent upon rendering them (when it can!). It would have been nice to have seen this reflected better in the drawings and not just on the 'covers'.

Virtually all models were short and normally proportioned back then! As were actresses: Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe for example, were the same height as Bettie and no more "hourglass" than was she, and no one consider what today would be described as 'chubby' knees, as being out of place, nor was body hair for that matter. How far we've slid down the wrong chute since then!

ost of the fifties pop-culture references were right one as well, as far as I could tell, except for one mention of Ian Fleming. The story was set in 1951, and Fleming was unknown at that time since he had not yet penned his first James Bond adventure. He didn’t write Casino Royale until 1952 and it wasn’t published until 1953. It wasn’t published in the USA until 1954! The only other problem i spotted was on page 89 (as depicted on the tablet reader - the comic pages themselves are not numbered) where I read “The exist to be ruled." I'm guessing that should have been “They exist to be ruled”

There was the welcome but unlikely addition of a black female police officer. It was welcome to see a person of color in this story, but there were no female police officers in the USA 1951 to my knowledge. Atlanta did, believe it or not, have black male cops as early as 1948, but even then, they weren’t allowed to patrol white neighborhoods or work in police headquarters! We've come a long way but nowhere near far enough.

So, overall, I loved this story and look forward to reading more. I recommend this as a fun and original adventure series with a strong and fascinating female lead.

This is not what I expected for a Bettie Page graphic novel. It is action-packed and witty, but it didn't really represent much of Bettie Page as a character. I loved and enjoyed the illustrations and the famous pin-up photos of Bettie which was included in this volume. Although I did enjoy reading it, I feel that there needs to be more of the story. The plot seems to be a little bit confusing at first. If Bettie Page were to be alive, would she have liked this story?

3/5 stars. I would recommend it to a friend.

I received this copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The real Bettie Page was an American model who became popular in the 1950's for her pin-up photos. Apparently she was known as the "Queen of Pinups", and according to Wicki 'her jet-black hair, blue eyes, and trademark fringe influenced artists for generations'. She seems to have lived a very full life with drama and fame and a major religious conversion.

The graphic novel version seems to be based on the real Bettie Page, but this comic series casts Bettie as a sleuth. Bettie's adventures begin when she is at a photoshoot at New York and the FBI arrive. Bettie decides that she doesn't want anything to do with them and escapes through the window in a skimpy top and hot pants (she was in the middle of a shoot after all). As she escapes she is rescued by a man who just happens to be parked at the bottom of the fire escape. He is from a group of scientists and he happens to need a new PA and Bettie fits the bill.

Bettie goes along with him and settles down in her new job but things become dicy when she starts nosing around to find out why the last PA disappeared. Bettie is convinced something happened to the PA because she left a large bottle of perfume behind in her desk draw and no right thinking woman would do such a thing.

At this point I had to stop and think about my own desk draw at work because apart from a variety of tea bags and a pair of flip flops there is nothing in my desk draw that could remotely be described as glamorous.

Bettie is kidnapped and the adventures begins in earnest and Bettie becomes a kick ass heroine and manages to solve the mystery and do more photo shoots, all without messing up her trademark fringe, blue eyes or good looks.

This volume is comprised of comics 1-4 from the series. It is amusing and there are some funny scenes and witty dialogue in this volume. Although this is not really my usual kind of comic the art was good and the character (Bettie) was certainly interesting. Bettie gets into some sticky situations, great fights and manages to hold her own, usually in very high heels.

Not sure what the real Bettie would think about this but given the fact that her life seems to have been quite dramatic for her times, she probably would have loved this.

Copy provided by Diamond Book Distributors and Dynamite Entertainment via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.