R.I.P. Bettie Page

As Eric Reynold of Fantagraphics says: "First Dave Stevens, then Forrest J. Ackerman, and now Bettie Page. 2008 has been a brutal year for some of the icons of my Southern California adolescence." (Thanks, MinTphresh)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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error404

Goodbye Bettie, you made a lot of people happy.

You’ll be missed.
edgore

I still say that as long as there are Internets, Betty will always remain with us.
Sork

#17 calsterino

“no matter from which angle the poster is viewed, the eyes of the figures (both the photographer and the model) appear to be looking at the viewer.”

That is true for every photo or artwork where the eyes are pointed at the camera/observer.
Bender

RIP Bettie Page. thanks to the internet though, you will exist in spank banks forever!
Anonymous

RIP indeed, to someone whose irrepressible smile showed the world that naughtiness is no sin.
Anonymous

@#10
You forgot Gary Gygax.
karrock

Bettie Page, your image will live on forever… RIP…

Does anyone know where that illustration comes from?
phelion

I have scheduled a tribute segment to remember Bettie at the New York Rubber Ball/Miss Rubber World next month in NYC on Jan. 18th. Without her there would be no fetish scene, so I think it’s vital that we remember our own.
error404

#12 BENDER

I think it was the cover of the comic The Bettie Pages.
Doran

Even though you know it’s coming, it’s still real sad.
Lea Hernandez

Dave was a long time friend, and I find myself happy that he and Bettie got to spend the last of their lives together.

RIP, Bettie, my good friend’s best friend.
bat21

Nice little tribute video of Bettie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Z1V11b8OI
Nword

Aw damnit.

RIP Bettie.
calsterino

It is a full page from a Rocketeer comic story by Dave Stevens. It was also reprinted as a poster. One of the interesting things about the poster is that no matter from which angle the poster is viewed, the eyes of the figures (both the photographer and the model) appear to be looking at the viewer.
Anonymous

As someone who was a young teenager in the early eighties, Dave Steven’s artwork was very influential on me and it was his work that introduced me to Bettie Page.(his rendrings of here did anumber on me during puberty!) After learning more about her life, I gained an admiration for someone daring to follow the career path that she did during those times.

This really is a sad year for these losses…
John Hudgens

It’s from “The Rocketeer”.
JenniferFolly

Waaah!
Pres

Too bad I never met you.
Now back to working on that time machine…
arkizzle

“I was never the girl next door.”

“I like being outdoors. I like to go cavorting in the nude in the forests. It is just another world. To take sunbaths in the nude.”

“It makes me feel wonderful that people still care for me… that I have so many fans among young people, who write to me and tell me I have been an inspiration.”

RIP Betty Paige
tuktuk

wow. i was just at a digital mystikz show where the projectionist was splicing footage of bettie bootydancing with the dubstep. some of us stopped flopping around and just paused to reflect on how sexy and timeless she remained after all these years.

thank you, bettie davis, for breaking the ice. my sex life owes you so much.
Anonymous

Please, God, take her in Your arms and help her waiting for us, till we can meet her again.
Alpinwolf

I reject your reality and substitute my own:

Miss Bettie Page is, in fact, immortal.

*memories*

A woman with her hairdo will always make my heart skip.

OK, have to go, getting sad now.
tuktuk

oops. that fucking kim carnes song was stuck in my head
Ed Brock

2008 continues to suck!

George Carlin, Forry Ackerman, Dave Stevens, Stan
Winston, Richard Wright, Paul Newman, Beverly Garland & now Bettie Page.

So many greats. I’ll miss them all.
absimiliard

*sigh*

Sadness.

-abs is a bit too young to have appreciated Betty when she was making the material that made her famous, in fact he wasn’t alive, but damn he’s had a crush on her ever since he found out who she is