BETTIE PAGE (VOL. 6) #3, from Dynamite Comics on 8/16/23, finds Lisa Cosmi (Bettie Page’s double), Bettie Page, and friends looking for Lisa’s lost love while the rival mobster families hire thugs and hitmen to put an end to the romance.
The Details
- Written by: Mirka Andolfo, Luca Blengino
- Art by: Elisa Ferrari, Mara Angelilli, Tommaso Ronda
- Colors by: Mauro Gulma, Francesca Vivaldi
- Letters by: Jeff Eckleberry
- Cover art by: Joseph Michael Linsner (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Teen+
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: August 16, 2023
Is It Good?
BETTIE PAGE (VOL. 6) #3 lens heavily into the comedy of errors in Mirka Andolfo and Luca Blengino’s script, when Bettie and the gang work their way through a network of informants, petty criminals, and ne’er-do-wells to find Paolo. Andolfo and Blenino deliver an amusing stream of hijinks for a chapter that draws positive inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
When last we left Bettie and her friends, they figured out Bettie’s unrelated twin is the daughter of a mob family who fell in love with the son of a rival family while she was filming a part in Vitellini’s film. When the love affair was discovered, Vitellini helped Lisa Cosmi o into hiding and hired Bettie to take her place. Now, Bettie and Lisa work together to find Paolo and get out of the country before they’re both captured by their respective families. However, Paolo is missing, and the group hops from one terminal to the next to find Paolo before it’s too late.
What’s great about this comic? Andolfo and Blengino’s scritp excels on two fronts. First, the premise acts as a fresh twist on the Romeo & Juliet story, with a bit of The Man In The Iron Mask thrown in for good measure. That combination of classical stories is tailor-made for crisscrossed misunderstandings and comedy of errors.
Second, Andolfo and Blengino’s setup hits the right tone and vibe for a classic Golden Age Hollywood film. European locations, snappy dialog, humor, romance, and danger abound.
What’s not so great about this comic? When Bettie and her friends hop from one petty criminal to the next and one location to the next, the story’s pacing begins to drag with a feeling of repetition. The story doesn’t drag to a crawl, but the cycle becomes tedious after a point. The plot would have benefited by breaking up the cycle or shortening it.
How’s the art? For the style of the characters, the time period, the locations, and the tone of the story, the art is perfect. As you can see from the credits, a small team of artists worked on this issue, so credit goes to the team as a whole. The look and feel have a distinctly Euro-comic strip vibe, which matches the context of the story beautifully, and the cartoonish figure work adds to the lightheartedness of the scenario to complement the script well.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our BETTIE PAGE (VOL. 6) #2 review to learn about Lisa Cosmi’s tragic story.
We begin with Bettie Page, Lisa Cosmi (in disguise), and their friends searching the streets for Paolo, Lisa’s love. Paolo never left an address for his timeout, but he left a picture with a clear landmark Ben recognized immediately.
What follows is a scavenger hunt of European proportions as the group finds one clue after another at each stop on Paolo’s trail. Finally, the trail ends at a thief’s hideout where Paolo was hired to crack a stolen safe purported to contain Nazi gold left over from the occupation.
We conclude the issue with a kidnapping, a surrender, and a sniper.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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BETTIE PAGE (VOL. 6) #3 brings Bettie Page and Lisa Cosmi closer to reuniting the unlikely love birds or playing out a Shakespearean tragedy with a lighthearted, amusing comedy of mobster hijinks. The story and tone capture the best of Golden Age Hollywood films, and the art is a perfect complement to the story.
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