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One of the main factors in the resurgence of interest in 1950s glamour icon Bettie Page can easily be traced to Dave Stevens, who made her a character in his The Rocketeer comics, which started in 1982 and remain popular today. Dark Horse has made a special arrangement with the estates of both Bettie Page and Dave Stevens to create a limited-edition statue based on one of Stevens’s best Bettie Page images.
Dark Horse called on Dave’s close friend and sometime collaborator Kent Melton, a top sculptor with whom he had always hoped to do a project of this sort. Dark Horse and Melton went over Stevens’s many Bettie Page images, and the result is the most accurate representation of the pair’s many conversations on the subject.
“We have enormous respect for both Dave and Bettie, and we felt an obligation to make this piece a home run,” David Scroggy, Dark Horse’s vice president of product development, remarked. “Dave was a tough critic, especially when it came to his own work. We knew we had to satisfy him, so we were meticulous in every detail. I think we might have succeeded.”
Kent Melton observed, “Dave and I talked frequently about how female anatomy should work in sculpture. When I started to sculpt, it felt almost as if Dave were there guiding me. The piece came together quickly, almost as if we’d rehearsed it over the years.”
The statue, which will be a numbered, limited edition (quantity still to be determined), stands approximately thirteen inches from base to top, and comes prepainted and presented in deluxe packaging. Also includes an oversized certificate of authenticity reproducing the Dave Stevens illustration that inspired it.
Dark Horse has a long association with both Dave Stevens and Bettie Page, having served as one of the original publishers of The Rocketeer and produced over 150 licensed Bettie Page items.
This beautiful new statue made its premiere appearance at Toy Fair this past weekend and is scheduled for a worldwide release in August 2010, carrying a $150 price tag.
