Here is the complete Betsy the Bookwriter episode from Jeff Austin and myself for Jim Main‘s Main Enterprises Presents issue number 10 (2013), featuring the lovely Mala Mastroberte. In this case, it was a special episode for the full color 10th issue. It was pretty unique. I did the script and pencils, Jeff was on inks, letters, and colors.
Page 2, and Betsy becomes true-to-life, thanks to the aid of pinup model and photographer Mala Mastroberte! This was an interesting one to work on. I did the pages in rough form, gave those scans to Mala, and she provided the photos. As you can see, she makes a perfect Betsy, and she already has the part if there’s ever a Betsy the Bookwriter movie! Unintentionally, Mala’s name somehow got removed from the credits, so her help had to be acknowledged in a later episode!
On the final page of “Paget’s Island” we return to our normal artwork. I look at the dreary anatomy here and I wish we could do the strip all over. (Granted, readers never complained, but that isn’t the point.) Jeff Austin’s inks remain dazzling, regardless of my weak pencil work. The final panel actually takes a somber mood, as Betsy reflects on how her story has highlighted the darker aspects of humanity. There was no grand scheme here, it was just a scene that came to me after I realized Betsy had become so annoyed in this episode that she openly contemplated cold-blooded murder. It’s exactly the sort of thing future intellectuals will point to as some conscious commentary on the human condition. To the extent that it is, it really isn’t!
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About the author
Rock is a pencil jockey by trade. He's done work for AC Comics, Main Enterprises, and Moonstone, among others. Some of the strips he's created include Dinosaur Girl (AC Comics, creator, writer, pencils), Crissy Carrots (Main, creator, writer, pencils), and Betsy the Bookwriter (Main, co-creator, writer, pencils). His specialty is cheesecake cartooning (what they call "good girl art" these days).
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