Writer’s Commentary: Ani-Mia Discusses ‘Bettie Page: The Alien Agenda’ #3 From Dynamite Comics

This week’s exclusive Dynamite Comics’ Writer’s Commentary comes from Ani-Mia who discusses Bettie Page: The Alien Agenda #3, out now. 

[+++ WARNING: Spoiler alert! Buy and read the book, then come back here for some epic commentary on Bettie’s adventure! +++]

Here we are, the camel’s hump of the adventure. We’ve seen snakes, robot mummies and deadly booby traps in Egypt so what’s in store for our sassy, smart and stylish team? And we’re off to Greece.

Page 1:

I was so excited to take the team to Greece. I have a deep affection for the country and its history. I got to spend two weeks traveling through Greece and visiting numerous museums and ancient sites while studying Art History in college. The trip was the moment I knew that I wanted to major in Art History and was honestly a trip of a lifetime. It was nice to revisit the country through my comic.

Page 2-3:

And here is my touch of Art History. While the Disk of Phaistos is probably an agricultural record or something to that extent, it was fun to reimagine it as an ancient alien puzzle. *cue the Ancient Aliens guy* In trying to figure out which portions of the disc would activate the door, I was looking at all the symbols trying to think which ones could also be seen as something extraterrestrial. 

Page 5:

Here’s our first clue that the team is on the right track. While most people are familiar with the commonly seen Egyptian Sphinx, the Greek Sphinx seen in Greek mythology looks much different. So the fact that there is an Egyptian Sphinx in Greece is a definite sign that something fishy is going on.

Page 6:

More robots!!! You can’t have an alien adventure without lasers. Pew pew!

Page 8:

Time to brush up on some ancient Greek! Trying to think up a riddle was actually far more challenging than I thought it would be. I figured if I already knew the answer, the riddle itself would just put itself together easily but it was tricky, especially keeping in mind that it’s an ancient Sphinx speaking.

Page 10:

I love food and so does Young-ja. What better way for the characters to get to know each other than over some local cuisine? 

Page 11:

My favorite part of Sofia’s personality is her thirst for knowledge and her aim to succeed. She has goals and while she seems demure and professional on the outside, we get a glimpse of the passion inside of her.

Page 13:

I love the artwork above the door. Celor and Farah really brought the Greek story to life in this vibrant, beautiful mural.

Page 15-16:

This was a challenging puzzle to represent. I wanted to integrate an actual Greek puzzle and one that stood out to me was Zeno’s Paradox. Zeno’s Paradox are a set of philosophical problems centered around motion and travel. This particular problem is the Dichotomy paradox. For example, say you are running a race. At some point in the race, you’ve got to run past the middle of the race. Then you would run past the middle of that last half of the race. Then half from that half and so on. In effect, you’d never actually reach the end. It’s a doozy of a puzzle to wrap your head around and even more of a challenge, I’m sure, for Celor to have to depict. 

Page 20:

And we are off again to another beautiful location I’ve visited before, the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan in Mexico. I had the opportunity to be a guest at a convention in Mexico City and the convention took us on a day excursion to visit the pyramids and go to an incredible museum. I had studied Aztec art in college so it was such a treat to see some of the art I’d seen in books, right in front of my eyes.

Bettie Page: The Alien Agenda #3 is out now from Dynamite Comics