Michael Gilman: In January, Dark Horse is releasing your new book, Bettie Page Comics: Spicy Adventure. What's going on here?
Jim Silke: Bettie is abducted from the streets of New York in 1951 and carried off to a jungle planet in the 25th century where the artifacts of earth from the 1930s to '50s are the most valued items on the planet -- the top item being Bettie Page. A 4" x 5" glossy of her is worth tons of money and Bettie herself, as you might expect, is considered to be a goddess. She's wanted by everyone.
Gilman: In Rascals in Paradise, many of your characters were based on real people: yourself, Sam Peckinpah, Claudia Cardinale, and Brigitte Bardot. Is this a practice you've continued in Bettie PageComics: Spicy Adventure?
Silke: Yes, I've put Sabu in this.
Gilman: What's his claim to fame?
Silke: Sabu was a child elephant driver that the Korda brothers found in India in the '30s. They made a semi-documentary using him called Elephant Boy. He was as charming a kid as you could get, so they put him in a film called Drums -- which is a story of the Northwest Frontier in India. Then they made a film called The Thief of Baghdad -- one of the classic films of all time -- with Sabu as a little boy called Abu. That, of course, is his name in Spicy Adventure. He's the one who finds Bettie and wants her for his own personal slave; you can't be a man on the jungle planet without a slave... of course he's in love with her like everyone else.
Gilman: Will there be anyone else we'd be familiar with showing up?
Silke: SoJin -- "the yellow peril" in many a classic silent film -- also has a bit part. He's great! And there's a guy who looks like me in it but it's my evil side -- a white slaver. He's a real nasty guy called Larry "the Horse" Pogue.
Gilman: Why do you use famous people as the models for many of your characters?
Silke: Well, my thinking is when I create a character it's a matter of casting. Each character has a specific feel, and I'll go through several different people until I get the one that seems to ring true, both in appearance and attitude.
Gilman: How did Spicy Adventure come about?
Silke: That's a long story. I've been drawing Bettie since she first appeared in 1951 -- I was just an art student then. Much later, when Dave Stevens put her in The Rocketeer, it pissed me off because I should have thought of it. But somehow I didn't because I'm an old fart and you don't think this trashy pin-up model -- that's how the world I grew up in perceived her -- should be the subject of a story. Well, it made perfect sense, and that's when I started working on comics again. Then, when Dave planned on doing Bettie Page Comics, I told him that I'd like to do one. He agreed and helped with the story -- that was how Spicy Adventure was born. It was his idea to make the little boy in it Sabu, and he also provided an ending. When Dave got around to doing Bettie Page Comics at Dark Horse, he had too much material for what they had planned on for the first issue so Mike Richardson wanted me to do Spicy Adventure on my own. So that's what we're doing.
Gilman: You also did the Bettie Page: Queen of Hearts coffee-table book for Dark Horse. Has Bettie always held a certain fascination for you?
Silke: Yes... and I think I began drawing her because of that fascination. That book is really about drawing and Bettie Page and the relationship between the two. It's an interesting read... I received a chap book called Boffo Stuff from Tony Arnold, a famous American poet. On the first page he's taken my quote from Bettie Page: Queen of Hearts to describe what "boffo" is -- which is essentially my philosophy, aesthetics, and so forth. So I know I'm reaching some people with my work.
Gilman: Does that mean we'll be seeing more Bettie Page material from you?
Silke: I've just published my Bettie Page Femme Fatales Prints, a limited series available from Bud Plant, and they'll be featured in Spicy Adventure as pin-up pages. From there I don't know... maybe we'll continue with Spicy Adventure if it goes well.
Gilman: Did you ever meet or photograph Bettie Page?
Silke: No, I wanted to hire her for an album cover photo in '57 at Capitol Records, but it was way too expensive to fly a model out of New York to Hollywood in those days.
Gilman: What about more Rascals in Paradise? In the collected edition there were a number of sketchbook pages that referenced a fourth book in the series. Is this still on?
Silke: Absolutely! It's in progress. This time around I'll be producing issues 4, 5, and 6. Number 4 is drawn and is in the process of being put into finished paintings... I have to finish all three before they'll set a publication date. I hope it won't take as long as the first three.
Gilman: Your art and comic books are obviously heavily influenced by glamour photography. You have a solid background in that field, correct?
Silke: Yes. At Capitol I was directing what was essentially glamour photography for the album covers. Then when I published Cinema in 1962, I ended up doing a lot of the photography myself, photographing primarily starlets -- young actresses. I always somehow ended up in the glamour end.
Gilman: In your time you've mastered a lot of different occupations in the entertainment industry... what made you get into comics?
Silke: I grew up on the Sunday Funnies and Milton Caniff -- he was my biggest influence. And EC Comics -- I'm really a throwback to that generation. I'm just fulfilling a dream I've had since I was 8 years old. Through the years I've always been drawing off-and-on -- in fact, when I was at Capitol Records I was working on a newspaper strip. But when I saw Dave's The Rocketeer I realized what was going on in the comics industry with all the small publishers, and that it might be possible for me to do a book. One day while I was having dinner with Dave, he told me Rascals would be an easy sell. So I took it to Mike Richardson at the San Diego Comic Con about five or six years ago and he said, "Yeah, I'll publish anything you do."
Gilman: Speaking of your early days as an artist, you mentioned in your essay in Rascals in Paradise that you were initially a horrendous artist, especially when it came to drawing females... I see you got over that.
Silke: Oh yeah... that's when I first went to art school. It took me a long, long time to learn to draw women. A lot of artists say the same thing... Caniff and Roy Crane both said that it took them a long time to get the women right. They used to copy certain artists they liked in order to draw believable, good-looking women. Drawing itself is not something that came that easy to me. A lot of these young guys draw better than I do, I've just worked at it longer than they have.
Gilman: As someone who's worked in many media, how does comics measure up for you?
Silke: I love it. Sometimes talented people get into just displaying their talent or showing off with it and don't really end up doing what they are passionate about. I've had the good fortune to do something that I really love.