The cult of Bettie enabled me to learn more about a part of my family history that I thought lost. I didn’t learn about my grandfather’s famous history until I was 21 and at the 1992 San Diego ComicCon. I remember the event clearly.

“Are you related to Irving Klaw?”

I stood dumbfounded. I knew the name but never expected to hear it at 21 while attending a comic book convention. Irving Klaw was my grandfather.

Irving died about 16 months before I was born. His death is the stuff of family legend.

The grey-haired man in front of me was Ray Zone. As a comic book and magazine publisher, Zone was single-handedly responsible for the 3-d boom of the late 80’s.1

“He was my grandfather. Why?”

Zone proceeded to show me examples of my grandfather’s work: Images of Bettie in black leather and leopard print bathing suits bound in a variety of positions. Some of the pics had Bettie with a whip. In some she was spread in doorways or suspended from a ceiling, bound and gagged. A few even had other women, but none had any nudity at all.

So you could say the “cult of Bettie” changed my life but not in the way most expect. I became curious and over the years and learned as much as I could abut his life and work. It’s enabled me to re-establish a relationship with my Uncle Arth. Turns out we have a lot more in common than Irving.