Jet Packs and Beauty Queens
I was more than a little surprised to wake up Tuesday morning to find
that one of the very few comic book artists I had always wanted to meet
had passed away. Judging from his work, he and I had many of the same
interests and influences - classic Hollywood, the serial film genre, and pulp
paperback era characters.
Dave Stevens is probably best known for two things - his pin-up girl art,
and a (relatively) little known comic-turned-movie called the Rocketeer.
The Rocketeer, though relatively recent, is about as "pulp" as it comes - at least
in the "adventure/aviation" sense. There's a lot of the Blackhawks, and G-8 and
his flying aces, with trace amounts of The Shadow/The Phantom/Doc Savage
thrown in for good measure; though Commando Cody/the King of the Rocketmen/
Zombies of the Stratosphere are certainly the most easily identifiable influences.
Naturally with influences like that, one can see where the serial/pulp "feel" of the
Rocketeer comes into play - action oriented do-gooders, cliffhanger endings set
against the backdrop of the 1940's, often jam packed with classic Hollywood cameos.
Readers of my myspace blog will likely remember that the only mode of
transportation - perhaps only thing - that I actually covet is, indeed, a jet pack.
This is thanks largely to The Rocketeer, with a little help from Jonny Quest.
Perhaps not coincidental, Doug Wildey was the series designer on Jonny Quest,
and at one time employed Stevens, (several years after that series came to an end)
where he produced both storyboards and layouts for animation.. They struck up a close
friendship not long after, with Stevens going so far as to model the Rocketeer's mentor
"Peevy" on Doug Wildey and "Cliff Secord" - the Rocketeer- on himself.
It was a great comic, but production delays - due in no small part to Stevens' own
admitted perfectionist tendencies - resulted the book to have difficulty in
finding a large audience. Coupled with the above, the Rocketeer also suffered
a fate of many b & w comics of the early 1980s - the boom and bust of many
of the smaller publishing companies. The Rocketeer wandered from company
to company, eventually finding its permanent home with Dark Horse Comics.
Naturally, The Rocketeer soon found it's natural second home on the silver screen.
[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EJL9aVp_1jE&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EJL9aVp_1jE&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]
Steven's admits he was 70% satisfied with the finished film but was unhappy
when Disney took away much of the more mature (though never "adult) content,
preferring to merchandise the character in hopes of a family-friendly franchise.
The most notable difference was the complete re-tooling of the "Bettie" character,
based on pin-up queen Bettie Page. Disney chose to avoid the inclusion of a "real"
person for fear of lawsuit, and her history in the real world as a cheesecake model
would have certainly been a non-avoidable issue when it came to publicity.
When the early audiences response to the film was lukewarm, Disney scaled back
the marketing and the merchandise in a last ditch attempt to save what money it could.
Working on the film version caused Stevens to grow frustrated with the Disney's
treatment of the character, all but losing interest in The Rocketeer in recent years.
Dave Stevens is also noted as perhaps the single most person responsible for
the resurgence in popularity of of classic Pin-up model Bettie Page.
(At least, of those who weren't simply reproducing her classic photos)
The story goes that Stevens so oft used Bettie's likeness he tracked down her brother
and sent him a check, explaining he felt owed some of his success to the former
model. Eventually, he met Betty herself, found to be very much alive, living
not far from Stevens. They fast became friends and Dave continued to help
support Betty, often going so far as to drive her on regular errands.
Writer and longtime friend Mark Evanier has a better explanation of that
over on his blog.
Dave Stevens was 53 years old, and died after a lengthy battle with leukemia.
He'll be missed by many, myself included.
Those interested can find a lengthy interview with Dave Stevens where he discusses
his work both in comic and film (more than you might suspect) including the low down
on the film version of The Rocketeer can find it here.
Do yourself a favor . . . Next time you're in a comic shop with a decent back issue selection,
snag a couple of Rocketeer comics if you can . . . You'll be glad you did.
** Most of the art was found on Dail B for Blog, a great comic blog focusing mostly on classic comics.
More, better later . . .
- motorjed
I was more than a little surprised to wake up Tuesday morning to find
that one of the very few comic book artists I had always wanted to meet
had passed away. Judging from his work, he and I had many of the same
interests and influences - classic Hollywood, the serial film genre, and pulp
paperback era characters.
Dave Stevens is probably best known for two things - his pin-up girl art,
and a (relatively) little known comic-turned-movie called the Rocketeer.
The Rocketeer, though relatively recent, is about as "pulp" as it comes - at least
in the "adventure/aviation" sense. There's a lot of the Blackhawks, and G-8 and
his flying aces, with trace amounts of The Shadow/The Phantom/Doc Savage
thrown in for good measure; though Commando Cody/the King of the Rocketmen/
Zombies of the Stratosphere are certainly the most easily identifiable influences.
Naturally with influences like that, one can see where the serial/pulp "feel" of the
Rocketeer comes into play - action oriented do-gooders, cliffhanger endings set
against the backdrop of the 1940's, often jam packed with classic Hollywood cameos.
Readers of my myspace blog will likely remember that the only mode of
transportation - perhaps only thing - that I actually covet is, indeed, a jet pack.
This is thanks largely to The Rocketeer, with a little help from Jonny Quest.
Perhaps not coincidental, Doug Wildey was the series designer on Jonny Quest,
and at one time employed Stevens, (several years after that series came to an end)
where he produced both storyboards and layouts for animation.. They struck up a close
friendship not long after, with Stevens going so far as to model the Rocketeer's mentor
"Peevy" on Doug Wildey and "Cliff Secord" - the Rocketeer- on himself.
It was a great comic, but production delays - due in no small part to Stevens' own
admitted perfectionist tendencies - resulted the book to have difficulty in
finding a large audience. Coupled with the above, the Rocketeer also suffered
a fate of many b & w comics of the early 1980s - the boom and bust of many
of the smaller publishing companies. The Rocketeer wandered from company
to company, eventually finding its permanent home with Dark Horse Comics.
Naturally, The Rocketeer soon found it's natural second home on the silver screen.
[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EJL9aVp_1jE&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EJL9aVp_1jE&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]
Steven's admits he was 70% satisfied with the finished film but was unhappy
when Disney took away much of the more mature (though never "adult) content,
preferring to merchandise the character in hopes of a family-friendly franchise.
The most notable difference was the complete re-tooling of the "Bettie" character,
based on pin-up queen Bettie Page. Disney chose to avoid the inclusion of a "real"
person for fear of lawsuit, and her history in the real world as a cheesecake model
would have certainly been a non-avoidable issue when it came to publicity.
When the early audiences response to the film was lukewarm, Disney scaled back
the marketing and the merchandise in a last ditch attempt to save what money it could.
Working on the film version caused Stevens to grow frustrated with the Disney's
treatment of the character, all but losing interest in The Rocketeer in recent years.
Dave Stevens is also noted as perhaps the single most person responsible for
the resurgence in popularity of of classic Pin-up model Bettie Page.
(At least, of those who weren't simply reproducing her classic photos)
The story goes that Stevens so oft used Bettie's likeness he tracked down her brother
and sent him a check, explaining he felt owed some of his success to the former
model. Eventually, he met Betty herself, found to be very much alive, living
not far from Stevens. They fast became friends and Dave continued to help
support Betty, often going so far as to drive her on regular errands.
Writer and longtime friend Mark Evanier has a better explanation of that
over on his blog.
Dave Stevens was 53 years old, and died after a lengthy battle with leukemia.
He'll be missed by many, myself included.
Those interested can find a lengthy interview with Dave Stevens where he discusses
his work both in comic and film (more than you might suspect) including the low down
on the film version of The Rocketeer can find it here.
Do yourself a favor . . . Next time you're in a comic shop with a decent back issue selection,
snag a couple of Rocketeer comics if you can . . . You'll be glad you did.
** Most of the art was found on Dail B for Blog, a great comic blog focusing mostly on classic comics.
More, better later . . .
- motorjed
ferretbite:
I remember the Rocketeer so well , I even had a visual guide to the film and went to incredible lengths to get a hold of the NES video game. I sucked at it but I managed to find it. Too bad the creator of such good memories is dead.
motorjed:
Took me a while to track it down as well, that was a tough game.