Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Rocketeer Flies No More?


The news is early yet, and HAS NOT been confirmed by standard news sources, but it appears that Dave Stevens, the creator of The Rocketeer and the artist responsible for reinvigorating interest in Betty Page is dead.

More as this develops, but if it is confirmed it will be a sad, sad day here at the Pulp Headquarters.

Edit to add: Heidi MacDonald at The Beat confirms the story.

More on this later as I gather together all my memories of Dave's work, and the sorts of things that influenced the both of us.

Damn.

Update: Mark Evanier adds his remembrances of Dave.

1 comment:

Good Dog said...

Oh, [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted]! That really sucks.

Loved the man's art from the first moment I saw it and Rocketeer was just the best in comic book form and on screen.

If ever I've had a lousy day and want to cheer myself up, that's the DVD that goes in the machine.

There are so many marvelous scenes, whether it's Eddie Valentine and Wolinski exchanging a glance as they machine gun the stormtroopers, Cliff striking a wonderful iconic pose before taking off for the airship. Or the scene that leads Howard Hughes to exclaim, "Son of a bitch will fly!"

Perfect.