Dave
Stevens Gone At 52
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Right
now, his work is all out of print...find it.
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For
a real understanding of the history of Dave Stevens and of
his two most famous creations, The Rocketeer and the resurgence
of Bettie Page, it's best to go to Mark Evanier's blog, Newsfromme.com.
Of course Evanier knew the man, worked with
him for years, and was a close friend. His tribute to the
artist who passed away after a long battle with leukemia
is the one everyone should read.
Me? I just loved The Rocketeer. I thought
Dave Stevens should have been the greatest artist working
in comics -- in the 80's, when there was such a thing as
Pacific Comics, I would buy their books just because of
a Stevens cover, or if I was really lucky, an eight page
story surrounded by stuff I didn't like as much.
I have a Rocketeer t-shirt I can never wear
because of the compromising position of Bettie on it. I
still have the candy-filled Rocketeer helmet that tied in
with the Disney film, a financial failure at the time but
still in my mind one of the best ever comics to film adaptations.
Sitting down at my computer and picking
up the news on a MySpace bulletin, I'm stunned. Another
one who I figured, eh, I'll shake his hand at the next Comic-Con,
gone. And if you don't know what we're missing now, you'd
better find out.
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