'Rocketeer' Creator, Dave Stevens Passes Away

Comic book artist,Dave Stevens, best known as the creator of 'The Rocketeer', dead at age 52.

Dear Readers,

I was very saddened to hear that 'Rocketeer' creator, Dave Stevens, passed away Monday from complications related to treatment for leukemia. He was only 52. While he drew for many publications, his greatest success came with 'The Rocketeer', a sporadically-produced comic book series, which first saw print in 1982 -- in which a 1930s-era stunt pilot fights evil after finding a rocket-powered backpack. The nostalgic adventure tales found a loyal cult following and were eventually turned into a major movie by Walt Disney Pictures in 1991. In the words of David Hoberman, former president of Walt Disney Pictures, "Disney was attracted to the story because it had "a clear heroic structure...an innocent guy stumbles on something and ends up saving the world ...and it was a world we hadn't seen before".

'The Rocketeer was just an 'average joe', who stumbled upon a high tech jet pack, that turned him into a superhero overnight.

Dave Stevens' love for the past is meticulously depicted in the period details present in every frame of the comic. The Rocketeer's aviator hero, Cliff Secord, also bears more than a passing resemblance to Stevens himself. And the character's girlfriend, Bettie, is drawn as a tribute to the woman he fantasized about all throughout his childhood, the notorious 1950s pin-up model, Bettie Page. "Bettie was a look, a standard of beauty that I spotted as an adolescent," Stevens is quoted as saying. The attention the retired Page received because of the comic helped revive interest in her. Stevens paid Page to use her likeness and helped her get paid by publishers who used her image. Stevens and Page even became close friends. "After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks.", he once said.

Dave Stevens based Cliff Secord/The Rocketeer on his own stylish image, and Secord's girl, 'Bettie', was drawn in the likeness of 1950s pin-up queen, Bettie Page.

The Rocketeer and his girl in an awkward moment

Dave Stevens was born July 29, 1955 and, from early childhood, was obsessed with vintage design, primarily art deco of the 1930s. He also had an intense fascination with old adventure movie serials (The Rocketeer is clearly influenced by Republic Pictures' 1949 'rocketman' serial, King of the Rocketmen'). In 1975, Stevens was hired to help Russ Manning draw his 'Tarzan' newspaper comic strip and soon became a popular freelance illustrator, working to create advertisements for such movies as 'Superman II'. He also drew storyboards for the 1981 film 'Raiders of the
Lost Ark'.

The Rocketeer first appeared in Starslayer #1 (February, 1982), but only for one page. The actual story began in the following April issue. After that, the character had spotty appearances in a few other books, before getting his own title. Three issues of the 'Rocketeer Adventure Magazine' were released, but over the span of seven years! Yet, even with such limited appearances, the character's appeal was enough to warrant the 1991 Disney film, starring Bill Campbell as the Rocketeer, and Jennifer Connelly as Bettie (her name was changed to Jenny in the film, to avoid legal issues). The picture was considered a box office flop at the time of its release, but it is fondly remembered by countless fans.

The reason I've devoted an entire blog post to Stevens is that I have been a life long admirer, not only of Stevens' jetpack-wearing comic character, 'The Rocketeer', but also of all his artwork in general, especially the way he drew women. Anyone familiar with Stevens' art knows that he could draw the female form like no one else! My great affection for Dave Stevens also comes from the fact that both the comic and movie versions of The Rocketeer have inspired my own filmmaking in countless ways, and were a primary influence on my acclaimed student short, 'The Scarlet Avenger'.

The very first piece of Dave Stevens artwork I came across was a cover he did for the children's adventure novel, 'Time Machine 4: Sail with Pirates'. This was 1984, and I was only 8 years old. While I was a big Indiana Jones fan at that time, I was completely unaware of Stevens' work as a storyboard artist on 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', or his 1982 comic book, 'The Rocketeer'. But, man, that 'Sail With Pirates' cover made a huge impression on me. I held onto that book for years, just because I liked the artwork so much!

The very first piece of Dave Stevens artwork I ever saw was the cover of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure'-like children's book, 'Time Machine 4: Sail With Pirates'

Some of you have perhaps read my earlier post on the making of 'The Scarlet Avenger', and might recall that one of the short's biggest influences was a 1988 video game, called 'Rocket Ranger'. It's about a scientist who finds a rocket pack and uses it to fight the Nazis during World War II. I'm sure this game was heavily inspired by Stevens' comic. At age 12, I started writing a feature-length screenplay, based on the Rocket Ranger game and worked on it for about 3 years...until the spring of 1991. I was 15 and on vacation in the Caribbean with my folks. My rest and relaxation turned to high anxiety, when I walked into a shop and saw, on the cover of a movie magazine, a still from 'The Rocketeer'! "Oh no, my rocket man movie is destroyed!", I thought. Well, even though I was very upset at the time, I saw 'The Rocketeer' in the theater that summer and loved it! I even wrote my own sequel for it. When it came out on video, I bought it right away and watched it repeatedly, committing almost all the movie's dialogue to memory. While I knew the film was based on a comic book, I had yet to read it. I wanted to check it out, but it was pretty obscure. Remember, this was in the early 1990s, in the days before the Internet really took off, before you could track down rare treasures with such tools as Amazon.com and Ebay.

Poster for Disney's big budget film version of 'The Rocketeer'.

In 1993, during the summer before my final year of high school, I got the incredible chance to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California. It was while I was strolling through the USC book store that I came across the trade paperback edition of 'The Rocketeer'. I snatched it up as quickly as I could and raced back to my dorm room to read it. It was awesome! I wasn't even that much of a comic book fan, but I fell in love with it immediately. I'd never seen comic characters that were so realistically and beautifully rendered. And I was surprised to see how much sexier the Rocketeer's girlfriend was in the comic than in the movie (Jennifer Connelly, forgive me!). I had no idea that his gal, Bettie (Jenny in the film) was based on notorious 50s pin-up queen, Bettie Paige.

Cover of the trade paperback edition of 'The Rocketeer'.

Also that summer, I took a trip to L.A.'s famous Tower Records store and found the score for the movie, which I made quick use of in one of my USC Super 8 shorts, which I shot at L.A.'s Griffith Observatory, where the climax of the Rocketeer movie takes place. Let's just say, that by 1993, 'The Rocketeer' was absorbed into my soul. It was a film that needed to be loved and spoken about, because it was such an underappreciated gem. I always knew I wanted to make a film like the Rocketeer and finally got my chance in 1997, when I shot 'The Scarlet Avenger', in my third year at York University film school. The spirit of the Rocketeer was a great influence on the tone of my film. Also, The Scarlet Avenger's nemesis, 'The Skull', was based on a villain depicted on the cover of 'Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #3'. While the grim reaper-esque villain was inspired by countless other 1930s & 40s pulp villains, as well as the serial character, 'The Crimson Ghost', Dave Stevens' depiction was my first taste of how cool a simple "skeleton in a cloak" could be!

This was the picture that inspired the character of 'The Skull' in my 'Scarlet Avenger' student film.

While 'The Rocketeer' remains one of the more obscure heroes of comics and film, as I mentioned earlier, he's got a very loyal fan base. A few years ago, a friend of mine, who was working at a video store in Sydney, Australia, said that George Lucas walked in one day with his kids and bought a few DVDs. "Which ones"?!, I asked eagerly. My friend laughed and said, "I knew you'd like to hear this...one of them was 'The Rocketeer'.

Stevens had dropped out of sight for the most part in recent years, due in large part to his battle with leukemia, which he was very private about. "What ever happened to Dave Stevens?” had become a frequent Internet message board topic. I, myself, was one of the countless fans wondering why he had basically vanished. But, it wasn't only his illness that kept him from the spotlight. He had always been a notoriously slow artist, a result of his extreme perfectionism. It is reported that he spent the last years of his life living off of commissions for the pin-up art he was so skilled at.

Stevens was very reclusive in his later years, and his perfectionism caused there to be great lag times between releases of his work. His obsession with Bettie Page became central to his art as well, as is seen in this cover for 'Bettie Page Comics'.

Dave Stevens (1955-2008)

Dave Stevens will be sorely missed. Memorial donations may be made to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation.