Dave Stevens, born mere weeks before me, has died of leukemia. Dave was a comic book artist. A very good one. In fact, he was so good he was able to stop drawing comic books and instead concentrate on covers, pin-ups, and portfolios. Sadly, in his case, the good really did die young.
Stevens took an idealized vision of Bettie Page, the iconic 50’s “underwear model,” and paired her with a version of the character introduced in a 1949 Republic movie serial called King of the Rocketmen. With better art than story, and with installments sometimes years apart, Stevens had a cult hit on his hands, with a fan following that was big enough for it to be picked up by Disney and turned into a movie. Unfortunately, Disney was the wrong studio at the wrong time to make The Rocketeer, and the movie didn’t take off.
I picked the scene because it’s the very first one where he’s wearing the suit. The woman, and the guy playing the Rocketeer for that matter, appear to be well into their 40’s, which would mean they were born around 1900! I was pleased with how the video transitions came out.
I lost track of the story in the comic books, because there was so much time in between installments. I wonder if I read it all the way through now, would it make any sense? What really made the stories was having a good sequence with the Rocketeer along with, of course, a good splash page of Bettie caught in the middle of a wardrobe malfunction.
Did you pick this sequence from the serial because it seems just like the old Superman TV Show? Wow, there’s even Lois and Clark stand-ins at the start! The flying is pretty well done, considering the budget and the time period.
Farewell Dave Stevens. The Rocketeer comic series made a huge splash in the comic book world when it first appeared. Dave Stevens really burst onto the scene as a major talent. But it was sheer torture waiting for the next episode of the comic!
DID YOU KNOW? That your own twin sister can do a dead-on impersonation of La Monroe? Tom loves it, but I won’t do it in public!
The rocket pack controls were cheesy, but they have an effective simplicity that Steve Jobs could admire — on/off, up/down, fast/slow. Just don’t hit that off switch while flying!
I feel that Bettie Page had less “girl next door” appeal than her fans now claim for her. There are relatively few nude poses of Bettie, and a lot of what she did was perhaps as silly as it was sleazy, but Page’s audience was nevertheless decidedly down market from Marilyn Monroe.
Tom really enjoyed this! As a kid (remember he was born at the end of 1950), “Commando Cody” was one of his favorite shows. Even then, he knew the controls were cheesy and were made from an oven timer.
I’m really sorry to see Dave, one of our peers, die so young. Say, did you know you can go to YouTube and type in Bettie Page? If you’re a guy, you might find it “interesting.” I was too embarrassed to watch after about three seconds.