Careening Through the Sky

In his day, Dave Stevens not only revived the look of Golden Age comics, he managed to surpass it in quality at the same time. 

Yow, wotta great back cover!

Dave Stevens — Rocketeer — Starslayer #2 back cover — 1982

King Kong Kover

Back in the day, I would have bought a box of doilies if it had a Dave Stevens graphic on it. A Dave Stevens' Faye Wray rendering on a King Kong Kover was a pretty easy sell.

Dave Stevens — King Kong —1991

Multiples

I've already confessed that in the past I have been superficial and wasteful by buying some comics JUST for their covers. Back in the '80s, I would buy MULTIPLES of any comic with a Dave Stevens cover, not for investment, but just because I liked them so much! To this day, I have NEVER thought of that as being superficial or wasteful.

Dave Stevens — Mr. Monster #2 — 1985

Dave Stevens — Jonny Quest #5 — 1986

Dave Stevens — Jungle Comics #1 — 1987

Slick

I've seen several variations of this Dave Stevens image— I like this one from an Italian slick magazine with an article about comic art.

Dave Stevens — Sheena — 1985

The Gee Bee

Dave Stevens' adventurous The Rocketeer was a way cool graphic novel that took place in the way cool '30s, with way cool aviation themes, including the (last time, I promise) way cool Gee Bee Series aircraft. The Gee Bee (stands for Granville Brothers, its designer & manufacturer) was a dangerous racing plane that only the most skilled pilots could handle — perfect for an adventure series. The 1991 film of The Rocketeer opens with a test flight (and crash) of a Gee Bee (Model Z) plane.

Below are several of Stevens' panels showcasing the Gee Bee, along with a couple of photos of the real thing.

Dave Stevens is certainly missed in the world of graphic storytelling.

Above, this rendering of the Gee Bee looks a lot like Russ Heath's art style. Knowing they were buds, I wonder if there was collaboration. Perhaps not.

Above, the Gee Bee Sportster was a less lethal version of the Gee Bee planes, but was also less maneuverable and less popular among the speedsters. A version of this plane also showed up in The Rocketeer.

Golden Age Sensibiliity

Yoshitaka Amano has a golden age sensibility in his design for lithographs that is admired by legions of fans worldwide, and adapted here to a comic book cover. I wish more comics would tap on this sort of work. That might bring a some of us self-exiled geeks back to the fold of buying comics every week.

This cover's logo design was a co-creation of Todd Klein and Dave Stevens.

Selina Kyle Wayne

My favorite image of the Catwoman character, the Earth-2 Selina Kyle Wayne, rendered by Dave Stevens. Sigh. Comics would have been the better for it if only Stevens had done mainstream stories.

Besides which, I miss the original Earth-2 concept, blending from the Silver to Bronze Ages.

Princess Pam

I wasn't going to post this until a later date, but I am now for the sake of connection to the previous post regarding Bruce Jones and Dave Stevens. What a great pairing of talents. What a loss with the passing of Dave Stevens.

Princess Pam is a gorgeous 4 pages, thanks also to Joe Chiodo's colors. It's terrific that there was no violence in the story, even if the ending is sad. What's really sad is that we don't have more stories of this sort.

Friends of the Rocketeer

Above and below from the Rocketeer Album limited edition. There are some books I am glad to buy; and some, years later, that I'm really glad I bought.

Below are full-page 'pin-ups' from the 1984 Rocketeer Special Edition #1, created by some of Dave Steven's friends.

Gray Morrow

Doug Wildey

Bruce Jones

Day of the Dolphin

This is my favorite cover by J. Scott Pike. Um, um, gee I think it's the ONLY cover by J. Scott Pike. Well, at least I've never seen any others. He was the artist for the inside as well, and his style looked like maybe he was a romance artist?

Any way, lovely work...

And well, Dolphin was perfect for a Dave Stevens interpretation:

My Favorite Dave Stevens Cover

YAY! It's a three-way tie!!!

Dave Stevens—Airboy #5 Sept 1986

Dave Stevens—DNAgents #24 July 1985

Dave Stevens—Sheena 3-D Special #1 May 1985