March
11 'Rocketeer' creator Stevens dies

Dave Stevens, the writer and artist who is best known for creating "The Rocketeer," has died after a battle with leukemia. He was 52.

As usual, Mark Evanier has all the details on Stevens' life and art at his blog, including info on Stevens' work in animation. Stevens' page at the IMDB shows few film credits, but  the projects Stevens worked out were some of the most influential of their times, including Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The movie version of "The Rocketeer," made by Disney, never made as big a splash as other comicbook pics despite being a well-reviewed film with good performances by Billy Campbell and young Jennifer Connolly. Having recently caught a bit of the 1991 film a few weeks back, it holds up quite well as an updated version of the pulpy 1930s action-adventure stories that inspired Stevens.

Stevens also was a prominent "good girl" artist, whose pinup illustrations of Bettie Page played a big role in maintaining her legend.