Dave Stevens passed away from the effects of leukemia on March 10, 2008. He was 52 years old.
He was, along with Jaime Hernandez and Steve Rude, one of the talented newcomers to comics in the 1980s. In 1982, when he debuted his most famous creation The Rocketeer, I was in school and money was very tight. But for Stevens, I would forgo _____ (pick pretty much anything) just to be able to possess some of his amazing, cool comics.
At the time, I had no idea that the man had worked with two of my favorite names of an older school of drawing: Russ Manning and Doug Wildey. He was in lock-step with the old school technique, lovingly drawing old time planes and automobiles and gorgeous gals (natch!) in a grand, polished style for the new generation. We -- us young fans -- ate it up.
Tom Spurgeon has a wonderful biographical write up of the man and he has a mass of "collective memory" links to other salutes to Mr. Stevens, a name that will endure.
Above: oh yeah, another thing, Dave could draw these beautiful women. And he was, as you may all ready know, responsible for revival of interest in Bettie Page.
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