ROCKETEER! Dave Stevens Masterpiece! Sharp as a Needle!
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- Опубліковано 19 лют 2022
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The "GF" is George Freeman, Canadian comic book artist who got his start on Captain Canuck. He's also done some work for DC and American independents. He drew a story in Batman Annual #11, written by Alan Moore.
Also, GF had a 4 issue Marvel Mini Series: The Jack of Hearts!
I think Freeman also drew a backup story (Hulk?) in an early issue of Marvel Fanfare.
Dave signed all of my copies when these came out. His art was beautiful! He was a great guy too! We became friends over the years at conventions and he is missed to this day!
Funny Dave Stevens drew himself as the hero, like Frazetta did with Johnny Comet.
The Rocketeer film was (is) one of my favorite movies of all time and around the time idw did the complete collection I got inspired to try collecting individual issues. Rocketeer fans are rabid, but it’s still a character that flies enough below the radar that I managed to get most issues for a couple bucks a piece in good shape. Love Dave Stevens work and this books is the reason I love pulp serials and characters like the shadow, the phantom, and the spirit.
I haven’t met another rocketeer person out in the real world but I know we’re out there. Excited to see your comment.
The one thing I spent too much money on (with no regrets) was a copy of the Dave stevens book Brush With Passion that came in a rocketeer slipcase. The last few years have seen a crazy amount of figure releases, too, which has been delightful. Got a small display of a bunch of rocketeers.
I remember reading a story one time from a acquaintance of Dave's talking about how he would take weeks on a drawing, to get the leg of a bulldog just right, and just how meticulous he was. If you can get your hands on a copy of Brush with Passion, about Stevens' life it's a fascinating read.
Bruce Timm worked with him, in some studio, and he said a 'slower brush' you wouldn't see in the industry. Stevens could spend weeks, or months, on a page-then toss it in the bin, and start over.
He was an absolute perfectionist.
The late great Al Williamson is on the record as being a huge fan of serials like "King of The Rocketmen", "Zombies from The Stratosphere " and "Commander Cody" all of which had a hero who wore a rocket pack.
George Freeman is one of the most underrated comic book artist of all time.
The two Doc Savage aides who show up are Monk, the muscle, and Ham, the sophisticated one.
Subs are now happening real fast. almost 60000!!! I remember hawking subs for them at 200 and less.
Yeah, those characters at 34:15 are part of Doc Savage's "Fabulous Five." I always loved how Stevens would fold in pulp fiction references (not explicitly stated...lest he flaunt copyright) to the storyline. As a HUGE fan of the movie, I understood why they shifted the pack's invention to Howard Hughes, but....It would've been so cool if we even got a suggestion that it was a Clark Savage brainstorm.
There is a really nice hardcover of this with over a hundred pages of extra art.
It also has the second story in it.
Dave Stevens is one of my all time favorite artists... so happy that you got a chance to cover some of his artwork! I was fortunate enough to meet Dave back in 2002. My writer friend had a table for Dallas Comic Con and I was suppose to be there helping out (since I was the artist for his book). I missed the first day and when i showed up the next day. I saw Dave Stevens walking and then he turned and walked over to me. He started chatting with me and asked where I was the previous day. I told him him i had to work (I had a retail job) and Dave said "Naw man, this is the real work" (him talking about being at the comic convention). Dave was absolutely right. Dave was so chill and cool. RIP Dave Stevens.
In the William Stout pin-up, The Rocketeer is standing on one end of the roof of the Mann's Chinese Theatre (now the Grauman's Chinese Theatre/TCL Chinese Theatre) in Hollywood.
I love Dave Stevens!!! Do you have the artist edition?
holy shit i was just going to ask for a rocketeer episode hahahaha much love my guys 🤙
How about a feature on Mike Grell's Warlord?
I met Dave Stevens maybe dozens of times. He was good friends with the owner of the LCS I went to, Freedonia Funnyworks, in Orange, CA. One of the employees there, Nichole, wanted Dave to draw her and her boyfriends as a present for her boyfriend, which became the cover for 'True Love'. Dave was there often and frequently brought stuff to sell, I bought a rare test print of one of his Rocketeer books by Graphitti Press. In the '90s I was photographing Dita Von Teese who at first people were calling the new Bettie Page and she became good friends with Bettie. and I understand Dave was a big fan of hers. I never picture Dave with the facial hair because when I first met him he hadn't grown it yet.
Oh, and met Ken Marcus a few times, We were both glamour photographers but I was mostly doing vintage pinup and old style Hollywood glamour, like George Hurrell, and he got into vintage later. He shot a lot of genres from fetish to you name it. He studied under Edward Weston and his son Cole Weston, as did one of my photo instructors in college. I got a big laugh out of the panel where you see him standing behind a 4x5 camera, because he shot 4x5 a lot back then. He worked with one of my best friends who was a model, Arban.
Next door to Freedonia Funnyworks was the office and store front of Carl Macek who brought the Japanese anime Macross to the US, dubbed into English and packaged as Robotech. I'd go over there and hang out with Carl for a bit and chat. I'd known him from way before Robotech back when a group of anime fans had tapes flown over by courier from Japan with that weeks latest anime, still in Japanese, no subtitles back then and none of us spoke Japanese but occasionally someone was invited who did and we'd stop and go the tape every few seconds for them to try and translate.
I was lucky to see a lot of artists back then and had some 11x14 pencil sketches done by Michael Golden, a bunch of X-Men ink sketches done by Brent Anderson (he even wrote a letter telling me he was especially proud of the Kitty Pryde Juggernaut shadow piece, Lockheed is in it too), and some George Perez and Mike Zeck Punisher (11x14). These were all back in '82 and '84.
I got to hang out for an entire evening with Michael Golden and some of his friends. At the time MG was my favorite artist.
I love the Pacific Comics / First Comics / early days of creator-owned creations... any behind the scenes info on IF Dave Steven's OWNED Rocketeer outright, like Howard Chaykin owned American Flagg?
10:13 The overhead of Cliff's desk foreshadows the side view of The Rocketeer's helmet: eye, mouth grill, vent.
I bought them all when they hit the stands. Worth the wait every time!
Interesting that you focused so much on the color- I was following you guys along with my Eclipse trade of the first story, and most of it has been completely recolored from what you were looking at. Only the last chapter looks the same. It was interesting comparing the different choices made there! One of the best looking comics either way!
I knew Dave stevens. He gave me some original sketches never seen. He used liquid color tubes for coloring. I used to watch him draw. Never used markers. Laura Martin was his colorist later on.
The Bulldog building shows up in The Maxx too. I think it's Mr. Gone's HQ
Peevy was based on his friend who had that same plane. Dave, and I learned from the same mentor at San Diego Community College named Mr. Adams.
remember he was married to scream queen brinke stevens who modeled for him as well
Those airplanes were works of art. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is at the end when the Howard Hughes character gives him that new plane. Beautiful
I was thinking the other day that I would love to see you guys cover Dave Stevens!
Thank you and can't wait to dive in!
🤘🤘🤘
34:16 Those are Ham and Monk, the two most popular associates of Doc Savage.
Indeed!
Dave was 'taken to task' by aviation fans of the Gee Bee's (Granvill brothers) race planes from the early 1930's.
Great episode guys. I like the fact that your comic book channel actually shows comic books as opposed to plastic slabs. I was an arrogant Disney snob when the movie came out, so I never saw it in the theatre. Caught it years later on cable. Figured it was based on a comic or graphic novel, so I went down to my local shop to see if I could find the original source material. Was surprised when I was handed a copy of Starslayer #2. Was also captivated by Stevens' artwork, so I began a quest to hunt down all of the Rocketeer issues. By the way, if you are ever in the Los Angeles area, check out the Idle Hour pub in North Hollywood. Something very cool inside.
Great video as always Ed and Jim! I was obsessed with drawing the Rocketeer as a kid.
that rocketeer helmet is truly a bitch to draw i have drawn it several times, it is never easy
I posted my previous comment in the beginning, but now I see the Grafton colors are totally different and also there’s a lot of new art, pages.
Stevens was a perfectionist when it came to period from the planes & cars and even the language
The second part ( NY adventures) took so long because he wouldn't put a 1939 car in a 1938 story
Is wasn't so easy in the days before Google
Just seeing this now because only recently I got my hands at a Grafton edition from 91. I don’t know if it’s the same colors but they are credited to Joe Chiodo with assists from Bruce Timm, Brent Anderson, Scott Saavedra and Jennifer Frank. Also worth notice Jaime Hernandez on art assistance.
Supposedly Betty's striped top was a Frazetta swipe. Also, as most know, Bulldogs played a big part of Dave's life. I was thrilled to find out why when I ready BRUSH WITH PASSION. I got to meet Dave once. I bought a print from him and he asked if he should make it out to "Ted". I couldn't figure out what he was asking, until I recalled I was using a pal's badge. ;)
I knew him back in the day. It was so refreshing to know an artist who worked even slower than me!👍🏽
That bulldog was an actual Cafe in Los Angeles, California 💫
Jim, watch the dame movie! The diner did exist at Disney world. Saw it after the movie was out.
I still have that Rocketeer t-shirt 😅🍑🚀
I hope you guys get your hands on the Artist's Edition of it. Cheers!
That pose at the top of Chapt. 2 at 14:28 looks to be the influence for the movie poster. I used to have that advance one sheet framed.... lost to the ages.
Great video! I bought the "Complete Adventures" hardback book about 5 or 6 years ago and followed along with you guys as you discussed it. I would recommend checking out the Complete Collection book. I noticed there are a lot of details that get lost in printing in the original versions. There are also extra pages by Dave Stevens inserted here and there and some pages had half the page redone. Also the whole book is completely recolored digitally which normally I don't like but I think they did a great job in this case. It's easily one of my favorite books that I own.
33:21
She's a beaut
One of my heroes for certain. Im a big Jim Silke fan as well. Anything with Gretchen Moll (Betty Page) is a must have for me.
Id say Budd Root picked up the ball from Stevens for sure.
The blend of high detail, reference on anatomy and folds, and lightly bigfoot style is also found in Frazetta's comic work. Look at Frazetta, then you see him all through Stevens.
That infamous Bettie Page shirt with the vertical lines on it, was almost a direct lift from panels of the Jean Fargo character in Frazetta's JOHNNY COMET.. The "GF" pinup is George Freeman..
Just ordered the X-Men Omni!
Some of the Female love interest life drawing was likely from Stevens' ex-wife Brinke Stevens, the B-Horror movie Scream Queen.
32:00 I've never read the comic but can really recommend the film, and as soon as the dog restaurant showed I was like yeah that's in the movie.
Bettie’s outfit with the striped top was swiped from a character in Frazetta’s Johnny Comet comic.
I have an IDW trade paperback collecting the entire run. It's completely recolored, but the colors are beautiful in this edition.
Great video analysis guys - thanks from s huge Rocketeer fan. PS watch the movie you won't be disappointed!
The movie is definitely worth a look. There are differences (from what I can tell by these pages). For instance, the girlfriend doesn't take "art photos".
The movie’s solid despite the heavy Disney-fied Betty. This is one of the comics I kept obsessively buying.
thats graumans chinese theater on hollywood blvd in the wm stout pinup
"Take your prenatal vitamins." I love this channel.
It's George Freeman
Please do the artist edition
👍🏻👍🏻
Goofballs? Dude! 1930's, apish guy and fancy dressed guy? That has to be Monk Mayfair, which makes this a Doc Savage reference and hopefully actual cameo. Very cool! Man I loved that character (still do). The pulp novels were in reprint as paperbacks (maybe with new ones?), he was in his own comic series (even teamed-up with Spiderman and the Thing, sort of) and had that sadly underappreciated live action movie with Tarzan/white-haired parallel Earth Kal-El actor as Savage. What a shame the Rocketeer Movie didn't have this cameo. And it would've been perfect. I remember thinking at the time that it and the Shadow movie were perfect franchises to crossover. And since the Shadow is the Batman to Savage's Superman, even better. Cool, just spotted the Shadow! I've got to check these out!
Stevens managed to include Doc Savage, Doc’s companions Monk and Ham, the Shadow, and allude to Howard Hughes without lawsuits. Pretty cool.
I bought these when they came out. Mike Kaluta was *instrumental* in getting these stories finished.
In the 80s, Marvel (The Evil Empire) attempted to sue Stevens because a minor character was named the Rocketeer and published before Stevens’ work. Stevens said he would rather starve than work for Marvel. Marvel is truly an awful company and has been an awful company for a long time. You only need to look how they treated the original art issue with their creators to figure it out.
Stevens also called Disney saccharine. I guess he didn’t mind since they made his movie.
One of the great moments in comics writing: In chapter 4, Cliff calls up Betty for a date. "I'd love to, Cliff, but I'm...going to be tied up this afternoon."
GW in the pin-up section is George Freeman.
the bulldog cafe was built 1928 in los angeles
There's a replica in the Petersen Car Museum in L.A.
GF=George Freeman
If you haven't seen the movie then you're doing yourself a disservice, especially if you enjoy this art and settings, even if you only enjoy the extras.
ham and monk from doc savage
I love your channel, but my financial well-being varies. I would love to shoot you guys over some money via Paypal when I am able. I do that for some animal rescue channels.