'Rocketeer Adventures' miniseries prepares for lift-off

'Rocketeer Adventures' miniseries prepares for lift-off 

For fans of pulp comics The Rocketeer is a familiar and worthy addition to the genre and its illustrator, the late Dave Stevens, a highly regarded artist and writer who is much missed.

Unlike The Shadow, The Phantom, Doc Savage, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon The Rocketeer came in late to the pulp fiction party, having been created by Stevens in 1982.  However with its great 1930s setting and proper pulp feel to the stories (heavily influenced by the Rocketmen serials of the 1950s, which I've mentioned previously, as well as pin-up models of the time such as Bettie Page, the likes of whom Stevens enjoyed drawing too) it quickly earned its place in the pantheon of comic book superheroes.

I love the 1930s Art Deco vibe that Stevens was able to capture so well; the stories are classic examples of good old-fashioned derring-do, there's a pretty girl, dastardly villains and plenty of flying both with and without aeroplanes.  For me, the Rocketeer has everything!



Rocketeer stories continued to appear throughout the remainder of the 1980s and 1990s and even led to a live-action Disney feature film in 1991 (which I have also mentioned previously is one of my all-time favourite films).  Sadly the film was not a great success and no further Rocketeeer stories were produced after 1995.  Even more tragically Dave Stevens died from leukemia in 2008, seemingly putting paid to any new Rocketeer adventures.

It was with great delight, therefore, when I heard recently that the copyright holder IDW Publishing had approached several of Dave Stevens' peers with the view of having them pen some new stories, illustrated in a style sympathetic to Stevens' original artwork.

A new series of 1930s-style comic book adventures seems almost too good to be true, but this article confirms it - soon there will be more exciting adventures of the Rocketeer to thrill and amaze us.  I can hardly wait!