Dave Stevens - Father of the Rocketeer - has passed away...

Hey folks, Harry here... I'm a bit under the weather... took a big dose of Nyquil and woke up 15 hours later in a daze. It's a beautiful day outside and as I've been going through the 800 or so messages that have accumulated since I last logged in - I read a notice from a friend of mine, Michael Kaluta. He received a call from Dave Stevens' mother that Dave passed on yesterday. She said it was a blessing, as Dave had been suffering a lot of pain, due to chemo and had no prospects for it "getting better". Stevens' ink work was some of the absolute most elegant and confidently rendered art in the comic's professions. While some artists have to resort to paint, Dave's inked characters seemed to leap off the page at you. That Dave created the Rocketeer - and then populated his world with Betty Page and the creeper, Rondo Hatton - well - for vintage film geeks - his comics allowed characters to give another performance for all of us greedy enough to want them to live on. Dave also was a brilliant master of PIN UP ART. Cheesecake, good girl and bad girl poses that never dived into raunch, but titillated and thrilled. In person, Dave was a gas to be around. Talking about movies, pin-ups and specifically one of my favorite subjects... Commando Cody. We've lost a master, too early in his life. Best wishes to his family.