Dave Lee Stevens (July 29, 1955 – March 11, 2008) was an American illustrator and comics artist. He was most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page. He was the first to win Comic-Con International's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award in 1982, and received both an Inkpot Award and the Kirby Award for Best Graphic Album in 1986.
Early life
Stevens was born July 29, 1955, in Lynwood, California, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. His family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College for two years, and attended the then-new annual San Diego Comic-Con (now Comic-Con International).
Career
Early work
Stevens's first professional comic work was inking Russ Manning's pencils for the Tarzan newspaper comic strip and two European Tarzan graphic novels in 1975; he later assisted Manning on the Star Wars newspaper strip.
He began doing occasional comic book work, including providing illustrations for fanzines (inking drawings by comic book veteran Jack Kirby among them), as well as creating the Aurora feature for Japan's Sanrio Publishing.
Starting in 1977, he drew storyboards for Hanna-Barbera's animated TV shows, including Super Friends and The Godzilla Power Hour, where he worked with comics and animation veteran Doug Wildey. Stevens was widely recognized, along with artists such as Steve Rude and Jaime Hernandez, as one of the finest comic book artists of his generation. The character was then continued in the Rocketeer Adventure Magazine, with two issues being published in 1988 and then 1989 by Comico Comics; a third and final issue was published six years later in 1995 by Dark Horse Comics. Stevens's extensive background research and meticulous approach to his illustrations contributed to the long delays between Rocketeer issues. The book finally appeared in December of that year in two separate states: a trade hardcover edition with full color dust jacket and a second, more lavish, deluxe hardcover edition () of 3,000 copies. The deluxe edition sold out almost immediately upon publication, and IDW announced a second printing.
In 2011, IDW launched an all-new Rocketeer comic book series, illustrated by various artists, called Rocketeer Adventures.
Other work
Stevens began developing a Rocketeer theatrical film proposal in 1985 and then sold the rights to his character to the Walt Disney Company. After the release of Batman, movie studios rushed to produce similar properties that had not yet been fully greenlit. During this time, Stevens created costume illustrations for The Flash television series which built by Stan Winston Studios. That same year, principal photography commenced on The Rocketeer and the film was released in 1991. It was directed by Joe Johnston and starred Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin and Timothy Dalton. Stevens was a hands-on co-producer of the film. Many of his illustrations were in the "good girl art" genre. He also returned to art school to study painting.
Before his death in 2008 from hairy cell leukemia, Stevens was working on a career retrospective collection of his work with editors Arnie and Cathy Fenner titled Brush with Passion – The Life and Art of Dave Stevens. The book was published the same year in a regular hardcover, as well a deluxe slipcased hardcover edition. In addition, very limited signed and leather-bound proof copies were also published, all from Underwood Books.
Personal life and death
In 1980, Stevens married longtime girlfriend Charlene Brinkman, later known as horror film scream queen Brinke Stevens; their marriage ended in divorce just six months later, though she later modeled for Stevens.
Following several years of struggling with uncommon hairy cell leukemia, which caused a gradual reduction in his artistic output, Stevens died on March 11, 2008, in Turlock, California.
Legacy
Stevens's work has had a significant influence on comic book and fantasy illustrators,
frame|right|Idealized image of [[Bettie Page from the October 1986 back cover of Glamour International]]
Artist Laura Molina, with whom Stevens had a romantic relationship in the late 1970s, used him as the subject of her controversial Naked Dave series of paintings.
On November 3, 2022, Samuel Goldwyn Films announced they acquired distribution rights to the feature-length documentary Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection.
Quotes
"Dave had more artistic integrity than anyone I've ever known. He always marched to his own drummer whether it benefited him financially or not. He turned down many lucrative job offers—including a monthly pin-up assignment for Playboy offered by Hugh Hefner as a replacement for their regular Alberto Vargas feature—when they didn't jibe with his own highly personal vision of what he should be doing. As a businessman, Dave often drove his close friends nuts. We'd watch in astonishment at the riches passing him by." – William Stout