Dave Stevens

Yesterday, horror comic writer Steve Niles sent out a very sad bulletin on MySpace, reporting that writer/artist Dave Stevens had died on Monday.

Stevens is probably best known as the creator of The Rocketeer, the irregularly published 1980s comic book (set in the 1930s and very much an homage to that era's serials and pulp novels) that nonetheless garnered enough of a following to merit a big-budget motion picture adaptation, which tanked at the box office even though it was actually pretty good. Stevens also produced a lot of "good girl" art; many of his scantily clad ladies graced pinups and covers of books, magazines and comics over the years.

I'll always remember Stevens for his contribution to the revival of interest in '50s pinup queen Bettie Page. Stevens used Bettie face for the hero's girlfriend in The Rocketeer (though her figure was provided by Stevens' ex-wife, B-movie actress Brinke Stevens), thus fueling widespread interest in photos of the real Bettie--including interest from me.

There are now four pictures of Bettie hanging in La Casa del Terror's hallway, along with a small, as-yet-unpainted statue of Bettie sitting on a shelf in the living room. The artist of that sculpture? Dave Stevens.

Dave Stevens died of congestive heart failure after a long fight with leukemia. He was only 52 years old.