It's been more than two years since the world lost a great talent in Dave Stevens and some of us lost that plus a good friend. As I wrote at the time, Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life…and was certainly among the most gifted.
It is in no way surprising that his work is still with us…still being reprinted, as he hoped it would always be. I am delighted to report that the folks at IDW Publishing have just come out with an amazing limited-edition book that is a "must" for any fan of Dave's artistry. It's a 12" by 17" hardcover that reprints every single page that Dave did of his splendid work, The Rocketeer. What's more, all seven covers and all but two of the 119 interior pages have been scanned at high-resolution right off the original black-and-white line art. You see all of Dave's smudges and pasteovers and stray pencil markings. (There's at least one lettering correction in there that I did for him but I'll be darned if I can find it…)
No, you don't get to see the pages in color but there are other places you can buy that. Only in this handsome volume do you get to see exactly what Dave drew, reproduced at the size he originally drew it. It gives you some sense of his painstaking, agonized devotion to detail. Some of us wrote a lot after Dave's passing about how intense he was about getting every inch of every panel right…but nothing any of us could say would help you understand that as well as getting up-close-and-personal with his raw, unfiltered brush lines.
The book will set you back $100 and when you see it, you'll be glad you spent the money. I also recommend that if you want a copy, you order it now. By that I don't mean next week. I mean right this second. At this link, you can purchase one and either arrange to have it shipped to you or arrange to pick it up in person at the Comic-Con in San Diego this month. (That's right, folks. It's this month!) This book will sell out and it will sell out soon. Get one while you can. Scott Dunbier, who put it all together, did an extraordinary job.