Dave Stevens, R.I.P.

Dave Stevens passed away at age 52. Mark Evanier has some personal and professional details of his life. Other than his entertaining feature "The Rocketeer" he was best known as a cover/pin-up artist, specializing in the sexy glamour stuff, as you can see in many of the covers above, but as you can see from some of the others he had a good range, including a few nice JONNY QUEST covers and a few nice pieces inking Jack Kirby, like the VIKING HEROES cover up there.

He was quite a talent, and it's a shame that there's so little comic book work by him. For those interested in his work, COMIC BOOK ARTIST #15 is highly recommended. The interview from that issue can be seen here, but there's a lot of great art in the actual magazine.

Here are a few examples of his interior artwork:







The first from QUACK #1, 1976, story by Mark Evanier, layouts and character designs by Scott Shaw and pencils and inks by Stevens.

Quite different from what he was doing soon, like that page from ALIEN WORLDS #2 (published in 1983, but drawn in 1977), scripted by Bruce Jones.

And of course the Rocketeer from PACIFIC PRESENTS #2, featuring Peevy (based on Doug Wildey).