Covers & Stories

by Dave Stevens

Dave Stevens was renowned for his work on The Rocketeer, the beloved comic that introduced the world to Cliff Secord and his incredible rocket pack. But Stevens was also one of the most sought-after and accomplished cover artists in comics. This collection will provide a comprehensive gallery of Dave's covers, with many of them scanned from the original art. Additionally, there will be cover roughs to accompany many of the covers. Finally, all of Dave's non-Rocketeer comic work will be presented, including incomplete and unpublished stories.

Genres: Comics, Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 2012

About the author

Dave Lee Stevenswas an American illustrator and comics artist. He is 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.
Contents

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once in a while those old adages prove to be true. Don't judge a book by it's cover. The cover for this book is truly a spectacular work of art.

Dave Steven's work is splendid and there is much here to be appreciated.

However, the price of the book is fifty bucks, and the publishers have really messed up.

Many of the examples of art work cover two pages, yet they should have been fold out pages for this level of book. It's a travesty that IDW chose to insert so much of the splendid artwork into the crease between pages taking away from their beauty. And sadly many of the covers presented are in their uncolored state taking away from their splendor.

On the good side, some of the pages are fold out, there is a great quantity of Mr. Stevens work presented here for the first time that I have ever seen it. So Kudo's for that.

So beware and be aware, don't just by the book without looking at it and paging through it first.

I am disappointed with the publisher, not the artist.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A geat coffee-table book for lovers of Dave Steven's art.

[MB Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Dave Stevens art and this book has a lot of it. There's no Rocketeer art but that series has been frequently reprinted.

The book contains finished art by Stevens, some rough sketches (they look mostly like preliminary sketches of the finished art) and a number of pieces where Stevens inked someone else's pencil work (including Jack Kirby and Jim Silke).

My only complaint is that there are a number or two page spreads, but it's really hard to get a sense of the whole piece due to the center being buried in the binding. For many of them I would have preferred it if they'd put them on a single page (sometimes they did). There are also couple of three page spreads using foldouts.

It would have been really nice if all the two page spreads were on foldouts so the center wouldn't be in the binding, but the book would probably have cost a whole lot more.

All in all a nice collection.

[Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book were printed in the same dimension as the original art (as IDW's Artists Editions are done in), but that would bump the price tag up from $50 to $150. This book features a scaled-down version of the art on the right page, with sketches and accompanying preliminary drawings shown on the left. A real sized, zoomed-in-but-cropped picture may be shown on the following page or two so that you can see the finer details of some of the drawing (typically of the characters face). Can't win 'em all, but for $50 this is an excellent collection of original comic art from one of the masters of the craft.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Dave Stevens Rocketeer this book was a great book of other Dave Stevens art most of which I've never seen and it shed light on his life and career fantastic if you are a fan.