We were saddened today to learn of the death last week of comics artist Dave Stevens, from leukemia at age 52. Some of you may have known Stevens' work largely from his creation of The Rocketeer, which was turned into an (underrated) action film by Disney and special-effects whiz Joe Johnston in 1991. What you might not know, however, is that his use of Bettie Page as the inspiration for The Rocketeer's racy-yet-wholesome girlfriend Jenny -- surely you remember a just-this-side-of-fetish Jennifer Connelly going "Rocka-who?" -- turned lots of people on to Page's ever even existing. So, if you've ever been a fan of good girl art or hot chicks with bangs, you probably owe him a debt of gratitude. Click through for a bit of his work and then head to an interview reprinted from a 1987 Comics Journal, where much of the art we've got here came from. By the way, he seems to have drawn from what he knew... Just click through and you'll see what we mean...

You were married at one time?

Yeah. She wasn't a stripper. When I knew her, she was an exotic dancer. Then she became a model for Penthouse and several others — Playboy, and did some Playboy Channel stuff and became an actress. Since then I think I've only been involved with maybe one or two other girls who were actually models or actresses.

 

See, we weren't kidding about that fetish comment.