Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Rocketeer Review in Entertainment Weekly

BOOK REVIEW

The Rocketeer (2010)

EW's GRADE
A

DETAILSRelease Date: Jan 13, 2010; Writer: Dave Stevens; Genres: Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Fiction; Publisher: IDW Publishing

The Rocketeer: The Complete Collection by Dave Stevens | The Rocketeer, Dave Stevens
The Rocketeer: The Complete Collection by Dave Stevens

Dave Stevens, who died of leukemia at 52 in 2008, was a craftsman, a comics legend. His 1980s Rocketeer comics — a throwback to 1930s pulp adventure tales — weren't big sellers, but they were an extraordinary evocation of a bygone era, full of erotica and élan. He also drew storyboards for everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' video, and was single-handedly responsible for the rediscovery of '50s pinup model Bettie Page, the inspiration for Rocketeer Cliff Secord's curvy crush Betty. These gorgeous color reproductions of Stevens' meticulous work serve as a fine testament to his artistry. A


Sunday, January 17, 2010

2 New Stout Titles

This is the cover for the book of female images


This is the cover for the book on dragons, monsters, witches, etc


This is a story book illustration painting from the book

This is from a series of prints done for the Wizard of Oz

Here's a dragon painting from the book


Okay, good news. I'm currently working on two more books with William Stout. Each of these two books will be 48 pages and feature a wide variety of paintings Bill has done over the last few years. Posted above, you can see the two different covers of the books. They kind of represent a male and female perspective of Bill's paintings. These will be done the same size and format as the popular "Various Drawings" books by Mark Schultz. Once again these will be published by Flesk Publications. It sure gives me a lot of pleasure to work on these books. It's always such a delight to work with Bill and John to do something in a collaborative way. It's always a challenge to bring several highly creative people together and to create something that everyone finds pleasing. I think if you are able to accomplish that, it is greatly satisfying.

The inspiration for the design on these books was the great graphic designer Will Bradley. He was very influential during the last part of the 1800's and into the early 1900's. Bill's paintings for the cover have a very organic art nouveau feel to them, so I felt the rest of the cover should follow that sensibilty. To me, that's where I get the greatest enjoyment out of design, to try to match the personality and character of the art and then design around that. The covers were meant to have a similar "feel," yet look different enough, as to not be confused with each other.

I have five other books in the beginning stages of the design process. I hope to be able to post images soon, however the publishers have not made the formal announcements yet. I'm very excited about these books, they are from very high profile iconic (legends) artists. Okay I can't wait, here's a couple of the names....nah I better not.