Rocketeer Adventures volume 2

Cover for Rocketeer Adventures volume 2

Credits Spread

Chapter Divider

Design Spread

Dave Stevens Bio Page

Once again, I was honored to be asked to design the collected version of the Rocketeer Adventures volume 2. It's hard to believe this is the sixth collection of Dave Stevens material I've been involved with. This collection of stories, originally started out as a four issue series, devoted to the continuing adventures of the Rocketeer. The stories and art were put together by plenty of "A" list creators. Adding their unique talents and abilities were: Darwyn Cooke, Sandy Plunkett, Walter and Louise Simonson, John Paul Leon, Chris Sprouse, John Byrne, Colin Wilson, along with several others.  It's fun to hang out with such a talented group of creators (even if it's only in designing a book involving all of those individuals).

The covers to the individual issues were designed by Darwyn Cooke. His approach was to "posterize" the covers, taking some tips from both the WPA and WWII victory posters. Based on his design direction, I tried to carry that thematic idea from the back cover and throughout the interior of the book.
Another design influence was the movie serials. This made sense since, each of the stories was like an individual chapter in the Rocketeer history. I designed the chapter dividers like movie lobby cards, I used the same color palette on my designs, as the facing story page. I wanted the 2 pages to be viewed as a spread as opposed to 2 separate pages.

Throughout the book I also did my illustrated version of the Rocketeer. I kept it to 3 colors and wanted it to be simple yet dynamic. I felt this was keeping with the WPA silkscreened look. Sometimes it's hard to take so many different artistic styles, and put them together and make them feel like they go together. As a package, I think this is very cohesive.