‘Rocketeer Adventures’ Blasts Comics’ Best Back in Time [Preview]

One sale this week is the first issue of Rocketeer Adventures, a four-issue miniseries featuring brand new tales of the cult favorite action hero created by the late, great Dave Stevens. Issue #1 comes with new stories by John Cassaday & Laura Martin, Mike Allred & Laura Allred and Kurt Busiek and Michael Kaluta & Dave Stewart, with pin-ups by Mike Mignola and Jim Silke, a cover by Alex Ross and of course archival material by Stevens himself.

The Rocketeer is a lightning rod for exciting pulp and pin-up-inspired comic books in the classic style, and IDW Publishing's Rocketeer Adventures promises to be an impressive and memorable collection of just that. You can check out a preview after the jump.

Despite completing only a relatively few number of Rocketeer stories throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Dave Stevens' superlative artwork and narrative flair cemented the character and his aesthetic in the minds of comics readers and lovers of illustration. Credited by the late Bettie Page herself as being single-handedly responsible for her resurgence in the popular culture (and thus much of vintage fashion and pin-up art as well) as a consequence of his "casting" her as the Rocketeer's girlfriend, Stevens' complete Rocketeer work was recently collected in a number of handsome volumes from IDW: the "Complete Adventures" hardcover, the "Complete Adventures" deluxe hardcover and an ultra deluxe "Artist's Edition" featuring full-sized and uncolored artwork scanned directly from Stevens' hand-drawn pages.

But to make reading this classic material even easier, IDW is also releasing this week a "hundred penny press" edition of The Rocketeer #1 by Dave Stevens, priced at just $1.00. You can find a preview of that story below.

Edited by Scott Dunbier, Rocketeer Adventures honors Dave Stevens with brand new stories of his beloved character and retro motifs. Future issues of Rocketeer Adventures will feature material by Darwyn Cooke, Mark Waid, Chris Weston, Lowell Francis, Gene Ha, Geof Darrow, Joe Lansdale, Bruce Timm, Ryan Sook, Jonathan Ross, Tommy Lee Edwards, Joe Chiodo and more, but Rocketeer Adventures #1 goes on sale this week in finer comics stores and can be purchased online from Things From Another World.