DAVE STEVENS' The ROCKETEER...

Images copyright relevant owner

It was in Glasgow's VIRGIN MEGASTORE in 1982 that I saw PACIFIC PRESENTS #1, and probably bought it primarily for STEVE DITKO's The MISSING MAN strip.  However, there was really only one star of the mag, and that was The ROCKETEER by DAVE STEVENS, which had first appeared as a back-up in STARSLAYER #s 2 & 3 after an ad for the strip in the first ish.  (Never bought them and therefore missed Rocky's debut.)

After two issues of Pacific Presents (dated October '82, and April '83 respectively), The Rocketeer next showed up in the November '84 dated Special Edition, The Rocketeer #1 (published this time by ECLIPSE) - only to promptly vanish again.  The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1 (dated April '88 and published by COMICO), was the next venue for Stevens' high-flying hero, with a 2d issue the following year (dated April '89).  Six years later, a 3rd (and final) issue, this time published by DARK HORSE, hit the stands, dated January '95.

In '85, Eclipse published a collected edition of the first five chapters, and IDW followed suite in 2009, with a very handsome, recoloured hardback volume of all eight chapters.  Sadly, Dave Stevens died in 2008, aged only 52, after suffering from leukemia for several years.  His Rocketeer series remains a high benchmark in the world of graphic storytelling, and it's certain that this very fine artist will not soon be forgotten - if ever in fact.  Here's to you, Dave.

******

And now a word from our sponsor - namely me.  I kept the first two issues of Pacific Presents in the drawer of the writing bureau beside my bed, where they remained in the new house my family moved into in 1983.  Subsequent appearances of The Rocketeer have joined those two issues over the years, though I missed the 3rd issue of Adventure Magazine in 1995.  However, I managed to track one down and it arrived today, and has now joined its companions in that drawer.

As regular readers know, I returned to my former home after four years, so it gives me a glow of satisfaction to know that The Rocketeer's comics journey eventually ended in the very same drawer of the same desk, in the exact same room of the same house in which it began, 35 years before.  That's what you call full circle, eh?

Now, check out Dave Steven's great art, and then leave a comment of appreciation for the man and his work in the you-know-where, if you'd be so kind.

DAVE STEVENS

CARESSING The KEYS Of MEMORY...

This is another of those tales that I know I intended to relate a while back, but can't remember if I ever actually did so or not.  Anyway, back in 1972 when my family first took up residence in my present abode, the family with whom we swapped houses left a piano behind.  I can no longer recall how long we kept it, whether it was a year, two years - maybe even going on three, but my parents, at some stage, decided to dispense with its seldom-used services.

None of my family played the piano, and apart from a rare visitor occasionally tickling its ivories, the poor 'box in the corner' lay neglected for the most part.  So my father donated it to the town's hospital, and a contingent of youths in the charge of an adult (I have a vague memory they may have been Scouts, but I'm not certain) came to our home one day and wheeled away our unwanted house-guest.  I wonder how it felt being so unceremoniously evicted?

I've long been afflicted with a tendency to imbue inanimate objects with sentience, feelings, emotions - even personality.  What can I say?  I'm off my head!  But did you know that, apparently, when plants and trees are pruned, they scream?  (It's far beyond the ability of human ears to detect, but scientists have registered the 'sound' on audio machines attuned to a certain wavelength.)  True, plants and trees are 'alive' in a sort of way;  they grow - not something that a piano (or any other inanimate item) in the corner of the living-room does.  (As far as anyone knows anyway.)

However, if you cut a leaf in half, and then subject it to a certain kind of infra-red spectrum analysis, the image shows the outline of the full leaf.  So, imagine if a tree, even after being chopped up and made into furniture, yet retains a part of whatever measure of 'awareness' it may have had when it was growing in a forest or field somewhere?  Too far-fetched?  Perhaps, but who can say for sure?

Anyway, where am I going with this you may be wondering.  Years after the fact, I learned that our old piano had been passed onto the church situated across the road from our former abode.  The fellow who told me was one of the boys who had helped remove the piano from our house.  It transpired that he was a friend of a friend, and what's more, coincidentally lived next door to another of our previous homes, though not when we'd lived there.  (Which is neither here nor there, but it's an interesting example of how 'fate' unfolds.)

The woman who now lived in our former residence would undoubtedly have been in that church on occasion, even if only for a jumble sale or a coffee morning.  Given my over-active imagination, I found myself wondering if she might ever have passed her/our old piano without recognising it, and whether it had called out to her in its inaudible voice, not understanding why someone it knew was now ignoring it.  "Hello, it's me - don't you remember me?  I lived with you once and then you went away one day and left me behind.  What did I do wrong?  Did I offend you by being out of tune perhaps?  Why won't you acknowledge me?"

Same goes for myself.  Although no longer living in the area, I was back in that church many a time over the years.  As was my mother in fact, as she attended its Sunday services every week.  I restricted myself to jumble sales and Christmas and Summer fayres, but I surely must have passed the piano, or even stood close to (or against) it on one of my many visits over a period of nearly 20 years.  Did that poor piano also call out to me (or, on separate occasions, my mother), unable to comprehend why we turned a deaf ear to its cries?

The church was demolished around '91 or '92 (due to structural flaws) and a new (and different) building was erected in its place.  I took numerous photos, both inside and out, before the old church (which had only been completed in 1965 or '66) was erased from the face of the planet, and our old piano - if it hadn't been replaced or dispensed with by that time - is surely in one of those pics.  It was a large church, with two or three pianos in different halls, but I think I got photos of all of them.  Trouble is, they're in a box in the loft at the moment, so I can't check - or illustrate this post with a piccie.  I'll add one later when I find them.

In the meantime, I've used a stock photo of a piano, which will have to do the job for now.  I guess it's always possible that the piano yet survives in the new church building, and now that the thought has occurred to me, I'll make a point of visiting one day to see if it is.  If it's there, I'll be sure to say hello to it, and run my fingers over its keys, just for old times' sake.  If it isn't, I'll gaze upon it's image in one of my photos and bid it goodbye.  After all, it's a friend from the past, and doesn't deserve to be forgotten.

Whatever its fate, hopefully it had a happy life being played for the enjoyment of hospital patients and church groups.  Had we kept it, it's entirely probable that it would never have got to fulfill the purpose for which it was created, and merely been a surface on which to place framed photos or vases.  It was made to make music, and I like to think  that's what it got to do.  (And hopefully yet does.)

Feel free to tell me that I need 're-tuning'.

******

Update: Below are three photos of two pianos (I think - could be the same one in two different halls).  I took them in the church sometime in the early 1990s, and I'm hoping that one is the piano we had temporary custody of at the beginning of the '70s.  There's no reason why one of them shouldn't be 'ours', so I prefer to believe that one of them is.

 

2000 A.D. - 15 YEARS OLD - 'BEHIND The SCENES'...

Seeing as we've been pursuing an Anniversary theme with the last few posts, here's a behind the scenes insight into things that readers don't usually get to see.  Above is a flyer I received back in 1992 when 2000 A.D was a mere 15 years old.  Below is the covering letter explaining what it's all about.  Did I attend the prestigious event?  Nah!  I was far too busy lettering just about everything in sight.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - JULIE EGE...

There was JULIE, waiting to greet

me with a posy of flowers - for little ol'

moi.  There was supposed to be a box of

chocolates as well, but the greedy bint

 ate them before I got there.

2000 A.D. ANNIVERSARY 'POT LUCK' COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright REBELLION

Well, it's certainly far from exhaustive, but here's a selection of Anniversary 2000 A.D. covers from over the years.  I may have some more, but these are the only ones I could find at short notice.  How many of them do you have?  And if you've got any not seen here, send them to me at once.  I'll give them a good home - honest!

This one's still in its cellophane, hence the wrinkles

CALLING 'MY OLD COMICS' BLOG...

Hope all you regulars will forgive me for a second while I try and assist JP of MY OLD COMICS blog, who's having trouble getting a backdrop that doesn't fill the entire screen.  Here you go, JP - try this.  Have your blog's name over the image, as well as the tagline.  The image will be sharper of course, if you can crop your own copy of it to look like the one above.  If not, enlarge the above one to its fullest size before copying.

2000 A.D. PROG 300 COVER...

Images copyright REBELLION

I've been digging in the back of a cupboard over the last few days, trying to find whatever copies of 2000 A.D. I still have (as you'll know if you've read the last few posts), and this is another one.  Though I wasn't buying the comic regularly at this point, I still picked up the occasional free gift ish, like Prog 300 above.  I got it as much for the first part of the mini-reprint of Prog 1 as I did for the badge.  In fact, I purchased two copies so I could cut out the reprint, and also bought single copies of the next three numbers in order to complete the collectors' item Prog.

I no longer have the next three issues, as I disposed of them after removing the reprint pages, so I can't show them here.  I still have the mini-comic tucked away somewhere, but all you 2000 A.D. fans surely know what that looks like already, so there's no need for me to go and dig it out to show you.  Besides, you can see the front and back cover below.  And yes, I've got the full-size first issue as well - ain't I lucky?  Nope, it's not for sale.

BABE Of The DAY - VICTORIA VETRI...

VICTORIA VETRI gives

me that ol' "come hither" look -

showing just what kind of burds

guys tend to attract when they're

as handsome as I am.  Guess I

 was just born lucky, eh?

2000 A.D. COVER (& IMAGE) GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright REBELLION

Ready for part three?  Well, ready or not, here it comes.  The final lot of 2000 A.D. covers from 1979, bought back in the day by my good self.  Think I'll have to sit down and read them all again one day, when I have time.  Funny that the first one of this run I bought (Prog 119) had JAMES BOND on the cover, and the last one (127) also gives him a mention.  It's possible I bought some of the following issues after the merger with TORNADO, but if I did, I never kept them.  (I just didn't like the comic's return to cheaper printing.)

Hey, is this another great post or what?!  Gimme some feedback in the comments section - and don't forget to tick one of those little boxes under each post, Criv-ite chums.  Your vote counts.

Below, is this the greatest JUDGE DREDD story ever written?   It's certainly got to be one of them, right up near the top.  Hopefully, REBELLION won't mind me posting the full story, but it's one with a powerful message that everyone should read. Click on the images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.  Have your hankies at the ready - this one will really move you!

Did you spot that great bit of visual humour?  "A heavy guard on the door", with a clearly overweight judge filling the role.  I can't help but wonder if this was indicated in JOHN HOWARD's script, or was it JOHN COOPER's idea?  Nicely done though.

  

The above-mentioned 'SHAKY' KANE would eventually draw for IPC