History of the Hero: The Rocketer. Part One

Superheroica is now not the same as it was before. You think I’m talking about the eighties, or about the silver age of comics from the sixties? No, and even having poked a finger at the forties, and the so -called “Golden Age of Comics”, you will not fall at the time that I am talking about. No, I want to recall the very beginning of the twentieth century, when superheroes in one form or another handed themselves to the consumer not even in the form of comics, but in the format of radio-pess or stories in periodicals.

Shadow, green hornet, a lone ranger, and even the well -known Zorro – all of them were born precisely due to literature and radio feeds. Of course, in a certain way, “superheroes” could not be called – but in many ways only due to the fact that then the concept of this was not there. But there was, for example, John Carter from the novels of Edgar Rais Barrose, the author of the cult Tarzan. And he completely possessed superpowers and other abilities – albeit due to the fact that he was a strawberry who unexpectedly found himself on Mars. And the examples provided by me above were one of the first popular incarnations of the Avenger in Mask, which will subsequently switch to many other Superheroes of the Golden Age. Or what, you thought just like Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed precisely on the night after watching the cult film “Zorro sign” of 1940 release?

And from time to time, nostalgia in relation to the so-called proto-spermerochik finds its way to various creative people. In 1991, a shadow again returned to the screens, this time performed by Alek Baldwin, a year earlier, Sam Reimi, inspired by Universal horror classics from the 30s and all the same shadow, releases his “man of darkness”, better known under the English name Darkman. In 2011, Sony returned to the screens of the Green Hornet, putting on the main roles of Set Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Christophe Valtz. And to recall only what a splash caused a return to the large Sorro screens at the end of the nineties and how it poured into the stratosphere the popularity of Antonio Banderas.

But not a movie one. Comics also found their portion of fame. If one of these heroes appeared in comics during the Golden Age, then there is a great chance that comics about them are coming out and now. There, even Dick Tracy is completely afloat. But there were others – who did not want to take existing characters, but wanted to create new heroes and new stories, inspired by the classic. Among these was an artist named Dave Stevens.

The name of Dave Stevens, in fact, is inextricably linked with modern pop culture. Judge for yourself-he worked on advertisements for the very first Star Wars, as part of a working relationship with Hanna-Barbera Productions, he painted a story for the animated series Super Friends, one of the early adaptations of stories about the Justice League League. And already in the 80s, in the same position of the artist Storyboard, he managed to work on films about Indiana Jones and even on Thriller’s video Michael Jackson. And so loud names did not just fall into Stevens’ hands – he was a talented artist, well -revered giants of the industry, like the same Jack Kirby.

In 1981, the Steve Steve and Frenzinocasino.uk Bill Sheinas turned to Stevens. Their company Pacific Comics, which since 1971 has been engaged in the distribution and advertising of comics in the United States, has come to the decision of opening its own independent publishing house. And even the flagship projects of the brothers were already in the case – the aforementioned Jack Kirby, at the personal request of the brothers, wrote for their publisher the new series of Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, and the artist Mike Grel, known for working with DC Comics in the seventies, launched his first solo seriesStarslayer. And the appearance of Stevens’ works in Pacific is directly related to Starslayer. When the second release of the comic book from Mike Grall was not enough for publication, it was Stevens who was asked to fill the remaining pages with the history of his own authorship.

April 1938. Pilot Cliff Secord is preparing for the next air show. The work is complex and not particularly paid, that the cliff is clearly not satisfied – after all, he wants to provide his girlfriend, fashion model Betty, a decent existence. And his life does not become easier when some bandits come to his hangar first, and then the police. And it turns out that the bandits left something right in his plane. And not just something-but a real reactive satchel. Cliff, like a real daredevil, lights up with the desire to experience an unknown model of technology, since the familiar mechanic Pivi also does not mind helping Cliff to understand the unusual device. But will there be a game of candles if the special services from several countries of the world hunt for a satchel, and the famous photographer Marco is trying to roll up to Betty. From Hollywood. And rolls up quite successfully, while.

Yes, The Rocketer story begins so simple. The cliff does not suffer from some internal demons, does not seek to destroy crime, and even the skills of the pilot, he, consider it not. Moreover, in the course of the original issues of The Rocketer Cliff, the story gives us not at all from the face -wise side. He is jealous and hot -tempered, smug and self -confident. He turns equally successfully by friends and rivals for the sake of his own benefit, whatever it was. At the same time, he still loves his girlfriend Betty, immensely respects Pivi, who serves him at the same time as a mechanic and a mentor, and puts above all such important things as human life and his own honor.

But yes, with a typical superhero cliff, little unites. He at first at first struggles with evil. The beginning of the series, and to be precise, the entire first issue is devoted to acquaintance with heroes, attempts to understand how the satchel works, and the process of creating an iconic rocket helmet. Cliff makes the first flight literally at the very end of the first release, and then, he goes into flight only in order to correct his own mistake. And over time, the motivation of the cliff will not become much more heroic. At least a little change.

Especially taking into account how the scale of history will change over time. Or what, you thought the cliff will so easily allow you to walk with a jet satchel behind your back? And with increasing bets within the framework of history will increase the degree of the danger of situations in which the cliff will find itself. True, according to the first, the very intensity of history readers did not see.

Dave Stevens originally painted only two small issues of The Rocketer in order to score a place in the releases of the Starslayer comic book. But the adventures of a pilot with a jet satchel became quite popular among readers, in connection with which the Schains brothers decided to ask Stevens to launch a full -sized comic book series about cliff secord. Dave refused, and for several reasons at once. On the one hand – he did not believe in the long -term popularity of the character, but on the other, which is perceived with special sadness, he believed that his scenario skills are not good enough to keep a full -fledged comic series afloat. The parties came to a compromise – it was decided to release new issues about the adventures of a rocket launcher as part of the anthology of Pacific Presents. The continuation of the story of the secord, in which the FBI, the Nazis and the Saedge Doc, one of the heroes of the magazine prose of the thirties entered into the plot, followed the first two issues of this anthology, which were released 1982 and 1983, respectively, respectively, respectively, respectively, respectively. And it seems – and anthology was quite well sold, not least thanks to the success of The Rocketer, and Stevens came to taste. But the setup came from where they did not wait.

Pacific Presents’s first release cover – In addition to The Rocketer, a comic book Steve Ditko The Missing Man is presented. Remaster of the cover from 2015.

Organizational difficulties with the release of a new release of Starslayer already familiar to us have led to the fact that Mike Grel moved to the FIRST COMICS Publishing House. And if you take into account that Pacific did not buy intellectual property from its authors, Starslayer went to another publishing house with Gralle. And the company sprinkled like a house house. The authors went to other publishers one by one. Moreover, Stevens then remained on a sinking ship until the very end and hoped to publish the final of the history of Cliff in the fifth issue of Pacific Presents. But, alas, the planned issue of anthology never saw the light, since Pacific officially closed in 1984.

Without thinking twice, Stevens followed other authors from Pacific, such as, for example, Bruce Jones or Mark Evaner, to another publishing house – Eclipse Comics. The working conditions were the same – the rights to intellectual property remained in the hands of Stepens. And since the last chapter of The Rocketer was already ready, then why not let her out, right? Eclipse clearly thought in the same way, due to which the Rocketer Special Edition, a van show with the final chapter of the sequorus cliffs were born. The release turned out to be extremely popular, in connection with which Eclipse, together with Stevens, released all five chapters of the rocket launchers under one cover in the form of the Rocketer: An Album collection publication. The original comic book issues were slightly finalized by Stevens, both from the plot side and with graphic. Well, like Stevens – the artist himself, of course, put a lot of efforts in the book, but other people worked with him. Jamie Hernandez, Kirby Award nominee for working on the comic book Love and Rockkets was finalizing some sketches of Stevens, and Bruce Timm, one of the founders of the cult Batman: The Animated Series, was responsible for colors. In addition to this, the preface to the book was not written by anyone, but Harlan Ellison himself. And it is precisely thanks to the story of Ellison that it is possible to at least roughly understand why The Rocketer came out exactly what he came out.

Ellison grew up in the thirties and forties, and the sunrise of the comic book industry and the sunset of the proto-Superheroids mentioned by me at the beginning of it. And with all this, Stevens in the culture of that time sorted out almost better than an eminent science fiction writer. He knew such things that only a person born in those years could know about, he could accurately name the performer from the twenties according to the first notes of the melody, and he perfectly conveyed the spirit of the very journal literature in his drawings and scenarios that the creators of all the cult superheroes of the forties were clearly read out. He did not just know how to show it all – he literally lived with this culture. What is there, the wife of Dave Stevens Charlene Brinkman, she was Brink Stevens, by 1985, however, it was already a well-known model of Pin-up magazines-as well as one of the idols of Stephens Betty Page, nicknamed the Fifties photo shoots and a role in the “sexual revolution” of the sixties “Queen Pin-Apa”. And is it surprising after the fact that a slightly embellished image, based simultaneously on Brinkman and Page, made his way to The Rocketer in the form of a fashion model Betty, who can defeat any man on the spot?