Dave Stevens was the best "Good Girl" artist of his generation. And he never concocted a more intoxicating image than when he was inspired to draw Betty in the pages of his iconic The Rocketeer stories. Betty was a true bombshell, a gorgeous gal with a body to die for, which Cliff Secord the Rocketeer himself was all too ready to do.
Of course most everyone knows nowadays that Stevens was inspired to create Betty and in fact based her bodacious form on the real life bombshell Bettie Page. Page has herself become an icon of an era when celebration of the female form was still regarded as an artform, albeit a somewhat shoddy one. In these modern days of instant access to internet porn, the pictures of Bettie Page, both clad and unclad seem rather quaint. But what was provocative, illicit, and even at times illegal once upon a time is now the merely quaint in the rosy glow of nostalgia.
And Dave Stevens evoked nostalgia in its finest form in his Rocketeer pages, hearkening back to the adventurous times of bygone decades when airplanes were still fresh and exciting and not merely transportation. Stevens gave all of his worlds and the people in them a happy glistening touch which made them ideals and not just people. Here is a time with simple virtues when bravery was enough to win the day. It was good guys and bad guys and always beautiful dames.
Rip Off
From an article in The Guardian,
ReplyDeleteAs Bettie Page became more popular, Stevens discovered she lived in anonymity near his North Hollywood home. They became friends: he paid her royalties for using her image, and helped her collect on its use by other people. The situation amazed him. "After years of fantasising about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her social security cheques."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/13/usa