In 1998, one of the weekends during my second year at Kubert, three of my friends and I drove an hour and a half to New Haven, Connecticut to Pepe's Pizza. I remember three things about that excursion.
The first, is that I was incredulous about driving nearly 2 hours to a restaurant that one had to in turn spend two hours waiting in line outside to eat. Yes, my friends claimed, backed up by Alec Stevens, one of our teachers, that it was the best pizza in the world. And I didn't dislike pizza, but I also had no Ninja Turtle-esque devotion to it, so to me that was like saying "it's the best pancakes in the world". A pancake was pretty much a pancake, to my mind.
The second, is that I was entirely and absolutely wrong. Pepe's Pizza IS the best Pizza in the world. I've never tasted anything close again. In fact, I barely eat pizza now because it's always a little disappointment.
The third, is that on the ride over and in line waiting a large part of our conversation revolved around Dave Stevens. To the point we even referred to that afterwards as our "Dave Stevens Trip". Stevens is one of those select comicbook artists whose work was held on a sort of pedestal among our group. I have to admit I was indoctrinated to this, as I wasn't introduced to his comics until my time at Art school (I discovered a lot of comics and comicbook artists at that time). Actually, prior to attending Art School I tended to follow comicbook writers more than artists. After the fall of Marvel and the rise of Image, I'd transitioned to being a heavy reader of DC's Vertigo in the 90s. So it wasnt until Kubert that names like Stevens, Toth, or Hughes became important to me.
The first, is that I was incredulous about driving nearly 2 hours to a restaurant that one had to in turn spend two hours waiting in line outside to eat. Yes, my friends claimed, backed up by Alec Stevens, one of our teachers, that it was the best pizza in the world. And I didn't dislike pizza, but I also had no Ninja Turtle-esque devotion to it, so to me that was like saying "it's the best pancakes in the world". A pancake was pretty much a pancake, to my mind.
The second, is that I was entirely and absolutely wrong. Pepe's Pizza IS the best Pizza in the world. I've never tasted anything close again. In fact, I barely eat pizza now because it's always a little disappointment.
The third, is that on the ride over and in line waiting a large part of our conversation revolved around Dave Stevens. To the point we even referred to that afterwards as our "Dave Stevens Trip". Stevens is one of those select comicbook artists whose work was held on a sort of pedestal among our group. I have to admit I was indoctrinated to this, as I wasn't introduced to his comics until my time at Art school (I discovered a lot of comics and comicbook artists at that time). Actually, prior to attending Art School I tended to follow comicbook writers more than artists. After the fall of Marvel and the rise of Image, I'd transitioned to being a heavy reader of DC's Vertigo in the 90s. So it wasnt until Kubert that names like Stevens, Toth, or Hughes became important to me.
Stevens, like Adam Hughes, had a frustratingly small output. Luckily, as he didn't appeal to the Speculator market dominating comics at the time and this was years before Ebay, you could still hunt down his stuff for at or near cover price. Hence, a lot of our free time during those years was travelling to any comicbook shop within a 100 mile radius of the school and hunting through the longboxes.
Also like Hughes, Dave Stevens took his art style from classic illustrators and contributed to the resurgence of "Good Girl Pinup Art". Stevens cites Will Esiner, Frank Frazetta, Bill Everett, and George Petty among his many influences.
Of course, what Dave Stevens is most known for, and his only sustained comicbook series, was The Rocketeer. Like many, my introduction to the Rocketeer was the ill-fated and vastly under-rated 1991 film by Disney, that came out during the early 90s "Pulp Adaption Explosion" in the wake of Batman '89, along with The Shadow, The Phantom, and Dick Tracy. The film is actually one of the closer adaptions of a comicbook work ever done by Hollywood. Probably as Stevens himself was very hands on as an Executive Producer. But there was one major change to a main character that was obvious the minute I got ahold of the original comics.
In the film, Cliff Seacord's girlfriend is Jenny Blake, portrayed by Jennifer Connelly
In the film, Cliff Seacord's girlfriend is Jenny Blake, portrayed by Jennifer Connelly
Connely has that perfect mixture of beauty and down to earth attainability that they call "the Girl Next Door". (Frell do I wish I'd grown up next door to Jennifer Connely).
However, in The Rocketeer comicbooks Cliff's girlfriend was named "Betty"
However, in The Rocketeer comicbooks Cliff's girlfriend was named "Betty"
Yep, as in Betty Page.
Of course, I don't need to explain who that is nowadays. She's a pop culture icon of the twentieth century. You cant throw a stick in a collectibles shop without turning up Betty Page posters, trading cards, photo books, etc. In the late 80s and early 90s she inspired a fashion trend, and also helped to "mainstream" S&M culture through tributes in film. You could trace a direct line from her popularity surge right up to the fetishistic costume design of The Matrix.
Of course, I don't need to explain who that is nowadays. She's a pop culture icon of the twentieth century. You cant throw a stick in a collectibles shop without turning up Betty Page posters, trading cards, photo books, etc. In the late 80s and early 90s she inspired a fashion trend, and also helped to "mainstream" S&M culture through tributes in film. You could trace a direct line from her popularity surge right up to the fetishistic costume design of The Matrix.
But it wasn't always that way. In fact, when Stevens first published The Rocketeer in 1983, Page was a complete unknown, with no presence on the pop culture landscape. So much so, that when Stevens introduced the character in his comic he got into a row with the editor of Eclipse comics who thought that he's stolen a character from Frank Frazetta!
Knowledge of Betty Page was akin to knowledge of Cthulhu in the 70s - known to a small select group of fans of old pulps and nostalgic trivia, which is what The Rocketeer was rooted in, a tribute to adventure serials of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Betty Page herself was a model in the early 50s for "photography groups" that were common at the time. She immediately gained notoriety for her audaciousness and flagrant rejection of the societal norms for women at the time. This was before the sexual revolution of the 60s, or the Women's Rights movement, when Donna Reed clones was the norm for portrayals of women. Lots has been written on this, but to sum up succinctly the standards of the era, it was a common unstated rule at the time in any sort of verging on erotic imagery that women would look away from the camera, ostensibly showing an embarrassed reaction to being "captured in a compromising situation". Betty Page, instead, stared defiantly directly at the camera, and this was actually shocking enough to be commented on extensively at the time.
Knowledge of Betty Page was akin to knowledge of Cthulhu in the 70s - known to a small select group of fans of old pulps and nostalgic trivia, which is what The Rocketeer was rooted in, a tribute to adventure serials of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Betty Page herself was a model in the early 50s for "photography groups" that were common at the time. She immediately gained notoriety for her audaciousness and flagrant rejection of the societal norms for women at the time. This was before the sexual revolution of the 60s, or the Women's Rights movement, when Donna Reed clones was the norm for portrayals of women. Lots has been written on this, but to sum up succinctly the standards of the era, it was a common unstated rule at the time in any sort of verging on erotic imagery that women would look away from the camera, ostensibly showing an embarrassed reaction to being "captured in a compromising situation". Betty Page, instead, stared defiantly directly at the camera, and this was actually shocking enough to be commented on extensively at the time.
Page's popularity peaked in 1955 when she was chosen as one of the very first "Playmates of the Month" for Playboy, chosen by Hughes himself, who has continued to express his admiration for her and her social influence over the years. And then, shortly afterwards, Page disappeared.
Some speculated she married a rich foreigner, other rumours confused her with the Black Dahlia and thought she was the victim of a gruesome murder. Though we know the truth now, at the time it was an enduring mystery. But as the 60s and 70s pressed on the world largely forgot her.
Some speculated she married a rich foreigner, other rumours confused her with the Black Dahlia and thought she was the victim of a gruesome murder. Though we know the truth now, at the time it was an enduring mystery. But as the 60s and 70s pressed on the world largely forgot her.
Dave Steven's inclusion of Betty Page as a character in the Rocketeer was an "Easter Egg" in the common parlance, a nod to those few aficionados of nostalgia like himself, who venerated the aspects of the 50s beyond the whitewashed culture influence of Happy Days and American Graffiti.
But as this was discovered and slowly spread, interest in Page began to grow again. A fanzine called The Betty Pages started republishing rare old photo sets and speculating on the mystery. By the end of the decade, Betty Page was bigger than she was in the 50s, and hit the mainstream with her iconic hairstyle re-entering the world of fashion. I doubt many knew this started with The Rocketeer. The comics themselves wouldn't even become commonly known about until the Disney film.
But it was this resurgence that caused Betty Page to finally come out of hiding. She'd become a born again Christian and gave up her modelling career, and later, spend time in a psychiatric institution. By the time she'd become a pop culture phenomenon, she was practically penniless. In fact, her reason for revealing herself again to the world (I say that very tongue in cheek, as in interviews she refused to be photographed or shown on camera) was to attempt to gain royalties for the money being made off of her image.
Stevens, to his credit, was the first. The moment it was revealed that Page was alive and well, with no prompting, he began sending her royalty checks. These alone kept Page from the street when an unscrupulous rights firm she'd signed up with defrauded her. Sometime during this time, Stevens and Page met and became friends. Page eventually signed up with another Estate house, and to this day her inheritance is a 10 million dollar a year industry.
But as this was discovered and slowly spread, interest in Page began to grow again. A fanzine called The Betty Pages started republishing rare old photo sets and speculating on the mystery. By the end of the decade, Betty Page was bigger than she was in the 50s, and hit the mainstream with her iconic hairstyle re-entering the world of fashion. I doubt many knew this started with The Rocketeer. The comics themselves wouldn't even become commonly known about until the Disney film.
But it was this resurgence that caused Betty Page to finally come out of hiding. She'd become a born again Christian and gave up her modelling career, and later, spend time in a psychiatric institution. By the time she'd become a pop culture phenomenon, she was practically penniless. In fact, her reason for revealing herself again to the world (I say that very tongue in cheek, as in interviews she refused to be photographed or shown on camera) was to attempt to gain royalties for the money being made off of her image.
Stevens, to his credit, was the first. The moment it was revealed that Page was alive and well, with no prompting, he began sending her royalty checks. These alone kept Page from the street when an unscrupulous rights firm she'd signed up with defrauded her. Sometime during this time, Stevens and Page met and became friends. Page eventually signed up with another Estate house, and to this day her inheritance is a 10 million dollar a year industry.
Disney actually purchased the film rights to The Rocketeer in the mid 80s. But it sat in development hell until Batman had Hollywood scrambling for superhero properties and a bunch of films were greenlit and fast-tracked in the wake of 1989. It's funny that Hollywood overall embraced adaptions of early Pulp heroes, perhaps aware that they did not yet possess the technology to successfully do a massive super-powered film extravaganza as required by the Fantastic Four or Justice League. Most were disappointments in the box office for one reason or another. Dick Tracy banked on star power, and was well recieved by audiences, but it failed to replicate the merchandising success of Batman and its iconic symbol.
The Phantom, perhaps my absolute favourite of the group, was far too campy for the 90s audiences, when Grimdark was just starting to take over the cultural zeitgeist.
The Shadow had a great cast, great writing, and great effects, but was failed by the director and editor, and seen by many as simply a Batman rip-off.
'And the Rocketeer just flopped. Opened 4th in box office sales, behind Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, City Slickers and Dying Young (I don't even remember that one), and only earned a total of little over 45 million domestically before being shunted to the world of home rental. Most film critics loved it, but it was too slow for young kids, and teens and adults stayed away because the marketing made it seem like a kids film (and the big Disney logo on top didn't help that perception). And, well, frankly the Pulp Aesthetic has never had mainstream success. Years later Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow would suffer the same fate.
The Rocketeer has since developed a strong cult following however, and Disney currently has a reboot in the works called The Rocketeers, with a all female cast (so, while it will probably also bomb, at least now the studio can blame internet trolls).
But why did Betty become Jenny? Especially as this hit at a time when interest in Page had hit an all-time high? Well, because Disney wasn't comfortable with the implied connection to a fetish star as the female lead in the film, basically. Though truth be told, I personally am not a Betty Page "fan". I find the story interesting, but as a "sex symbol", she's not my type. And make no mistake, I have no complaints about Jennifer Connelly in the role. I've no complaints about her being in ANY film. I want MORE Connelly.
But why did Betty become Jenny? Especially as this hit at a time when interest in Page had hit an all-time high? Well, because Disney wasn't comfortable with the implied connection to a fetish star as the female lead in the film, basically. Though truth be told, I personally am not a Betty Page "fan". I find the story interesting, but as a "sex symbol", she's not my type. And make no mistake, I have no complaints about Jennifer Connelly in the role. I've no complaints about her being in ANY film. I want MORE Connelly.
One final intriguing note to this story. Both Dave Stevens and Betty Page sadly passed away in the same year, 2008. Betty in December at the age of 85, and Dave in March at only 52. Today, on what would have been his birthday, I just wanted to reminisce about another comic book legend that will be sorely missed.