Tracing why this has me so broken-up
Mar. 11th, 2008 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyCirca 1985 (or so) when i was 12 (or so), Mile High Comics ran a series of full-page (and sometimes even TWO PAGE) advertisements in just about every comic book that was published with large lists of comic books that could be had for 25-cents and 50-cents each, even cheaper if you bought in bulk. Aaron Fowler (my next-door neighbor, good friend and fellow comic book dork) devised a brilliant scheme where we gave the list to 10 of our school-chums who were also big comic book nerds and we pooled our money to get two orders of the "Any 100 25-cent comics for just $10" deal. Now our experience with comic books up till this time was Whatever We Could Find At The Drug Store, aka "Marvel, DC and Archie", but Mile High Comics offered us full access to the wonderful world of INDEPENDENT COMICS. In my large stack of comics from that order were a character that i instantly fell in love with - THE ROCKETEER.
Skip to 1991; the year I graduated from High School. As my Graduation present, my Brother and his wife invited me to fly down to California and stay with them for the Summer. HOW COOL! I brought all my Graduation Money with me and spent two months LIVING in The Comic Book Shops of The Greater Anaheim Area. While there I bought the first three issues of Iron Man, a nearly ful run of Marvel's Doctor Who comics, AND EVERY PIECE OF ROCKETEER MERCHANDISE I COULD FIND. This was the Summer that The Rocketeeer Movie was coming out, and I got to MEET the creator (Dave Stevens) at one of those Anaheim comic book shops! In my Rocketeer shirt with the brass Rocketeer badge and the Rocketeeer Button Set, I asked him to sign my 3-D Rocketeer Movie Adaptation (which he told me was his favorite merchandise that they were making for the movie), and he gave me a "Sneak Peak" Movie Pass to see the movie on the Thursday Morning BEFORE it was being officially released! It was the first time I had ever been to an advance screening!
Just over a year later, I owned my own comic book shop in Anacortes, WA ("The Escape From Reality"). A customer came in looking for back issues of The Rocketeer, and th eonly ones I had were the ones in my personal collection (including my signed copies). If I remember correctly, he offered me $30 each for the signed issues and $25 each for the non-signed. I needed the money so i agreed.
Several years later I was finally getting back in to comics and the first thing I looked for was to replace my lost Rocketeer Comics. Unfortunately, NO ONE HAD THEM. Or at least no one was selling them! GRRR!!!
Got a job in a call center and befriended a fellow named Dan Matanski, who was a big fan of Dave Stevens (creator/artist/writer of The Rocketeer) and he introduced me to all of Dave Stevens "Good Girl" pin-up artwork, and I suddenly had an obsession with Bettie page as well as The Rocketeer!
Years go by, I keep looking for old issue sof The Rocketeer, no one has any for sale... and then, two weeks ago... at that Comic Book Convention where I had a table? FOUND IT! Pacific Comics Presents #1 - THE VERY FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE ROCKETEER! IN A QUARTER BIN OF ALL PLACES!!! It made me very, very happy :) All I could think as I read it was "Why didn't he ever make more of this? This was GREAT!"
Then, today, the news comes that Dave Stevens passed away yesterday after a very long and private battle with Lukemia.
It's got me all... all tied-up inside.
Skip to 1991; the year I graduated from High School. As my Graduation present, my Brother and his wife invited me to fly down to California and stay with them for the Summer. HOW COOL! I brought all my Graduation Money with me and spent two months LIVING in The Comic Book Shops of The Greater Anaheim Area. While there I bought the first three issues of Iron Man, a nearly ful run of Marvel's Doctor Who comics, AND EVERY PIECE OF ROCKETEER MERCHANDISE I COULD FIND. This was the Summer that The Rocketeeer Movie was coming out, and I got to MEET the creator (Dave Stevens) at one of those Anaheim comic book shops! In my Rocketeer shirt with the brass Rocketeer badge and the Rocketeeer Button Set, I asked him to sign my 3-D Rocketeer Movie Adaptation (which he told me was his favorite merchandise that they were making for the movie), and he gave me a "Sneak Peak" Movie Pass to see the movie on the Thursday Morning BEFORE it was being officially released! It was the first time I had ever been to an advance screening!
Just over a year later, I owned my own comic book shop in Anacortes, WA ("The Escape From Reality"). A customer came in looking for back issues of The Rocketeer, and th eonly ones I had were the ones in my personal collection (including my signed copies). If I remember correctly, he offered me $30 each for the signed issues and $25 each for the non-signed. I needed the money so i agreed.
Several years later I was finally getting back in to comics and the first thing I looked for was to replace my lost Rocketeer Comics. Unfortunately, NO ONE HAD THEM. Or at least no one was selling them! GRRR!!!
Got a job in a call center and befriended a fellow named Dan Matanski, who was a big fan of Dave Stevens (creator/artist/writer of The Rocketeer) and he introduced me to all of Dave Stevens "Good Girl" pin-up artwork, and I suddenly had an obsession with Bettie page as well as The Rocketeer!
Years go by, I keep looking for old issue sof The Rocketeer, no one has any for sale... and then, two weeks ago... at that Comic Book Convention where I had a table? FOUND IT! Pacific Comics Presents #1 - THE VERY FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE ROCKETEER! IN A QUARTER BIN OF ALL PLACES!!! It made me very, very happy :) All I could think as I read it was "Why didn't he ever make more of this? This was GREAT!"
Then, today, the news comes that Dave Stevens passed away yesterday after a very long and private battle with Lukemia.
It's got me all... all tied-up inside.
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