Dave Stevens: Covers & Stories
(2012 - IDW Publications)

Though attractive, I think this book's a bit of a mess - but it still has to stand as a great collection of Dave Stevens' brush & ink work. While putting aside that Stevens was a part of the art faction that put 50s pin-up model Bettie Page back at center-stage again, the man is best known for his creation of The Rocketeer story and this book focuses on all the other work he contributed to graphic storytelling. Reportedly almost all the images he created for covers are here. When counted, along with the splashy pin-up pieces gathered, I get 72 beautiful images - unfortunately nearly that many pages again are taken up with blown-up extracts of them, alternate version roughs, thumbnail compositions and loose sketches (very valuable to studying fledgling artists perhaps, but not what I'm looking for . . .). Another couple of handfuls of pages are given over to promotional materials, splash pages and enlarged comic panels. 28 pages have multiple smaller images on display. And then there is the 'Stories' part of the equation - 38 pages of sequential art - 5 complete stories and a number of representatives of much longer works. Seven large art pieces are turned sideways, two of them as foldouts. 19 works, mostly some of the detail extracts mentioned above, are shown as double-page spreads and a whopping 16 of them are doomed by the book's gutter. There is some nudity among all the barely-dressed characters seen here, but nothing crosses the line to be objectionable for the young ones. Because of the breadth of his career, the well-known characters he is delineating between the book's covers are: King Kong, The X-Men, Hellboy, Phantom Lady, Supergirl, Catwoman, Big Barda, Xena, Sheena, Elvira, Vampirella, Bettie Page, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Jonny Quest, Doc Stearn, The Hulk, Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer, Captain America, Magneto, Captain Marvel, Doc Savage and The Shadow. Because of the collaborative aspect of so much of the comics industry, other artists had a hand in many of the 'well-presented' pieces - they are: Bret Blevins, Adam Hughes (2), Jack Kirby (6), Stan Manoukian, Will Meugniot, Arnold Pander, Jacob Pander, Vince Roucher, Scott Shaw, Jim Silke (3), Jim Sullivan, Wally Wood and Tom Yeates.