Review by Frank Plowright

The first of IDW’s Classic Collections combines all the Rocketeer material drawn by his creator Dave Stevens along with multiple other prominent writers and artists offering their versions of the 1930s action hero as previously published in hardcover as Rocketeer Adventures and Rocketeer Adventures Volume 2. It’s a bumper package and no mistake, with the drawback being all that great art reduced to bargain priced pocket format. At over 350 pages, though, it’s not pocket sized.

As created by Dave Stevens, the Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a young stunt pilot in the 1930s who finds an experimental jetpack, can’t resist using it, and in doing so becomes a target, not least for the people who lost it in the first place. It’s stirring pulp adventure characterised by beautifully composed art and timeless designs. Stevens created the strip primarily to please himself, and worked out a plot enabling him to draw people and locations he had an interest in. Cliff’s girlfriend Betty is based on 1950s glamour model Bettie Page, and his mechanic Peevy resembles artist Doug Wildey, with whom Stevens worked in an animation studio. It’s stirring adventure fun, with magnificent art elevating standard plots.

The remaining work is a mouth-watering list of other creators providing their interpretation of the Rocketeer. The surprise is that although there are exceptions, most contributions sticking as closely as possible to the template Stevens introduced are disappointing. John Cassady pours his heart into the sumptuous illustration of a script he also writes, but the homage offers nothing new. It’s also the first of so many tales treating Betty as someone constantly in need of rescue. Less reverence and more imagination was necessary overall, and it’s not helped by the pagination, with the editors sticking rigidly to the original publication order when a little more mixing would have meant so many of the obvious homages weren’t front ended. People who manage it well, though, are John Byrne and the writing and art team of Louise and Walt Simonson.

If highlighting a single strip that really stands out, it’s difficult to look past ‘Dear Betty…’ by Kurt Busiek and Michael Wm. Kaluta. Kaluta’s exquisitely composed art immediately impresses, even squashed into the small format, but Busiek also pulls his weight. It’s tale told by a series of postcards received by Betty in different locations spanning the US involvement in World War II, and detailing the Rocketeer’s part in it.

With Stevens’ art so highly rated, it’s unsurprising so many extremely accomplished artists feature, although be warned, they’re not always illustrating the most notable stories. The sample art is from Tommy Lee Edwards, and in addition to Cassaday and Kaluta, there’s artwork to relish from Michael Allred, Darwyn Cooke, Gene Ha, John Paul Leon, Sandy Plunkett, Ryan Sook, Chris Sprouse, Chris Weston and Colin Wilson. Occasionally, though, there’s a misfire, such as Bill Sienkiewicz not adapting his own style enough for a script from Peter David intended as a cartoon pastiche.

For anyone who’s not been introduced to the Rocketeer before, this is a bargain format, but art lovers would surely want a larger size.