The Rocketeer comic strip was created in 1982 by Dave Stevens, a 35-year-old commercial artist who’d based his hero on a childhood love for classic airplanes and such serials as KING OF THE ROCKET MEN (1949). “Everywhere I looked there would be planes from the World Wars, including P-38s, Flying Tigers, and Buzz Bombs,” said Stevens of his inspirations, “All of the model kits I built were based on those aircraft, a hobby that made me realize I was growing up during aviation’s most aesthetically interesting period. The engineers tried to build everything that could fly, and they came up with some incredible designs.”
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