IDW Celebrate 40th Anniversary Of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer With New Series ‘The Rocketeer: The Great Race’

This April, IDW will be celebrating one of contemporary comics much-loved heroes in The Rocketeer: The Great Race. A four-issue comic book miniseries commemorating 40 years of the late, great Dave Stevens’ iconic hero by writer/artist Stephen Mooney.

Mooney, as a fan, cannot wait:

“Writing and drawing a Rocketeer book has long been somewhat of a bucket-list item for me. I grew up on Dave Stevens’ unique blend of swashbuckling derring-do and pulpy adventure with Cliff, Betty, and Peevy, and those seminal issues still stand today as one of my favorite series of all time. It’s incredibly daunting and yet also fantastically thrilling and a real challenge. Let’s take to the skies!”

 “In The Great Race, stunt pilot Cliff Secord returns to a West Coast steeped in paranoia over the looming war in Europe. Having finally had enough of his near-death scrapes as the high-flying Rocketeer, the only thing in Cliff’s crosshairs is a prestigious, winner-take-all air race that runs from California to France! Maybe it’s finally time to smarten up and fly straight… by taking his best girl Betty to Paris! But other parties want to win the race for their own nefarious ends, and Cliff will need to decide which prize is truly the most valuable of all.”

Additionally, each issue will also contain an oral history featuring Dave Stevens’s friends, family, and fellow artists, all culled together by Kelvin Mao, who directed a forthcoming documentary on the Stevens and his work.

The debut issue will be available with multiple cover variants, including Cover A by Gabriel Rodríguez (of Locke & Key fame), Cover B by Mooney, a Blank Sketch edition for Cover C and a Retailer Incentive edition featuring virgin artwork by Rodríguez.

But, that’s not all. As well as The Rocketeer: The Great Race, IDW will celebrate “Rocketeer Month” with a releases of a new printing of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer Artist’s Edition.