One of the drawbacks of an interest in "the old days" is that the people and places most associated with those glorious times are either gone or soon will be. Writing an obituary or covering the implosion of yet another landmark building comes with the territory. It's never easy to report someone's death, but it's rarely a surprise when one of Retroville's senior members passes on.

Today is different.

Dave Stevens is best-known as creator of "The Rocketeer" and the man whose love of an obscure raven-haired model turned Bettie Page from a historical footnote into a style icon. This love-from-afar turned into a real friendship when Ms. Page (who was thought to be dead) turned up alive...and living not far from Dave. Deciding that too many people had made too much money off of Bettie's likeness, he helped her out financially and even would run errands for her.

More on Dave Stevens after the jump! Post contributed by Ol' Scratch, producer for The Boston Babydolls. Image of young Scratch with The Rocketeer at the Boston premiere at The Circle Cinema, summer 1991, courtesy of Ol' Scratch.

Dave was a man out of time in so many ways. As an artist, Dave was ponderously slow. Lifelong friend and fellow artist Mark Evanier said of him "It wasn't so much that he was slow, as his friends joked, but that he was almost obsessively meticulous, doing days of study and sketching to create one panel, and doing many of them over and over." But ask any pin-up aficionado or Rocketeer fan, it was worth the wait.

He loved "retro" long before "retro" was fashionable, and his fingerprints can be found on some of the defining pieces of nostalgia-inspired culture. His first professional comic book work was
a European Tarzan graphic novel, and he was the storyboard artist for Raiders of the Lost Ark. He would have been happiest creating industrial designs for Ford's "Cars of The Future" in the 1950s or toiling over Bristol board for Will Eisner during World War II... except that Dave wasn't born until 1955.

Dave’s time ran out on Monday, March 10 when he succumbed to a multi-year battle with Leukemia. He was 52. His work inspired an entire generation of artists.

A section of The Art Show at the upcoming Vintage Fashion Fair (March 22-23, 2008) will be a memorial to Mr. Stevens. Visitors will be able to make donations which will be given to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation.