The Rocketeer: The Great Race Comic Book Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the High-Flying Adventurer

 From IDW Publishing

This April, IDW invites pulp adventure fans on a trans-Atlantic journey in The Rocketeer: The Great Race! A brand-new four-issue comic book miniseries commemorating 40 years of Dave Stevens’ iconic hero, The Great Race soars to stratospheric storytelling heights courtesy of New York Times bestselling writer/artist Stephen Mooney!

“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,” says Mooney. “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.

As an additional bonus, each issue of The Rocketeer: The Great Race will contain an oral history featuring Dave Stevens’s friends, family, and fellow artists, all culled together by Kelvin Mao, the director of the forthcoming documentary on the beloved artist!

“Stephen Mooney has a love and affinity for The Rocketeer, and the time period the iconic character inhabits… all of which is abundantly evident in the story he has crafted,” says editor Scott Dunbier. “It’s a fun-filled romp, one I think Dave Stevens would enjoy!”

The debut issue of The Rocketeer: The Great Race will be available with multiple cover variants for retailers and fans to enjoy, including Cover A by Gabriel Rodríguez (of Locke & Key fame), Cover B by Stephen Mooney himself, a Blank Sketch edition for Cover C (which fans can illustrate themselves, or ask their favorite artists to draw), and a Retailer Incentive edition featuring virgin artwork by Rodríguez.

April 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of The Rocketeer’s debut as a backup feature in 1982’s Starslayer #2. In addition to The Great Race, IDW will celebrate “Rocketeer Month” with an encore release of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer Artist’s Edition, a new printing of the inaugural release in IDW’s multiple award-winning Artist’s Edition line. Long out of print, this completely redesigned reissue of the long-out-of-print Artist’s Edition reproduces an integral work of comics history, meticulously scanned from the original art.

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