Rocketeer Redux

The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror: written by Roger Landridge; illustrated by J. Bone and Walt Simonson (2013): A fun, more cartoony-than-usual artistic take on the late Dave Stevens' pulp superhero. This is the sort of fun, continuity-light comic book that DC and Marvel simply don't bother making any more. Landridge keeps the dialogue zippy, and Bone really has a pleasing pen line.

Along with the usual appearances by the never-named Doc Savage (creator of the Rocketeer's rocket pack) and his comrades Monk and Ham, this miniseries gives us (also-never-named) takes on the high-society detection team of Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man movie series of the 1930's and 1940's.

Continuity for IDW's ongoing series of Rocketeer miniseries by different creative teams continues (and the next one apparently teams the Rocketeer and Will Eisner's The Spirit, with art by 80's X-Men artist Paul Smith) does move along a bit, as the ownership issue of the Rocketeer pack is finally resolved in a logical fashion.

The Howard Hughes joke (which the Disney movie turned into an actuality because of not having the rights to Doc Savage et al. and not having the leeway the comic book did to show the characters without naming them) gets riffed on again, as does H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Recommended.