Comics series by
Dave Stevens. Cliff Secord, a
barnstorming pilot in the
1930s, comes into possession of a stolen one-man
rocket pack. Cliff hits upon the idea of using the pack in a new act for the
air show he performs in, thereby making enough money to give his long-suffering girlfriend
Betty evertything she deserves. Things quickly get screwy as
Nazi spies,
gangsters, the
United States government, and the pack's
inventor (who looks suspiciously like
Doc Savage) come after the device.
The comic is a beautiful piece of work, deftly capturing the feel of the old pulps. Both the writing and the artwork are full of dead-on references to the period: for example, a deformed giant who's been committing a series of murders turns out to be a ringer for horror film actor Rondo Hatton.
The movie captured the look extraordinarily well, but couldn't quite muster the excitement or suspense of the original.