Thursday, February 15, 2024

Bob Stevens was a fighter pilot in WWII with a gift for drawing cartoons. Over the next few decades he (humorously) chronicled life in the Air Force as he saw it, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His cartoons were published in AIR FORCE Magazine, from Jan 1964 to Jan 1989








He studied art Pasadena City College before joining the Army Air Corps in 1942 and earned his wings a year later.

 He was a fighter pilot in the Pacific until the end of World War II, and flew about every World War II fighter the Army Air Forces had, and also made cartoons for the army magazines Army Times and Stars and Stripes. 

After WW2 he became a civilian flight instructor and advertising director of a short-haul airline. He was recalled to active duty in 1948 as a jet pilot, and set a world speed record in 1950 in the F-86 Sabre and later commanded the first Atlas missile squadron.

He subsequently turned to creating editorial cartoons for the Copley News Service, and his work was soon syndicated to more than 300 newspapers. During the 1970s and 1980s, he made aviation cartoons for Private Pilot and Professional Pilot magazines.

There doesn't seem to be a Wikipedia article for him, so read this https://www.caffrenchwing.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/News-0404U.pdf


General James Doolittle






Bob Stevens illustrated Washout! The Aviation Cadet Story by Charles A. Watry, https://supersabresociety.com/biography/watry-charles-a/

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the introduction to this guy. Thinking he belongs up on shelf with Bill Mauldin, I went online and bought the Stevens book “Prop Wash.” Thanks again.

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    1. You're sure welcome! I put in a bid on Ebay for the bottom two books myself, seeing that someone is selling both for less than any other people are selling them separately.
      How the heck I've never run across his work before is surprising!
      By the way, I'm still working on this post, there's more to add to it!

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    2. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-only-examples-ive-seen-of-willie.html

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  2. There will never be again the likes of him and his contempories. Respect.

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