The practical and extraordinary, Jake Von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop has just managed to escape neo-Victorian Daleks in a steambath, and more life-threateningly, has survived an interview with Bostodelphia Blog! Questioned by Messers Impaler and Cod Peace, Mr Von Slatt explains what his version of Steampunk is, why he likes building things – and why he thinks people get a little too caught up on the history instead of the dream!

“Ah, it’s a common mistake to think we care about what the past was. We’re much more interested in what it should have been and what the future can be….”

A very in depth, and interesting interview, definitely worth a read to see Mr Von Slatt’s version of Steampunk, and how it compares to your own!  Thank you both Mr Von Slatt and CP!  (Mr Von Slatt is seen above with his beautiful brass RSS morse tapper, and Steampunk guitar.)

Over at ConceptArt.org, those terribly skilled artists are deep in the depths of the Character of the Week challenge, or CHOW once again – and this week’s challenge is a Steampunk Penguin Professor (with assistant) in the Arctic.  They’re on to the final thread, the Final Burning, and there’s already some utterly stunning (and exceptionally charming) entries piling in.  The one above, by poster Einen, was my current favourite, but it’s so utterly close I may well change my mind in the next few minutes if I’m not careful.  (Remember, no comments on the thread until the poll is in, in case you are tempted.)

Congratulations to all the entries so far – and to whomever should win the challenge, a special congratulations!  I love the idea that the terribly serious looking creatures, waddling across the ice, are fussy professors educating and elucidating in the name of mad science!  Thank you, AndyW!

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I’m not dead!  I apologise for being absent so, but it’s back to pleasure as usual and I’d first like to mention that when I was in New York (for the Dances of Vice festival, more on that later) I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see the musical Wicked on broadway.  Oh, such a beautiful show!  Telling the tale of the Wicked Witch of the West, the Good Witch Glinda and many more non-Dorothy characters from Oz, and I honestly hadn’t gone there with the expectation of anything Steampunk.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised – from utterly delicious pseudo-Victorian Emerald City costumes (that you can see blurrily in the video above) to the ominous and threatening influx of dangerous science and more cogs than I could shake a magic wand at!

The sets featured sillouetted iron bridges, giant backlit gothic clockfaces, and a wooden clockwork dragon overseeing the whole beautiful affair.  The Wizard of Oz’ mechanical giant head is also has to be seen to be disbelieved!  I’d heartily recommend seeing it if you can (New York, Chicago, LA, London, Tokyo, Stuttgart, and Melbourne) and if you don’t come away with a hankering for green lensed glasses/goggles, I’ll be somewhat surprised.

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Imagine if there were a dashingly handsome gentleman, on call to solve disasters and problems all around Europe.  Imagine if that gentleman and his manservant globetrotted in a pedal powered hot-air-ship of delightful design.  And finally that solving problems that had stumped other great minds, was all about creating just the right chocolate for the occasion.  Bonkers, I agree, and advertising for a mammoth company (Cailler/Nestle) but some really lovely scenes and just for a moment I really wish there had been a Steampunk debonaire chocolatier extraordinaire, swooping out of the sky to save the day.

I have to say the airship itself (the best part of the advert by far, despite my breathless antics above) reminds me of the White Dwarf blimp, or Zeppy the Golden Airship.  In fact, it’s nice to catch up with those projects, though I see no updates from the White Dwarf team (and a very good excuse for just that – if you had a blimp, would you spend time on a webpage?) the Zeppy airship seems to still be going through iterations and updates, with a blog (in French) that gets occasional posts.  Thank you, Andreas the Watchmaker, for telling me about the above advertisement!

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Mr Berman saw the wonderful ‘mad scientist lights’ that people had been making – but was saddened that there weren’t brass and wood ones available – so he made one for himself!  And then his friends wanted some, and then other friends of friends and eventually he decided to make them available to others, online at Gothic Glow.  As he’s a one gentleman operation, numbers are limited but if your hand does not, or will not turn to making one of these yourself, perhaps you’d prefer to buy one from him.  They come in several sizes, and while the ones on his site come with skull knobs, there’s always the possibility that if you prefer your light skullless, then he may provide an alternative (I think replacing them with a small quartz knob would be rather nice, but you’d be best doing that yourself).

Lovely illuminators, and a nice option for those not quite ready to try making their own!  (Though, I always recommend having a go yourself at making Steampunk objects – if only for the experience!)

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Einar very kindly wrote to open my eyes to what seems to be a phenomenon that had completely passed me by – the Norwegian animated film, Flåklypa Grand Prix (also known as the Pinchcliffe Grand Prix).  This stop motion animated tale from the 1970’s featured an eccentric but kind inventor and his friends entering a sportscar race for the honour of his inventions!  The sportscar, named Il Tempo Gigante, is a beautiful creation that captured the hearts and minds of decades of children – and the car featured above is a realisation of that car as accurately as possible!  Complete with two engines (one of which is a helicopter turbine too loud and powerful to actually turn on, the other is a V8) and has available to it over 550hp.

Who would not want a car with it’s own built in blood bank?  A car with a radar for those pesky moments when your foe uses nasty tricks against you in the race?  A car that sounds so nice?  No doubt it is a beast, and terribly inefficient – but it is very beautiful, and the animation itself looks utterly charming.  I believe they even sell a radio controlled one.

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Pieter wrote to point out this video by the Backyard FX team on how to make your own Steampunk Rayguns (inspired by the incomparable Weta Rayguns) with second hand and found parts – while each raygun will be unique (as they ought to be) it gives a nice overview on how simple and cheap it can be to put together something that will put the willies up the Martians – as long as you don’t actually try to use it!  They are a little light on actual instructions, because no two pieces will connect together the same way, but you get the idea, I hope.  There’s a silly three way fight at the end with rayguns and some rotoscoping – hopefully encouraging others to use their rayguns for theatrical effect and they ask which raygun you prefer out of the two that they make.  Personally, I’m definitely a Raygun 1 fan, but you may differ in your preferences!

Alternatively, or additionally, you may take interest in the Instructables for making your own raygun sent to me by Fredrick von Drak.  Again it is using found objects, so your raygun will differ from the his and hers that aintMichael demonstrates! 

If you do make your own raygun, do let me know – I’d be interested to see them, and indeed what Martians (or Venusians – everyone forgets about the Venusians) you’ve vanquished using them!  Thank you both, von Drak and Mr Pieter.

Just a quick update to give some more information about the upcoming (10 days and counting) Retro and Steampunk two day festival in New York – the Dances of Vice Steampunk Festival, 8th and 9th of February, 2008.  Firstly, there will be prizes awarded to the best dressed revellers – categories including Best Victorian Gentleman, Best Victorian Lady, Most Steampunk, Dandy Highwayman, Most Bizarre and more!  The prizes sound (and indeed look) fabulous – from magazines and convention tickets to tricorn hats and frockcoats.

Ms Jaberwhalky is facilitating those who wish to meet up before the event – either to mingle, socialise or just get directions to the location.  After the event, there’s a meetup on the Sunday afternoon for brunch for those who’d like to keep the weekend going a little longer!  RSVP a table soon, if you’d like to include that.  So two days of theatre, music, dance and costume – followed by an optional afternoons brunch – delightful!

I’ll be attending the event myself, all the way from the West Midlands, UK, so I very much hope to see some readers there!  I have to say – I’m rather excited to be going to New York (my first visit) and I’ll be making a week of it – expect me on those shores on the 3rd!

If the 19th Century truly had provided the Victorians with means and method to travel to Mars, then there’s no doubt in my mind they would have brought along an exobotanist or two to catalogue the new and exciting plant life of the red planet.  Perhaps they would have initially been reduced to bringing back dried or pressed samples, but eventually Steampunk Wardian-like cases would have been constructed – isolated and contained living environments for the peculiar plants to exist within, designed for their peculiar and alien needs.

Above, you can see a very well appointed containment device for a mere seeding of the carnivorus muscipula – a carnivorous plant that in its immature form can subsist on soil nutrients.  With a near-vacuum created within the system, and a self-contained nutrient cycle, the sample could be assured of many years of study and conversation topic star status.  This particular containment device comes with illustrations and notes about the plant, and some wag has decided to nickname this specimen “Chompy”.  (Compare real Wardian cases, and miniature biospheres.)

Another wonderful example (and according to him slightly more ‘pulp’ styled than his usual creations) from AlexCF, who recently changed his website.  The Martian Botanical Preservation Device is on Ebay for the next 12 hours or so, if you simply must have a Steampunk version of Audrey from The Little Shop of Horrors!  Wonderful work, Alex, and congratulations to you and Ms Suzanne on the lovely new site!

The character Iron Man, from the Marvel Comics universe, has usually been more of a pulp or dieselpunk sort of gentleman – with the upcoming film showing various versions of the powered suit that gives this hero his name – and set usually during the 1960’s to the 1970’s and onwards.  The tale of a playboy scientist who is captured and forced to construct weapons against his will, he creates a phenomenally powerful suit.  However, Mr Hayden recently let me know that issue #8 of Marvel Adventures Iron Man, has the man of the title isolated in a community using only 19th Century technology – and must use that which is available to him to construct a suit capable of defeating his foe!

Thus, the steam powered (and nicely Steampunk) suit you can see above.  With pipes and furnaces, Iron Man won’t be moving anywhere quickly, but it certainly looks solid enough to withstand quite a battle.  Of course, while the upcoming film is set in the wrong era, the first Iron Man suit has a very nice prototype feel to it that I think Steampunk fans will appreciate – especially when lifesized.  (Thank you, Spoonman!)  An excellent find, Mr Hayden.