There are not many essays on the steampunk genre. That’s why French publishing house: Les Moutons Electriques (Electric Sheep) decided to publish that one of a kind essay by Etienne Barilier: Steampunk! L’esthétique retro-futur.

From Jules Verne to JD Falkstein, from Japanese anime to Dr Grymm’s laboratory, from Girl Genius to the League of heroes, literature, music, cinema, graphic novel, fashion, every aspects of steampunk are detailed here from a very didactic point of view.

A must-have for any steampunk addict.

reviewed and approved by HAC

With a brand new website and a full section in english, I invite you to meet French gentleman Maurice Sandalette and his lovely assistant, Miss Prann.

Brilliantly funny and definitely steampunk, “Les Historiettes de Monsieur Sandalette” are a serie of daguerrotype-novels full of aliens, tentacles and sea monsters.

Enjoy!

There were many writers that influenced the Steampunk mouvement and no one more than Jules Verne. If you have time for the coming summer and after having visited the docks where you can see the Great walking Elephant, I advise you to go up-hill to the Jules Verne Museum. 3 floors of this ancient mansion of the Saint-Anne hill dedicated to the fabulous writer. You will have that unique chance to (re-)discover his work through original editions of his books, facsimiles of old movie posters and of course models of the Nautilus.

This museum is worth the walk for its collection but also for the magnificient view on the river.

If you are the lucky ones who have friends/family/holidays in Brittany. You have to go to Nantes. First of all, the city saw the birth of one of our beloved genius, Jules Vernes. But I will not talk literature now, but mechanics. When you go downtown, near the river Loire, there is a very particular island in which dwell many stange creatures, half steel, half wood. The Machines de L’île is an artistic project situated in the former warehouses of the Nantes shipyard. Part Vernes, part Vinci and definitely part Dr Moreau, you cannot miss the gallery of the Machines, the Heron Tree and the Great Elephant (dare you ride it?). It is worth the travel for any steampunk lover! Picture : Nautilus Nantes

There is a kind of Steampunk fever spreading little by little over France. Now and then, clockwork designs, XIXth century flavoured ads, gears can be seen on TV, posters or magazines. I was browsing recently one of my favourite literature leaflet when I fell on Sam Van Olffen’s pictures. This artist is a young graphic sampler, as he likes to call himself, from Montpellier (South of France) who really deserves to be known among the Steampunk community. The artwork speaks for itself. He worked for the music industry, publishing houses and also did the design of an retro-future exhibition. I personally enjoy that biomechanical Napoleon !

Blood, Backstabs, Bluff are the 3B’s of that wonderful French game. Part-board, part-role playing, part card, London 1888 is really a great social game in which each player is suspected to be Jack the Ripper and has to find out who is the real Whitechapel murderer before the last prostitute is sliced. Hours of game ahead of you. Riots, fog, rain and bobbies (and of course your game mates) will try to stop your quest for identity by any mean necessary. This game is not Steampunk strictly speaking, but a quick look at the design will appeal to any XIXth century lover. The board is brilliant and the cards are simply beautiful. Even the rule book is great! You can also have a look at the website which has an awesome design and its forum. An english version should be released soon.