Even though the Victorians were notoriously prudish (show a little too much ankle and your reputation would be destroyed forever), they were also obsessed with sex. The new project from Combustion Books promises to be “your guide to the sexy side of steampunk, covering everything from kinky Victorian sexuality to contemporary subcultural sex.”
Featuring everything from piercings to Victorian aphrodisiacs, burlesque, consent culture, and yes, DIY floggers made with bike tubes, this book has it all. Written mainly by in-house mad historian Professor Calamity, the team at Combustion (Margaret Killjoy, Luna &Miriam Roček) also consulted acclaimed author Alan Moore (From Hell, Watchmen).
The project will be funded on October 8th, and I mean really funded—they’ve raised over $9,000 (their Kickstarter goal was $2,200). Contribute today and get your own erotic tintype photograph (positive one-of-a-kind images developed directly onto aluminum plates).
*Update: buy it on Amazon: A Steampunk’s Guide to Sex
The Unreal World: Boston
Scribed by Justin Engles -
Time to find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start hunting evil from a parallel dimension. The Boston Metaphysical Society is a six-issue web comic mini-series and the first issue of this steampunk supernatural mystery is out now.
It’s 1895 and the city of Boston is alive with steam-powered technology complete with…you guessed it—dirigibles! Ex-Pinkerton Detective Samuel Hunter, Spirit Photographer Caitlin O’Sullivan, and Mad Scientist Granville Woods are on the hunt for a mysterious villain set against a backdrop of social and political upheaval
Written and created by Madeleine Holly-Rosing with art by Emily Hu.
Updates every Thursday.
Steampunk Comic Book Free-For-All
Scribed by Xerposa -
“Bio-cybernetic Steampunk.” Say that five times fast. It’s the moniker that Top Cow founder and Cyber Force creator Marc Silvestri (Incredible Hulk) is using to describe the new Cyber Force comic book series.
In order to mark the 20th anniversary of Top Cow and Image Comics, Silvestri and Matt Hawkins (Think Tank, Lady Pendragon) are re-launching and re-imagining Cyber Force, the series that launched their company. The good news is that the makeover will be steampunk-inspired.
And since the team at Top Cow exceeded their Kickstarter funding goal (raising over $100,000), the first five full issues of the new series are going to be completely free. This makes them the first major US comic publisher to launch one of their biggest properties for the print and digital markets at zero cost to the consumer.
Cyber Force is about a group of cybernetically enhanced resistance fighters on the run from a monolithic multi-national conglomerate. Artist Khoi Pham (Mighty Avengers, Daredevil) has redrawn the classic characters and imbued them with fresh steampunk style.
Silvestri had this to say about the thematic concerns of the new series; “The literal fusion of nature and technology is a future we can all see coming and the doors that open because of it are as interesting as the doors it will close.”
Though Cyber Force made it’s debut twenty years ago, the series is still quite culturally relevant. Silvestri explains that “for the first time in history, mankind’s intelligence is outpacing evolution. It takes nature thousands of years to adapt to changes and the things we’ve accomplished technologically in just the past 100 years have thrown our ability to evolve, and in turn survive, completely out of whack. In other words, we’re creating a world of wonders and conveniences that we could never hope to survive. This dilemma is at the heart of CYBER FORCE.”
So if you have ever been at all curious about the world of comics, here’s a great way to explore for free. The new series promises to be well-drawn, well-written, and you won’t even have to attempt to shoplift it.
Be Still My Mechanical Heart
Scribed by Xerposa -
Looking for a steamy page-turner? Look no further.
Ekaterina Sedia’s “The Alchemy Of Stone ” follows Mattie, an automaton caught in the midst of a war between alchemists (her allies) and mechanics (her creators). Sedia’s third novel is a steampunk fantasy tale about the heavy cost of technological progress and the blurry definitions of humanity.
The fast-paced plot features a terrorist bombing, an assassination and a violent war. Sedia is an acclaimed steampunk fantasy author. Her latest work is “Running with the Pack.”
Monsters, Espionage, and Quiche – An Interview with Gail Carriger
Scribed by Justin Engles -
“There will be steampunk etiquette! There will be well-dressed espionage! There will be Victorian fake food. There will be flying mechanical sausage dogs named Bumbersnoot!”
It may sound as though the acclaimed steampunk author Gail Carriger is outlining her usual weekend plans, but she’s actually referring to one of her new series of books due out next year.
Carriger is an archaeologist and an accomplished author of steampunk fiction. She has a master’s in archaeological materials and a master’s in anthropology. She is also obsessed with quiche. When I inquired about her most recent obsessions Carriger confessed that she’s “obsessed with creating the perfect basic quiche recipe. It’s been the work of the past year and I’m narrowing in on it. I know, I’m a crazy daredevil.”
Carriger earned national attention with her Parasol Protectorate series. The books blend Victorian romance, comedy and alternate history. “Soulless ” follows Alexia Tarabotti as she navigates the dangers of vampires, werewolves, ghosts and social etiquette (she even kills a vampire with her parasol). The books are whimsical and fun, but they’re also written with sharp wit and sophistication.
Carriger has two new book series that will be released in 2013. Etiquette & Espionage , the first book in her Young Adult Finishing School Series comes out February 5th. Carriger explained that this series “is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate series, only 25 years earlier, and features a finishing academy located in a giant caterpillar-like dirigible floating over Dartmoor in which young ladies are taught to…finish…everything…and everyone…as needed.”
Her new adult series promises just as much excitement, it’s called “the Parasol Protectorate Abroad. If you’ve finished Heartless then you know who that series will feature! The first one will be called Prudence and the second Imprudence.”
So where does a New York Times best-selling author find inspiration? “I pay very close attention to my friends when they’re drunk, but usually inspiration comes to me when I’m contemplating the absurdity of the universe and at the most inconvenient time – like in the shower.”
Carriger explained that her creative process involves climbing into the voice, “which can involve a lot of BBC costume dramas and a flat out ban on reality TV. I tend to only allow myself to read original material when I’m writing a first draft. That is, lots of Dickens, and ladies’ journals from the 1800s, Victorian medical texts and the like.”
Carriger’s work reflects this blend of humor and intellect. While her books are incredibly funny, they also interrogate important and topical themes. For instance, while much of steampunk is about embracing technology, there is also some resistance to it. Carriger explains the ambivalence: “This ties into the Gothics like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which represented a switch from fear of religious monsters (for example, moral corruption like that in The Monk) to the demonization of science and the creatures it could produce. The irony of such books, and now steampunk, is that if we, mankind, create the monsters of our own corruption we also become responsible for the devices that might save us from our own creations. Technology is both our downfall and our salvation, this, is in the end a very modern issue, relevant to our time that steampunk can explore in a wonderfully outrageous way.”
This combination of critical insight, imagination and humor has earned Carriger a well-deserved literary celebrity, the pressures of which she handles well. The Parasol Protectorate series was recently optioned. Adaptations are often sensitive subjects for writers who fear the loss of creative control, but Carriger offers a different perspective; “I’m not precious about my work. I’ve written the book, if you want the truth in my words that’s the media in which you should consume me . . . as it were. The manga is an artist’s interpretation of my words. I love it, but it’s not the way I would draw my characters. That’s the point, and the beauty, it’s an interpretation. A TV series would add someone else’s voice to the mix. I can hope it won’t be awful, but I know I will have very little sway in the process and I have to make peace with that or risk insanity.”
Make sure to check out Carriger’s new series coming out next year, but it would also be a very wise decision to explore her current body of work. You won’t be disappointed.
