Over at Wired, Mr Von Slatt has been interviewed by Mr Brownlee and that, coupled with the photographs of Mr Von Slatts various creations over the years, results in a lovely glimpse at the terribly creative man behind the keyboard.  (And the monitor, and the guitar, and…).

Oh, and I promise not to tease too much about Mr Slatt being called ‘Mr Steampunk’.  Well, only a little. chuckles  Well done, Mr Steampunk!

Over at the Da Vinci Automata clockpunk blog, they’ve posted about an upcoming comic called Clockwork Girl.  Star crossed lovers are not a new theme, but when one of the loves is a clockwork automaton and the other a Frankenstein’s Monster styled creation, and their great scientist creators (ex-best friends) espouse their particular aspects of science as the greatest and most misunderstood – then it’s starcrossed lovers of a most Steampunk style.

The Clockwork Girl sees life with an excitement and enthusiasm that doesn’t want to be quenched, Huxley (the monsterboy) is a young man keen to see the world to hell with the cost!  It sounds like it’s going to be a desperately lovely tale and you can read an interview with lots more about it at the Comic Book Resources site (with example pages) and a little on the offical Arcana Studio site.  I do hope they prevail!

While in 1907 the world’s fastest vehicle may have been steam powered, in 1884 the world’s first automobile was powered by that self same vapour! “La Marquise” as it was sometimes called was created for one of the owners of the De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux company and can reach a blistering 38mph (61kph). With half an hour to get up to the right pressure/temperature, it can’t be said to be the world’s nippiest runabout, but being first does tip the scales in its favour.

La Marquise is going to be up for auction in August – estimated to go at anywhere between 1.5 and 2 million US dollars. While more than a little too expensive for my pockets, the future owner will have a vehicle that still runs, consuming coal wood and bits of paper and providing a less than smooth ride on thin metal wheels coated in rubber. 1884 – a one-hundred and twenty-three year old car, my goodness. Sorry I couldn’t find a larger image – I did try, really. Thanks to Mr Thompson, Nathan, Mr Dancer, Chich and Joseph Esquire.

[Edit] Oh thank you Mr Fitzpatrick! You found a much better image from the Steam Car Club of Great Britian.

In 1907, the fastest vehicle on the planet was powered by steam. Now, steam vehicles have a reputation (whether true or not) for being slow, inefficient and generally rubbish – but that may not be the way it has to be. The British Steam Car Challenge team are making a new steam powered car, with four boilers and a very high tech chassis indeed – their aim being to break the 200mph (321kph) barrier that has stymied other attempts in the past. A technological achievement that would help to establish that steam is a technology with ‘legs’ yet!

Interestingly, they cite raising the popularity of steam as a vehicle propulsion method once again – adding that almost any fuel can be used to generate steam, whether it’s mined, grown, or even captured from the sun. The car above will be using LPG for their attempt and you can read more about it on the official site (with fan club) or on the Steam Car Club site page too. There was even a radio program on BBC Radio4 about it too. Good publicity, and if it means that in a few years time I can have a steam car of my own, then more power to them. Best of British, gentlemen! (I.e. Good luck). Thankyou to Miss Turner, Swizec, NovySan, Alex, Mr Clary, Sedition and Mr Plunkett.

It’s been a bit quiet about the Edison Bar in Los Angeles for a while, after the review from the terribly kind Ms Lev, but Mr Ginder wrote to point out the utterly heartclenchingly beautiful high-dynamic range photography from the Flickr user Dave Bullock (eecue) of the club, alive but empty. Such rich colours; dried blood red leather seating, bashed leather patterned walls, shimmering metallic brick effects and huge musty metal boilers and bolts. The HDR definitely works well for the club, giving it that rich but pleasantly unreal effect where the lights glow gently and the glass highlights give off a feeling of a 1980′s whiskey advertisment.

Just lovely, but it worries me that I can’t imagine that the usual clientele would possibly be able to compete with their surroundings. Is it just too lovely?

If you’ve wondered what an interior designer might make of the Steampunk look, then wonder no longer because the delightful Ms Sara over at The Steampunk Home page signed for a service that would take a photograph of a room and digitally composite a new interior design to your guidelines.  She asked for a Steampunk style.  The result is above, and you can see the ‘before’ image on her page.  I found it interesting what the designer thought of Steampunk as a style she’d not encountered before:

“Looking at the steampunk thing from a designers angle it makes a lot of sense. A basic design theory is called opposition, where elements of the room work together due to their differences rather than their sameness. I think that is the appeal of steampunk. The strong contrast between Victorian refinement and industrial grit, old technology vs new etc. makes it very interesting. It’s also a green concept as we need to stop buying so much new and find ways to salvage and reuse.”

An interesting view indeed!  Personally, I think the mural at the back is a little much, and I’m sure it’d not be my style, but that’s the fun of it – it was designed specifically for Ms Sara.  Thank you for letting me post about this, Ms Sara.

Oh yes, this is very flash indeed. It’s a jar of mechanically operated fireflies created by user Jesse over at Cre.Ations.Net and it’s delightfully Steampunk! A knifeswitch on the lid of the jar controls the internal lighting (UV) and a handle on the side turns the elegant and beautifully fragile mechanism within that jiggles and wobbles and rotates the mock-fireflies within. Springs and brass wires, knifeswitches and mysterious glowing things – it’s ticking several of my favourite tickboxes. There’s a video to be watched too – it really does look great moving. The internal mechanism is so delicate, that the jar-tube is utterly required to protect it, and the fireflies themselves are UV reactive BBs that glow unnaturally under the UV leds embedded into the lid. It’s utterly fetching and I am in awe of the creator. Very well done indeed! What a perfect device to have on a desk somewhere, begging to be cranked so that a mechanical dance of the fauxerflies can play out again and again. Thanks as well to the ever so creative Mr Zoelen for pointing it out.

(Also, can you spot the hidden message in one of the images?  I didn’t at first – how foolish I felt!)

Mr Matthews has written a five part primer on a selection of things Steampunk – from looking at it as a literary genre, to an evolving musical feel or style, to the wonderful applied arts creations that fire the imagination so.

The articles seem well researched, and give an interesting not-quite outsider viewpoint on everything that Steampunk has come to mean in music, fashion, art and literature as well as lifestyle. Mr Matthews doesn’t however, seem to be quite as partial to goggles as I am (perhaps they are as cliche’d as mirrorshades are to cyberpunk), but I do admit to being a little predictable in that respect. *chuckles* I do enjoy a happy ending too – and the conclusion is pleasantly optomistic! Nicely done, Mr Matthews.
(Above image from timetrax23 on Flickr – lovely books.)

If you are going to the San Diego Comic Convention during the 25th to 29th of next month (July), and you happen to be desirous of a one-quarter sized Man-Melter raygun (and it seems alien to me that you would not be, but each to their own), then haste ye to the Weta site so that you may preorder one for the painfully tempting price of thirty US dollars.  Preorders are open only until the 20th of July, and they must be collected at said comic convention – otherwise I would have sneakily preordered at least one for myself already!

Of comparable size to a pocketwatch (good analogy) and perfectly formed of hefty metal, they are quite obviously the bite sized versions of their larger Steampunk/Pulp brethren.  Sighs   Still, perhaps if they do well, they will be rolled out to the other, equally marvellous raygun styles in miniature form and be available for purchase and delivery.  A young lady can hope, can’t she?  Thanks to Doktor A for pointing this out, and also spotted over at the lovely Street Tech blog.

Lord Auron has done a modification of the squirrel papercraft template known as e440, and dubbed it the Magnificient Steam Powered Squirrel.  Available on request (oddly enough) and under Creative Commons licence, you too could have a rectilinear rodent, complete with goggles (not part of the original model, I believe – but we know how important goggles can be).

This was apparently one of Mr Auron’s first forays into the nervewracking world of aethernet exposure, and I commend him on not only his skill, but his courage too!  It’s turned out marvellously, Sir – well done.