Steam Magazine

24 A STEAMPUNK COLLECTION MAGAZINE

HOW TO MAKE EILEEN GUNN’S

INTERVIEW WITH

INTERVIEW

WITH

15

HOW-TO MAKE

SPATS

CONTENTS CORY GROSS’

4 STEAMPUNK” 8 CITY” 13 “STEAMPUNK POE” “HISTORY OF

37

STEAMPUNK

POLL

EILEEN GUNN’S

“ZEPPELIN

BOOK REVIEW

40TOM BANWELL INTERVIEW

WITH

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 2

NE

From the

ditor:

It is with enormous pleasure and unbridled joy that I welcome you, dear reader, to the twenty-fourth issue of our magazine, STEAM. What once was a flicker of an idea has now become a reality and I am eternally grateful to the dedicated readers out there who love escaping to a world full of robots, Victorianfuturism and etc.---even if it is for a brief moment. This magazine was established in 2009 as a homeage to the genre Steampunk, while including our readers to contribute their submissions of science fiction, how-tos, artwork and much more. And, we will continue to do so as long as you keep reading and dreaming of this fantastic world.

In our issues we dedicate our magazine to one of the forefathers of Steampunk and in this particular one we are honoring the master of darkness, Edgar Allan Poe with our “Is Poe Steampunk?” and Book review feature. To keep in the spirit of celebration we also feature an interview with the master of masks, Tom Banwell. We are also featuring a short essay by, Cory Gross, with an interesting look on the “History of Steampunk”. Our How-Tos will show you how to make spats, along with beautiful artwork submitted by our fellow Steampunk artists.

“Putting the ‘STEAM’ in Steampunk!”

Kelly Kates

Sincerely,

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 3

History of

STEAMPUNK Written by: Cory Gross

Normally, historical essays about Steampunk tend to say the same thing, but Cory Gross, who fancies himself as a “Steampunkian” scholar has written a new take on the “History of Steampunk”.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 4

H he

origins of what we know today as “Steampunk” began, along with Science Fiction as a whole, in the early years of the Scientific Romances, Victorian penny dreadfuls, and Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires.

An increasingly

literate public took advantage of the opportunities for adventure and high romance offered them by Verne, H.G. Wells, H. Rider Haggard, George Griffith, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Garrett P. Serviss, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain and Edgar Rice Burroughs, who were themselves inspired by the likes of Charles Babbage, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and the growing age of technology, colonialism, scientfic exploration and heavy industry.

That inspiration was a varied one and not easily categorized one way or the other. On the one hand there are American dime novels which celebrated technological progress and the expansionism that it permits. On the other there are the likes of Wells, who would just as soon destroy London at every

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 5

owever, for Wells and Verne, there was nothing “RetroVictorian” about their “Retro-Victorian Scientific Fantasies”. The Victorian Era was then and now.

Scientific Romances came to an end with the great Imperial Experiment and incinerated in the conflagration of World War I, giving way to the Pulp adventurers and the superheroes of the war era: Doc Savage, Blackhawk, Superman, Batman, King Kong, Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds and later Tarzan books (an era given true homage in such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Rocketeer and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow).

W

hile silent and early sound films did appeal to the Scientific Romances for story ideas, these were often placed well within the 1920’s and 30’s. Georges Melies’ inspired Trip to the Moon was itself a Scientific Romance masterpiece, released only a year after Queen Victoria’s death. Likewise, the first film adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released in 1916, just sneaking in under the wire. The silent adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, though written in 1912, looks to take place in the year of release, 1925. While Burroughs’ novel shares The Lost World’s publication date, the iconic Tarzan the Ape Man film starring Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O’Sullivan takes place conspicuously in 1932.

F

or the first film to purposely choose a period setting in which to unravel its Science Fiction, journalist and editor of the defunct Wonder Magazine, Rod Bennett, cites 1929’s Mysterious Island.

Of this Vernian adaptation, Bennett says: Verne’s novels had been speculative when they first appeared, and many of them remained so for nearly a century. They were adventure stories, yes—but built almost entirely around elaborate prophecies of future technology. When those prophecies were fulfilled (as they were in the case of books like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days) Verne’s novels didn’t seem futuristic anymore, or even quaint as they do to us today, but simply dated… hopelessly dated, and about as dated as any book could

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 6

ever hope to be. Some of them languished in this condition for over 40 years—just old-fashioned Victorian curios, brick-a-brack on the shelves of literature’s antique store. But by the mid-1920s these books were passing into a new phase, a state of being wherein the very datedness itself had acquired a fascination. And this was the genius of the stroke: I think we can say with confidence that the producers of The Mysterious Island were the first filmmakers in history who’d ever dared,

sion of the Body Snatchers, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 20 million Miles to Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Attack of the 50-Ft. Woman, and The Fly as well as Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and the biggest of them all, Japan’s Gojira (better known as Godzilla).

with a breathtaking flash of invention, NOT to update a hopelessly out-of-date book. They took Jules Verne’s daring predictions about the dayafter-tomorrow and turned them into somemidst this atomic explosion of cosmic thing else entirely—into a huge, elaborate alteroperas and prehistoric mutants, filmmakers of the nate universe story. They created a 19th century Space Age turned their attention of the imagination, where British Imperialists reached the Moon “Amidst this atomic back to the Steam Age. In 1953, George Pal recruited the Mar75 years before Neil Armstrong, explosion of cosmic tian hordes of H.G. Wells into and electric submarines prowled the War of the Worlds. However, the deep while Buffalo Bill was operas and prehistoric this, like the 1960 adaptation of still prowling the West. Unfor- mutants, filmmakers of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, tunately, despite a pair of novel was also set in the modern day, sound sequences, the film was a the Space Age turned where UFOs replaced stilted trifailure at the box office. It would their attention back to pods. The real gamble was taken be many years before another

by Walt Disney with the 1954 one of these deliberately Retro- the Steam Age.” release of 20,000 Leagues Under Victorian Scientific Fantasies the Sea. graced the silver screen. In the mean time, only a handful of films made any atWith 20,000 Leagues, Disney was out to prove the tempt in that direction, such as the period-set mettle of his studio. Despite numerous awards for Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) with Bela his work in short and feature animation, Disney Lugosi, Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris and his company was still regarded as a maker Karloff and King Solomon’s Mines (1937) with of mere cartoons... Kiddie matinées. And in a Paul Robeson. The two decades following the sense, the public wouldn’t have it any different. end of the Second World War – with the advent Though an artistic masterpiece, Fantasia played of atomic power, the Space Race and the Cold only to chirping crickets and wouldn’t receive War – was a golden age for Science Fiction. The its due praise until latter day critics were accusclimate of limitless possibility mixed with xenotomed to the fact that Disney is a cultural force phobia and apocalyptic anxiety in a future that that is here to stay, and therefore, its time to start had arrived proved incredibly fertile for films taking a serious look at its productions. By the like Rocketship X-M, The Day the Earth Stood time production started on 20,000 Leagues, conStill, The Thing from Another World, Invaders struction was beginning on Disneyland U.S.A. in from Mars, the legendary Z-grade Robot MonAnaheim, California. Davy Crockett, King of the ster and Plan Nine From Outer Space, Them!, Wild Frontier was obligating millions of AmeriThis Island Earth, The Forbidden Planet, Invacan parents to buy their kids coonskin caps.

“ZEPPELIN CITY”

A

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Written by: Eileen Gunn & Michael Swanwick Illustration by: Benjamin Carre OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 8

adio Jones came dancing down the slidewalks. She jumped from the express to a local, then spun about and raced backwards, dumping speed so she could cut across the slower lanes two and three at a time. She hopped off at the mouth of an alley, glanced up in time to see a Zeppelin disappear behind a glass-domed skyscraper, and stepped through a metal door left open to vent the heat from the furnaces within.

The glass-blowers looked up from their work as she entered the hot shop.

They greeted her cheerily: “Hey, Radio!”

“Jonesy!”

“You invented a robot girlfriend for me yet?”

The shop foreman lumbered forward, smiling. “Got a box of off-spec tubes for you, under the bench there.”

“Thanks, Mackie.” Radio dug through the pockets of her patched leather greatcoat and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “Hey, listen, I want you to do me up an estimate for these here vacuum tubes.”

Mack studied the list. “Looks to be pretty straightforward.

None of your usual experimental trash. How many do you need—one of each?”

“I was thinking more like a hundred.”

“What?” Mack’s shaggy black eyebrows met in a scowl.

“You planning to win big betting on the Reds?”

“Not me, I’m a Whites fan all the way. Naw, I was kinda hoping you’d gimme credit. I came up with something real hot.”

“You finally built that girlfriend for Rico?”

The workmen all laughed.

“No, c’mon, I’m serious here.” She lowered her voice. “I invented a universal radio receiver. Not fixed-frequency— tunable! It’ll receive any broadcast on the radio spectrum.

Twist the dial, there you are. With this baby, you can listen in on every conversation in the big game, if you want.”

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 9

M

ack whistled. “There might be a lot of interest in a device like that.”

“Funny thing, I was thinking exactly that myself.”

Radio grinned. “So waddaya say?”

“I say—” Mack spun around to face the glassblowers, who were all listening intently, and bellowed, “Get back to work!” Then, in a normal voice, “Tell you what. Set me up a demo, and if your gizmo works the way you say it does, maybe I’ll invest in it. I’ve got the materials to build it, and access to the retailers. Something like this could move twenty, maybe thirty units a day, during the games.”

“Hey! Great! The game starts when? Noon, right?

I’ll bring my prototype over, and we can listen to the players talking to each other.” She darted toward the door.

“Wait.” Mack ponderously made his way into his office. He extracted a five-dollar bill from the lockbox and returned, holding it extended before him. “For the option. You agree not to sell any shares in this without me seeing this doohickey first.”

“Oh, Mackie, you’re the greatest!” She bounced up on her toes to kiss his cheek. Then, stuffing the bill into the hip pocket of her jeans, she bounded away.

F

at Edna’s was only three blocks distant.

She was inside and on a stool before the door jangled shut behind her. “Morning, Edna!” The neon light she’d rigged up over the bar was, she noted with satisfaction, still working. Nice and

quiet, hardly any buzz to it at all. “Gimme a big plate of scrambled eggs and pastrami, with a beer on the side.”

The bartender eyed her skeptically. “Let’s see your money first.”

With elaborate nonchalance, Radio laid the bill flat on the counter before her. Edna picked it up, held it to the light, then slowly counted out four ones and eighty-five cents change. She put a glass under the tap and called over her shoulder, “Wreck a crowd, with sliced dick!” She pulled the beer, slid the glass across the counter, and said, “Out in a minute.”

“Edna, there is nobody in the world less satisfying to show off in front of than you. You still got that package I left here?”

Wordlessly, Edna took a canvas-wrapped object from under the bar and set it before her.

“Thanks.” Radio unwrapped her prototype. It was bench-work stuff—just tubes, resistors and capacitors in a metal frame. No housing, no circuit tracer lights, and a tuner she had to turn with a pair of needle-nose pliers. But it was going to make her rich. She set about double-checking all the connectors. “Hey, plug this in for me, willya?”

Edna folded her arms and looked at her.

R

adio sighed, dug in her pockets again, and slapped a nickel on the bar. Edna took the cord and plugged it into the outlet under the neon light.

With a faint hum, the tubes came to life.

“That thing’s not gonna blow up, is it?” Edna asked dubiously.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM /10

“Naw.” Radio took a pair of needle-nose pliers out of her greatcoat pocket and began casting about for a strong signal. “Most it’s gonna do is “I’m going in.” electrocute you, maybe set fire to the building. Straight for the alley-mouth she flew. Sitting upBut it’s not gonna explode. You been watching right in the thorax of her flying machine, rudder too many kinescopes.” pedals at her feet, stick controls to the left and Amelia Spindizzy came swooping down out right, she let inertia push her back into the seat of the sun like a suicidal angel, all rage and like a great hand. Eight-foot-long titanium blades mirth. The rotor of her autogyro and and The flat, whined emotionless, eerily artificial voice extended in a circle, with her at the center like the thatsnarled tiny morsel of extra lift, breaking every rule with the speed ofofher dive.Brain ThenXB-29 she cut Naked through the static. heart of a flower.

This was no easy machine to fly. in the book and a damn. throttled up not and giving the blades bit deep into “Amelia, what arethe you doing?”

It combined the delicacy of flight with the physical Theair red light on Radio 2 flashed Oneand pulled her out, barely forty feet “Just angrily. wanted tofrom get yourdemands attention. going atomechanical thresher. of I’m operating handed, she yanked the jacks to her headset the ground.

Laughing, she lifted the nose of cut through the elbow between Ninetieth and Three . . . Two . . . Now.” “Pull level on my count. from the the set top connecting her Avenues. tobanked the Plot herRadio bird to3,skim of Ninety-First one skywalk, me an Eszterhazy, It took all her strength to bully her machine propreferee, herwill comptroller’s set. to erly while the g-forces tried to shove her away left toand dipplugged under ainto second, and then right you?”

“Yah?” hop-frog a third. Her machine shuddered and asfrom “Computing.”

Almost an afterthought, the controls. the She was flying straight and true rattled as she bounced it Naked off theBrain compression said, “You realize is extremely toward this Dempster Alley, a street that was only feet effects of the air around the skyscrapers to steal wider than the diameter of her autogyro’s blades, dangerous.”

“Nothing’s dangerous enough me,” Amelia so finefor a margin of error that she’d be docked a muttered, too quietly formonth’s the microphone pick Brains saw what she was pay if the to Naked up. “Not by half.” up to.

The sporting rag Obey the Brain! had “Shift angle oftermed blades on my mark and rudder on her “half in love with easeful death,” but Three it my second mark. . . . Two . . . Mark. And . was not easeful death that Amelia Spindizzy . . Rudder.” or Amelia, the Game was more than sought.

It was the inevitable, death of she roared down the alTilteddifficult forty-five degrees, a game, because necessarily there would an impossible skill tenaciously ley, her mastered prop wash but rattling the windows and filling come a time when the coordination, strength, necessarily insufficient to the challenge—a them with pale, astonished faces. At the intersecand precision demanded by her fierce and battle for life, lostshe just as the hand tion, shifted pitch and kicked rudder, flipping fragile machine would provehard-fought to be more than reached for victory and closed around empty her gyro over so that it canted forty-five degrees she could provide, a day when all the sky air.

A mischance that conferred the otherdeniability, way (the like engine coughed and almost would gather its powers to break her will a medal of honor, on herstalled, struggle forroared oblivion, then back to life again) and hamand force her into the ultimate submission. as she twisted and fell in gloriously tragic heromered down Bernoulli Lane (a sixty-degree turn It would happen. She had faith. Until then, here where the streets crossed at an odd angle) though, she strove only to ism. live at the outer So far, she hadn’t achieved and it. so out onto Ninety-First. A perfect Eszterhazy! edge of her skills, to fly and to play the Game It wasn’t that she didn’t love being alive Five months ago, (at a hypercubed committee of half as gloriously as any human could to the asleastearth-bound some of the time).the SheNaked loved Brains dominating in the metropolis had declared tonishment of the unfortunate the air currents in her great titanium whirligig. that such a maneuver couldn’t be done. But one classes. And of the Naked Brains who could thebrave slow pilot turning an hadinproved otherwise in an aeroplane, only float, ponderously, in She theirloved glass especially tanks, ever-widening gyre, scanning for the opposition and Amelia had determined she could do no less in their Zeppelins. with an exquisite patience a sigh short of in aonly gyro.

“Calculations complete.” asleft. she Stabilize. spotted Climb for height. Remove “Bank “You have my position?” boredom, and then the thrill him, a minuscule speck in an ocean of sky. safeties from your bombs.”

Cameras swiveled from the tops of nearby Loved the way her body Amelia flushedSpindizzy with adrenalin obeyed and then, glancing backbuildings, tracking her. “Yes.” as she drove her machine up into the sun, wards, forwards, and to both sides, saw a small Now she’d achieved maximum height again. searching for that sweet blind spot where the prey, her machine, and that great atomic furnace were all in a line. Loved most of all the instant of stillness before she struck.

It felt like being born all over again.

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OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 11

cruciform mote ahead and below, flying low over the avenue. Grabbing her glasses, she scanned the wing insignia. She could barely believe her luck—it was the Big E himself! And she had a clear run at him.

T

he autogyro hit a patch of bumpy air, and Amelia snatched up the sticks to regain control. The motor changed pitch, the prop hummed, the rotor blades cut the air. Her machine was bucking now, veering into the scrap zone, and in danger of going out of control. She fought to get it back on an even keel, straightened it out, and swung into a tight arc.

Man, this was the life!

She wove and spun above the city streets as throngs of onlookers watched the warm-up hijinks from the tall buildings and curving skywalks.

They shouted encouragement at her. “Don’t let ’er drop, Amelia!” “Take the bum down, Millie!”

“Spin ’im around, Spindizzy!” Bloodthirsty bastards. Her public. Screaming bloody murder and perfectly capable of chucking a beer bottle at her if they thought she wasn’t performing up to par.

Times like these she almost loved ’em.

She hated being called Millie, though.

Working the pedals, moving the sticks, dancing to the silent jazz of turbulence in the air around her, she was Josephine Baker, she was Cab Calloway, she was the epitome of grace and wit and intelligence in the service of entertainment. The crowd went wild as she caught a heavy gust of wind and went skidding sideways toward the city’s treasured Gaudi skyscraper.

When she had brought everything under control and the autogyro was flying evenly again, Amelia looked down.

Cameras swiveled from the tops of nearby buildings, tracking her. “Yes.” Now she’d achieved maximum height again.

“I’m going in.”

Straight for the alley-mouth she flew. Sitting upright in the thorax of her flying machine, rudder pedals at her feet, stick controls to the left and right, she let inertia push her back into the seat like a great hand. Eight-foot-long titanium blades extended in a circle, with her at the center like the heart of a flower. This was no easy machine to fly. It combined the delicacy of flight with the physical demands of operating a mechanical thresher.

“Pull level on my count. Three . . . Two . . .

Now.”

I

t took all her strength to bully her machine properly while the g-forces tried to shove her away from the controls. She was flying straight and true toward Dempster Alley, a street that was only feet wider than the diameter of her autogyro’s blades, so fine a margin of error that she’d be docked a month’s pay if the Naked Brains saw what she was up to.

“Shift angle of blades on my mark and rudder on my second mark. Three . . . Two . . . Mark. And . . . Rudder.”

Tilted forty-five degrees, she roared down the alley, her prop wash rattling the windows and filling them with pale, astonished faces. At the intersection, she shifted pitch and kicked rudder, flipping her gyro over so that it canted forty-five degrees the other way (the engine coughed and almost stalled, then roared back to life again) and hammered down Bernoulli Lane (a sixty-degree turn here where the streets crossed at an odd angle) and so out onto Ninety-First. A perfect Eszterhazy! Five months ago, a hypercubed committee of half the Naked Brains in the metropolis

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 12

had declared that such a maneuver couldn’t be done. But one brave pilot had proved otherwise in an aeroplane, and Amelia had determined she could do no less in a gyro.

“Bank left. Stabilize. Climb for height. Remove safeties from your bombs.”

A

melia Spindizzy obeyed and then, glancing backwards, forwards, and to both sides, saw a small cruciform mote ahead and below, flying low over the avenue. Grabbing her glasses, she scanned the wing insignia. She could barely believe her luck—it was the Big E himself! And she had a clear run at him.

The autogyro hit a patch of bumpy air, and Amelia snatched up the sticks to regain control.

The motor changed pitch, the prop hummed, the rotor blades cut the air. Her machine was bucking now, veering into the scrap zone, and in danger of going out of control. She fought to get it back on an even keel, straightened it out, and swung into a tight arc.

Man, this was the life!

She wove and spun above the city streets as throngs of onlookers watched the warm-up hijinks from the tall buildings and curving skywalks. They shouted encouragement at her.

“Don’t let ’er drop, Amelia!” “Take the bum down, Millie!” “Spin ’im around, Spindizzy!”

Bloodthirsty bastards. Her public. Screaming bloody murder and perfectly capable of chucking a beer bottle at her if they thought she wasn’t performing up to par. Times like these she almost loved ’em.

She hated being called Millie, though.

Working the pedals, moving the sticks, dancing to the silent jazz of turbulence in the air around her, she was Josephine Baker, she was Cab Calloway, she was the epitome of grace and wit and intelligence in the service of entertainment. The crowd went wild as she caught a heavy gust of wind and went skidding sideways toward the city’s treasured Gaudi skyscraper.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 12

BOOK REVIEW

For a miracle, he was still there, still unaware of her, flying low in a warm-up run and placing flour bombs with fastidious precision, one by one.

She throttled up and focused all her attention on her foe, the greatest flyer of his generation and her own, patently at her mercy if she could first rid herself of the payload. Her engine screamed in fury, and she screamed with it. “XB! Next five intersections! Gimme the count.”

“At your height, there is a risk of hitting spectators.”

“I’m too good for that and you know it! Gimme the count.”

“Three . . . two . . . now. Six . . . five . . .”

Each of the intersections had been roped off and painted blue with a white circle in its center and a red star at the sweet spot. Amelia worked the bombsight, calculated the windage (Naked Brains couldn’t do that; you had to be present; you had to feel the air as a physical thing), and released the bombs one after the other. Frantically, then, she yanked the jacks and slammed them into Radio 3. “How’d we do?” she yelled. She was sure she’d hit them all on the square and she had hopes of at least one star.

“Square. Circle. Circle. Star.” The referee—Naked Brain QW-14, though the voice was identical to her own comptroller’s—said. A pause. “Star.”

Yes! She was coming up on Eszterhazy himself now, high and fast. He had all the disadvantages of position. She positioned her craft so that the very tip of its shadow kissed the tail of his bright red ’plane. He was still acting as if he didn’t know she was there. Which was impossible. She could see three of his team’s Zeppelins high above, and if she could see them, they sure as hell could see her. So why was he playing stupid?

Obviously he was hoping to lure her in.

STEAMPUNK POE In honor of celebrating one of Steampunk’s forefathers, Edgar Allan Poe, STEAM took a look at Edgar Allan Poe’s Steampunk Poe illustrated by Zdenko Basic and Manuel Sumberac.

or most folks, the names of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are frequently referenced when it comes to the steampunk genre. And while I certainly appreciate their contributions to science fiction, I must admit to a complete and utter fascination with Edgar Allan Poe, the American writer who is most often thought of as a mystery detective writer or a horror writer. But for me, he’s high on the list of examples of writers who fit easily into the steampunk style and voice.

For an advanced writing class I took in college, I remember writing an extensive paper on Poe that required me to read just about every story and poem he’d ever written. It’s dark stuff… and very good.

Poe died at age 40, and much of his life reads like a tragedy with the early loss of his mother, being abandoned by his father, and his wife dying at a very young age. It should come as no surprise that much of his writing leans toward macabre story lines with death being the central subject.

I chose mid- to late-1800s fiction as a focus for much of my studies and papers for my English degree, and while I often wandered from Wells to Verne to Doyle for my subject matter, I often returned to Poe whenever I needed to compare and contrast one or more authors (such as comparing Doyle’s Sherlock

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HOW TO MAKE

P

SPATS!

oe’s poetry was easy to read and decipher and made for excellent subjects for short papers on the period’s interest in things dark and disturbing.

I tell you all this so you’ll understand just how happy I was to receive a review copy of Steampunk Poe. When I first heard rumblings about the book, I had very little information on what exactly the book was going to be about. Would it be stories inspired by Poe that contained steampunk themes? Or would it be some

of Poe’s stories altered slightly to incorporate steampunk elements such as the overly-used goggles, dirigibles, and automatons? Thankfully, once more information was made available, I realized that the publisher had made the right choice and not attempted to modify or create new content. Instead, Steampunk Poe simply provides some of Poe’s best works, both short story and poetry, along with some beautiful custom artwork created just for the book by illustrators Zdenko Basic and Manuel Sumberac.

The book is broken into two sections — short stories first followed by poems.

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THINGS YOU’LL NEED: Scissors Ruler A small roller or hammer Scotch tape A small buckle 10 buttons

S

A number 2 pencil Woven scrap fabric Pattern paper A shoe (the one that the spat will

be made for) Leather used should be a texture that will drape nicely (such as vegan leather Rubber cement Index card

pats are shoe accessories that wrap around the ankle and under the instep of the foot. They were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and are still used in marching bands and infantry. Today, they’re gaining popularity as part of the gothic lolita subculture. Following this in-depth tutorial, you can create and add this elegant, distinctive item to your repertoire .

STEPS

1

Find a shoe that you’d like the pattern to be made for.

Drape the cloth pattern over the shoe and use the binding clip to attach it to the top of the shoe. The cloth pattern used should be slightly longer and slightly taller than the shoe.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 15

2

Use the scotch tape to attach the cloth to the back of the shoe and draw a vertical line indicating where the pattern will end.

4

3

Do the same to the front. The seam should run down the middle of the laces. Cut off any excess fabric outside the line, and tape the cloth pattern to the shoe.

Run your hands along the fabric to take any bumps out of the pattern and ensure the cloth is tight enough to create a good cover.

Do the same for the bottom of the shoe.

Remember that the pattern should follow the organic shape of the shoe.

5

Decide where you want the buttons to go.

Draw another line indicating this.

Tips: Decide how low you want to top of the spat to go from the top of the shoe. In this model, the top of the spat will hang slightly lower than the top of the shoe.

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Tips: Because the lines drawn on the pattern will likely be shaky and not visible in certain areas, go back through and darken the lines to strengthen the pattern outline.

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6

7

Cut the same cloth in half and trace the two pieces onto another section of tracing pattern paper. This will create the other side of the spat.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 18

Add this half-inch to the pattern paper where the original pattern was traced.

Trace the pattern directly onto the pattern paper. Cut off the excess cloth and draw the pattern on the paper.

Weights can be helpful in keeping the pattern completely still to ensure a steady hand and correctly dimensional pattern.

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10

Add an inch and a half to the original pattern to create leeway where the button seam is.

The pattern is ready to be cut out after one final adjustment.

The triangle represents the excess seam allowance.

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11

Add an inch and a half to the original pattern to create leeway where the button seam is.

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12

13

Cut off the excess along the bottom of the seam allowance.

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Fold the pattern along the button and button hole line.

The leather is ready to be traced and cut out based on the patterns. You should have three pieces of the patterns now.

Weigh the patterns down on the leather and trace them with a ballpoint pen. Because you’re creating two different spats for two different feet, make sure you flip

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Cut the leather using your scissors.

You should have three different pieces prepared to sew together.

Use a 2.5 to 4 stitch length on your sewing m a c h i n e

All three pieces should now be sewn together.

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Take the front seam and back seam (both of which are curved) and make small cuts to make the seam lie flat. This way, when the spat is folded over it looks nice from

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Wait until both sides of the seam are sticky and semi-dry then push the sides down using your fingers in the middle of the seam so that it lies flat.

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Use a small roller to press the seams down and make sure that the bond is especially strong (optional). for the opposite foot.

Rub some of the rubber cement onto the corner of the index card. Make a thin layer of rubber cement on both sides of the seam.

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Fold the seam onto itself one inch. Use the roller to press it down and ensure a strong bond. Basic construction is finished and now the buttons are ready to be attached.

Rub some of the rubber cement along the edges of the spat and then fold it on itself to create a reinforced area for the buttons.

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Find the center of the seam and make a mark with the pen. Make two additional marks, one to the left of the center and one to the right, about a quarter of an inch

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Make a button hole. To make a button hole, a simple one can be made with an exactoknife, or, for a sturdier one, the button hole attachment on the sewing machine can be used. If you use the machine, you’ll want to cut them open with a seam ripper.

Attach the buckle as the last step, or a piece of elastic if you’d like. Button up the spat, put it on the shoe, then use the pen to mark the place on the spat that you’d like the button to go.

Sew either loose end of the buckle onto the inside of the bottom of the spat. You’re done!

From H.G. Well’s to Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe is believed to be one of Steampunk’s influential and inspirational fathers of the Victorian futuristic age. However, some question whether Poe is Steampunk enough.

After making the button holes, poke through the holes with a pen to mark the spot that the button will be attached to. Then sew the buttons on via machine or by hand if you’d prefer.

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Was Poe Steampunk?

Written by S.J. CHAMBERS

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ell, if you stop to think about it, yes. In the Vander Meers’ Steampunkanthology, Jess Nivins credits Poe as one of the mainstream writers who created “The American cult of the scientist and the lone inventor.” But Poe’s contribution to science fiction is vaster than a lone inventor character; he contributed authenticity and realism, and used his sci fi pieces as thought experiments. He is also among the first to focus upon the wonders of the great Steampunk icon: the balloon/zeppelin.

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here is also the fact that Steampunk’s pater familias Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were heavily influenced by Poe. David Standish writes in his Hollow Earth: The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth’s Surface that “[Jules Verne] read Baudelaire’s translations of Poe in various journals and newspapers…and…Verne responded chiefly to the cleverness, ratiocination, and up-to-date scientific trappings Poe wrapped his strange stories in.”

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t the core of many Verne works are Poe prototypes. “Five Weeks in a Balloon” was influenced by “The Balloon Hoax” and “The Unparalleled Adventures of Hans Pfaall”; “The Sphinx of the Snows” is like a sequel to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and is dedicated to Poe; Around the World in Eighty Days uses the main concept from “Three Sundays in a Week.”1

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hile I am by no means arguing that Poe’s Steampunk contribution is vast, his pioneering science fiction stories as well as his resonant influence in Verne and Wells warrants him a bit of steam-cred.

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n “Hans Pfaall,” all of Rotterdam is in disorder when The fundamental erne’s most popular work, a balloon made 20,000 Leagues Under principles of of dirty newspapers the Sea, may be the most descends to town subtly and heavily Poe- construction that square and throws a esque in its tone and underlie such stories scroll to the mayor. character. Nemo’s silent suffering, his The scroll is Hans deprivation of human convenience as Poe’s ‘Murders in Pfaall’s confession, paired with immaculate taste, and his the Rue Morgue’ . . a citizen who, with blatant disdain for society all conjure three companions, Hans Pfaall, Roderick Usher, and . are precisely those disappeared five Monsieur Dupin. Poe is so ubiquitous that should guide a years ago.

While throughout 20,000 Leagues that at in Rotterdam, he the journey’s end, the dazed Professor scientific writer. escaped creditors Aronnax describes his adventures as and a nagging wife “being drawn into that strange region by reading scientific where the foundered imagination of books, leading him Edgar Poe roamed at will. Like the to discover a lighter fabulous Gordon Pym, at every moment I gas that would propel him to the moon. expected to see ‘that veiled human figure, of He murders his creditors and alights to larger proportions than those of any inhabitant space with three other ruffians, landing of the earth, thrown across the cataract which finally on the moon. Poe incorporates defends the approach to the pole.’” meticulous scientific detail, such as Pfaall’s expostulations on how to reduce hydrogen, . G. Wells was heavily influenced calculations of the distance between earth by Poe’s mathematical and moon, and how gravity would affect the descriptions of machines in balloon’s levity. such stories as “Maezel’s Chess“The Balloon Hoax” chronicles a balloon Player” and “The Pit and the voyage across the Atlantic, completed Pendulum,”2 and acknowledged that “the within 75 hours. Told through dispatches fundamental principles of construction that

by Monck Mason, he describes atmospheric underlie such stories as Poe’s ‘Murders in changes and geographical descriptions. the Rue Morgue’ . . . are precisely those that Mason’s dispatches were factually saturated should guide a scientific writer.” with speculations so accurate that “the first

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transatlantic balloon voyage, exactly.

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CONVENTION

LIST

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ike Sir George Cayley’s balloon, his own was an ellipsoid. Its length was thirteen feet six inches—height, six feet eight inches. It contained about three hundred and twenty cubic feet of Like Sir George gas, which, if pure hydrogen would support twenty-one pounds upon its first inflation, Cayley’s balloon, o you before the gas has time to deteriorate or his own was an remember our flight on escape. The weight of the whole machine and the railroad across the apparatus was seventeen pounds—leaving ellipsoid.

Kanadaw continent?— about four pounds to spare. Beneath the fully three hundred centre of the balloon, was a frame of light miles the hour—that was wood, about nine feet long, and rigged on to travelling.

Nothing to be seen, though— the balloon itself with a network in the customary nothing to be done but flirt, feast and manner. From this framework was suspended a dance in the magnificent saloons. Do you wicker basket or car…. The rudder was a light remember what an odd sensation was frame of cane covered with silk, shaped somewhat experienced when, by chance, we caught like a battledoor, and was about three feet long, a glimpse of external objects while the and at the widest, one foot. Its weight was about cars were in full flight? Everything seemed two ounces. It could be turned flat, and directed upwards or downwards, as well as to the right or left; and thus enabled the æronaut to transfer the resistance of the air which in an inclined position it must generate in its passage, to any side upon which he might desire to act; thus determining the balloon in the opposite direction.

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“Mellonta Tauta” may be the most Steampunk among these stories based upon its futuristic world and aesthetic (as the left Fritz Eichenberg’s 1943 illustration shows).

It features a female character, Pundita, who writes to a friend about her ballooning cruise on April 1, 2848. Poe wrote this as a satire of not only American politics, but Western tradition, but also used it as a vehicle to espouse a water downed version of his scientific treatise Eureka. Pundita describes the sky as filled with balloon vessels not used for scientific exploration, but simply as a mode of pleasurable transportation.

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D

2013

TEMPLECON PROVIDENCE, RI Founded in 2006, TempleCon is a celebration all things with a retrofuturist theme, right next door to one of the coolest cities in the world, Providence, Rhode Island. While we suppose you could call TempleCon a convention, as many are quick to do, it’s a bit more than that. It’s really a three day festival of modern hobby gaming and retro-futurist fandom, including events, performances and activities from all the genres out there that you can think of, and probably some that you can’t. It’s also a social event, which means that while we’re all about the entertainment, we’re even more about the people who love it. We started TempleCon for a lot of reasons, but one of them is because we think that things gaming and fandom need to finally be dragged out of the basement and into the ballroom. TempleCon breaks a lot of the long-standing rules of “geek” conventions, and offers up a diverse event full of wild parties, great games, live music, crazy performances, guests, workshops, vendors, and a ton more stuff that we think you’ll like.

Trust us. You want to be here.

February 25-27

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AnachroCon is the place in the South for Steampunk, History, Alternate History, Sciences, Music, Classic Sci-Fi Literature and the most amazing costuming you’ve ever seen!

AnachroCon is a celebration of history both real and imagined. It is a place where those who have a love for yesterday’s future mix and mingle with those who chronicle the past and present.

AnachroCon is a home for Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Retro-Futurists, Historical Re-enactors, Time Travelers, and general students of history, as well as those wishing to explore these areas.

We are dedicated to the principle of providing a safe social environment for the free exchange of ideas. We gather to interact, share, dance, and explore the possibilities of all things historical, alternately historical and fictional. We also strive to hold ourselves to the highest standards of decorum and education.

AnachroCon is, and shall remain, a convention at which the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Guests include: • Emilie P. Bush • G. D. Falksen • Nick Valentino • Gypsy Nomads

March 4-6

SHEVACON ATLANTA, GA SheVaCon is celebrating it’s 19th year as the largest Multi-Media Science Fiction & Fantasy convention in Southwestern Virginia.

We offer many fun events and great programming focusing on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Workshops, panel-discussions, art show & artist alley, dealer’s room, costumed fandom groups, auctions, computer and console gaming, RPG/LARP gaming, Video and Anime screenings…. and so much more!

New for this year… SheVaCon is being held in the first weekend of March (4th – 6th 2011), so be sure to mark your calendars!

• Media Guest of Honor: Virginia Hey • Artist Guest of Honor: Matt Busch • Writer Guest of Honor: Peter S. Beagle

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March 4-6

WILD WILD WEST CON TUCSON, AZ Wild Wild West Con is Arizona’s first and only steampunk convention and festival. This is a revolutionary re-invention of the standard hotel-based convention. The core of our event is within Old Tucson Studios, a famous movie studio and amusement park built in 1939. For this weekend only, Old Tucson is transforming into the town of Rusted Gear.

The year is 1896 and it is Rusted Gear’s centennial celebration. The town is hosting an amazing number of events and an active story line during this celebration including: music concerts, a dinner theater, a tea party with a published author, a charity fashion show, a freak show art show, a mercantile pavilion, a street parade, street performers, a high noon dual competition, a fast draw competition, a gaming parlor, live action stunt shows, cabaret saloon shows, ghost tours, a masquerade ball, a mad scientist lab, costume contests, courtroom discussion panels, how to workshops and much more.

• Author Guests: O. M. Grey & Nick Valentino • Special Guests: League of S.T.E.A.M., Bruce & Melanie Rosenbaum, Victoria Moore & Thomas King

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May 20-22

STEAM “PUNK”

IT UP!

Welcome to a three-day expedition into yesterday’s future! (And no, that doesn’t mean the present!) SPWF was the first East Coast event to welcome Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Retro-futurists, Gas Lamp Fantasists, and any and all others who consider themselves part of steampunk into a weekend long festival celebrating all things steamy!

An interactive and social event for people of all levels of steampunk knowhow to communicate, dance, exchange, and explore. Here, you will find representation of the art, culture, fashion, technology, history, gaming, and music of this fascinating and scintillating subculture and genre.

Say you enjoy the post-enlightenment of the Industrial Revolution, or Victorian Era upper-class sensibilities, or the mutated past merged with modern mentalities and counter-culture ethos. Maybe you like the skewed science of “What if?” and the historical settings, or you simply like to look dapper in

From spats to top hats, we, the avid steampunkians must have the latest and finest accessory which will amplify our frock coat or corset.

Great finds can be found at www.steampunkcouture.com!

Gaitors: These are real vintage gaitors so have some beautiful wear and distressing, so each pair may vary in it’s own unique marks and scuffs.

Price: $39.00

September 16-18 FITCHBURG, MA Here are the specifics: • Where: Courtyard Fitchburg 150 Royal Plaza Drive • Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420 USA • Guests: Abney Park, Jake von Slatt, Phil and Kaja Foglio Registration: Pre-Registration (3-day passes only): December 6, 2010 – January 31, 2011 — $45.

February 1 – March 31, 2011 — $55.

April 1 – May 31, 2011 – $65.

June 1 – End of registration – $75.

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Embellished Contact Lense Case:

Hand-made embelshished contact lens case for your regular lenses or circle lenses.

Sterile, secure and ready to use.

Price: $6.00

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Gentlemen’s Monocle Mr. Peanut wore one...and you can, too! What steampunk costume is complete without this dashing monocle.

Jailer’s Key Necklace Lock em’ up and throw away the key with this awesome jailer key necklace!

Price: $18.98

Price: $20.00

Darl Brown Leather Knuckles Hand-made brown leather knuckle gloves. Made from recycled leather scrap.

One size fits most.

Price: $29.00

Nomaly’s crochet cream stretch knickers Adorable hand-made, softlylined stetch knickers with elastic waist band.

Limited amount available.

Waist band stretches from 22” up to 36” Will fit up to a 38” hip and 20.5” thigh Washing machine safe. Turn inside out before washing to protect crochet lace.

Price: $39.00

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Sea Captains Mens Boots

Handsomely crafted for adventure and danger, these man-made material boots look great pulled over cargo style pants.

Price $79.95

Octo-buckles add a decorative touch to these rugged boots, for all your swashbuckling needs.

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STEAMPUNK

POLL

The Formal Victorian Silver Tapestry Tailcoat

Tophats

A formal victorian coat with tails. Great for special occasions, formal events, or when you want to stand out from the crowd. Beautiful silver and black tapestry fabric with luxurious black velvet lapels. Fully lined in rich black satin. Six ornate metal buttons decorate the front and two at the waist in back. Three smaller metal buttons are at each cuff. Two special inside pockets at the chest. Comes in sizes small-xxxl.

Corsets Laser Guns Spats Goggles

Price $324.95

Black and white thin stripe skinny fit pants Super soft, stretch, hand-made pants with elastic waist band.

Only a few available. Will fit Small-Large.

Waistband stretches up to 36” Hip up to: 40” Thigh: Up to 28” Price: $60.00

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e wanted to see what accessory our fellow “Steampunkians” wear while attending fancy conventions and we were very surprised with the end result.

Coming in a close second were corsets (testified by the futuristic, victorian women-folk), while 64% would rather have their laser guns on hand. 59% said they liked wearing spats. The shocking result were goggles, which came in last with 18%. It just goes to show you that not every “steampunker” wear goggles.

99% of the Steampunk community preferred to wear tophats to complete their steampunk outfit. Surprise. Surprise.

(One would assume that it would have been goggles.)

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Hate it!

What punk?

It’s overrated.

I am steampunk!

I love it!

Edgar Allan Poe

It’s ok.

Don’t know

Nikola Tesla

So awesome

H.G. Wells

Jules Verne fter sending one of our “Steampunkians” out on a daily walk, we asked them to find out from local passerbys what did they thought of Steampunk or if they knew it exsisted. According to the polls, there are people who think Steampunk is awesome with 30% while 24% hate it (hate is such a strong word!). Others thought Steampunk was overrrated.

What was interesting is the tie between people who didn’t know it exsisted and the people who thought it was okay. There’s just a portion where Steampunk is debatable and sad-to-say despised. Hopefully, Steampunk will win them over.

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e wanted to know who is the true forefather of Steampunk and after asking you, our fellow “Steampunkians” we have found that H.G. Wells is the true forefather with 58%. Jules Verne came in second with 44% votes, following Edgar Allan Poe with 34%, and Nikola Tesla in fourth with 29% votes.

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An

Interview with

TOM BANWELL If you thought you only had a suddenly limited time left to live, which of your goals and passions would you pursue? Artist Tom Banwell asked himself this question a few years ago and realised making these kinds of awesome masks had to be it. Inspired by a gas mask he stumbled across at a car boot sale, he started meticulously handcrafting the masks and helmets you’ll see below, going through several stages from sketch to realisation. We chat to him about the online steampunk community that motivated him to keep creating, his childhood sculptures and what’s next on the cards for his work.)

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Top: Tom Banwell posing in one of his fantastic masks.

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When did you first get into making steampunk masks and helmets?

T.B.: Five years ago when I was 57 years-

old I was seriously ill and was hospitalised for three weeks, and that forced me to reevaluate what I was doing with my life. I realized that I shouldn’t put off doing the things that I wanted to do before I died.

Happily there wasn’t much on that list.

Creating art has always been a passion and brought great me personal satisfaction, and I recognized that I wanted to once

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again work in leather as I had decades earlier. And so I made several Viking helmets and other fantasy headwear just for fun. I searched online for others with the same interest, and found a Yahoo group for leatherworkers. It wasn’t particularly active, but it did lead me to another online group at Leatherworker.net.

While perusing this forum I came across leatherworkers making masks, and was intrigued. I had made two leather masks years earlier, and they — along with helmets — fascinated me. The maskmaking worked well for me and looking into sell-

ing them I discovered the handmade goods selling site Etsy from a post on Leatherworker.net.

Shortly thereafter I opened a shop on Etsy (April 2008) and began selling leather masks, which with my wife and I continue to do today. While looking around the site I came across the term “steampunk” and had no idea what it was, but again was intrigued. As I explored steampunk online I realized I had stumbled onto a world in which my creativity would fit perfectly. I knew that I could create helmets and masks

in the steampunk genre, and around August 2008 I found an old rubber gas mask at a yard sale and recreated it in leather and resin: my first steampunk item.

When I posted a photo of it online I got immediate positive responses to it, which encouraged me to continue making leather and resin steampunk pieces.

Where do you think your interest in the steampunk era and style comes from?

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T.B.: Growing up I felt somewhat lost in a complicated, confusing world.

Pre-industrial life appealed to me because it was easier to understand than the modern world. Even though I work with modern tools (a laser cutter) and modern materials (plastics) I still relate to 19th century and earlier cultures.

What’s your creative background like? We notice you say you’re self-taught: what was your first foray into 3D sculpting and carving?

T.B.: I made a lot of art as a child and I suppose that sculpting in clay was my first 3D experience.

I still have a bust of Abraham Lincoln that I made in grade (primary) school.

What do you think gives your steampunk creations their aesthetic appeal?

T.B.: I suppose it is combining elements that are familiar yet startling with beautiful forms and lines. On top of that I try to use the best of leatherworking techniques, with hand-stitching that is perfectly even and uniform for example.

Once you get inspired to start a piece, where does your creative process go to from there? Are you a sketch-based man? Or do you start cutting the leather straight away?

I always sketch out my ideas, then usually I sculpt the form in clay in order to draught the patterns. Then I cut out the pieces in cardstock to see how it all goes together. Only after that has been worked out (and reworked) do I commit it to leather. Oftentimes I will still want to make changes, and so will modify

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“Growing up I felt somewhat lost in a complicated, confusing world.”

-Tom Banwell

the patterns and cut it out all over again.

many people?

How often do you get buyers sending in images of themselves in your creations? And favourites if so?

I think it is a fun escape from the pressures of real life, and steampunk is a genre which encourage participants to be creative and to make their own clothing and props.

Mostly I get photos from professional photographers who have shot models wearing my masks. Many of those are drop dead gorgeous photos, and I have used many of them on my Etsy site to help sell them.

What do you think it is about steampunk that still intrigues so

What do you hope people take away from viewing and owning your work?

I’m just happy when people enjoy what I do. If someone enjoys it enough to plunk down cold hard cash for it all the better.

OCT 24, 2012 STEAM-MAG.COM / 45

Which of your own pieces are you the most proud of? Why? That is hard to say, as I like most of the pieces I have made the last few years, but typically I am most taken with my most recent work, in this case Ichabod the steampunk plague doctor’s mask (above, with hood).

“I think it is a fun escape from the pressures of real life,” -Tom Banwell

right now, having just completed Ichabod, but I am considering for my next piece either an elaborate 3D lion’s mask, or a squid helmet and mask combination, with a bit of a Cthulu influence...

For more information follow Tom Banwell and his amazing masks at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TomBanwell

Finally, what are you working on at the moment?

And what are your future plans for the helmet/mask world?

I have sketches and ideas for scores of projects. I am in between projects

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MARVELOUS

STEAMPUNK

ARTWORK There are some amazing Steampunk artists out there and some of them our are fantastic readers. Before each issue we encourage our readers and fellow “Steampunkians” to submit their artwork through our website: Steam-Mag.com.

Here is just a taste of what is on our website.

Enjoy!

Submitted by Omara Rayan

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Submitted by Yllek Setak

Submitted by Yllek Setak

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