Welcome to the world of renowned steampunk Brian Kesinger, and in particular the world of two of his best known characters: Otto and Victoria.
The world of Otto and Victoria is a Victoriana world where cephalopods live on land as well as in water and are often seen as companions to humans.
It is this world we explore in Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod.
Continue reading “Walking Your Octopus”
City Hall is a franga (French manga) created by writer Rémy Guérin and artist Guillaume Lapeyre. Set in an alternative Edwardian-era London, full of steampunk and fantastical marvels and terrors.
Imagine a world where paper has not only been replaced by the Steam-net but is also a dangerous weapon. Everything written down on it becoming reality, how dangerous and threatening as the writer deems appropriate or necessary. Only very few individuals still know how to write by traditional means, everyone else uses typewriters resembling the steampunk laptops and desktops computers.
Continue reading “City Hall, Volumes 1-3”
The third installment in the new Rocketeer series brings back the Rocketeer we have come to know and love. No more chronologically jumbled-up short stories by different artists and authors, but an all-new adventure written by Mark Waid with art by Chris Samnee, who previously participated in the first Rocketeer Adventures.
Originally a four-part comic story, this is the hardcover compilation of the “Cargo of Doom” story arc, which was previously released as a four-part comic adventure by IDW Publishing. Extras include 36 pages of storyboard sketches and art.
Continue reading “Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom”
Where the first volume had only the small downside of lack of chronology, volume 2 of the Rocketeer Adventures sadly does not live up to expectations.
There are a few beautifully drawn and strong stories in there, but overall it lacks the beauty and storytelling of the first release.
The lack of chronology has become downright annoying, as now you have short stories that are jumbled over two volumes time-wise, which is just bothersome. And in some cases the art is so subpar that the story can’t make up for it.
Continue reading “Rocketeer Adventures, Volume 2”
Long after the unfortunate and untimely demise of the Rocketeer’s creator, Dave Stevens (1955-2008), his creation is back, resurrected by some of the sharpest talents in today’s comic-book business. Since then sixteen new volumes have been released, forming three all-new series.
It’s about the first of these, Rocketeer Adventures, I would like to talk in our last review of 2012.
Continue reading “Rocketeer Adventures”
Dieselpunk fans will be familiar with the Iron Sky project. The independent film production will depict the Nazis plotting an invasion of Earth from their secret refuge on the Moon.
In anticipation of the film’s release, Iron Sky is releasing a prequel comic adventure.
The first issue, “Bad Moon Rising,” depicts the Third Reich’s survivors in Antarctica preparing to board UFOs bound for the Moon. They will build a base on the far side of the Moon to stage another attempt at conquering the planet.
Continue reading “Nazis Take to the Moon in Iron Sky Prequel”
In 1930, three bold astronauts reach space. Fifteen years later, World War II is interrupted by a Martian invasion. As a consequences of those events, humanity starts exploring its Solar System and heroic astronauts contact alien species and have incredible adventures.
But that is the past.
The present is the year 1956, when no one cares about alien worlds and the final frontier anymore. Spaceports are being closed down and the only place from which rockets take off is Ignition City, a metropolis located on an artificial island on the equator. Here the last astronauts live in exile.
Continue reading “Ignition City”
While dieselpunk is commonly associated with a pulpy, noir-and-Jazz America, there remains a fascination in the subgenre for the crepuscular world of Interwar Europe.
It was a time of artistic ferment and architectural genius, of electricity and of the machine entwining themselves into the fabric of urban life, of cultural clashes and sexual politics, of ambitious administrators uttering proclamations and of humbled citizens trying to find a place in the brave new world.
It is this brief epoch, and the imaginative potential it nurtured, that finds a new home in the ethereal world of Les Cités Obscures.
Continue reading “The Invisible Frontier”
Gone with the Blastwave is a post-apocalyptic comic by Kimmo Lemetti from Finland. He occasionally — though unfortunately not often — uploads a new installment, but there are plenty of old stories on his website to keep you amused for a while.
Although the quality and humor of Gone with the Blastwave is not in doubt, we wonder whether to call it dieselpunk.
Continue reading “Gone with the Blastwave”
The sequel to Scarlet Traces (our review here) takes place in the Britain of the 1930s, with the invasion of Mars by the British Empire going badly.
We follow the Lady Charlotte, a photographer and reporter for The Interceptor, the last remaining liberal newspaper. With an insurgency in Scotland getting worse and branching into suicide attacks, Oswald Mosely as home secretary and the Commonwealth trying to withdraw its troops from Mars, Lotte manages to sneak onto the frontlines only to discover that she is stuck with the rearguard — and there is no rescue coming for them.
Continue reading “Scarlet Traces: The Great Game”