Steampunk Stop-motion Musical

        An artist by the name of Kyle Stephens has created a stop-motion claymation musical short about an inventor who has created a device that can make him fly. The title of said video is, McDonough: A Steampunk Stop Motion Musical. To view it click here.

Writer Greg Rucka to release Steampunk Webcomic

        Writer Greg Rucka recently announced that he will be launching a new webcomic called Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Ether. The comic is set to be released in early July. The comic will be featuring many popular steampunk themes such as airships, floating islands, and even some gunslingers. The author says that the comic will be a mixture of steampunk, pirates, and western. You can find an audio interview with the author on the blogsite stumptowntradereview.blogspot.com. The author says that he hopes to make money from this web comic to fund one of his other projects known as American Soldier.

ARGO Online Now available

     
        The free to play MMORPG ARGO Online is now available for download and play. The game is a mixture of steampunk, sci-fi, and fantasy. If you would like to try the game you can get it here. Be warned though, despite some of the hype surrounding this games beta testers had numerous complaints about the game many of which were about bugs that hadn't been fixed even a few days before the release.

Steampunk "Wizard of Oz"

        The Lincoln Ampitheatre in Lincoln City, Indiana will soon be putting on a steampunk version of The Wizard of Oz. Currently they are holding auditions and will have over 50 actors in all. The director of the play is Christopher Tyner. Tyner says that he wants to take the original movie script and take it in a steampunk direction without making changes to the script. The show will be playing at the Lincoln Ampitheatre on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from July 21- August 7, 2011. For more information about the production visit http://www.lincolnamphitheatre.com/.

Preview: Gatling Gears

      
        A downloadable game known as Gatling Gears will soon be available on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The game has been hyped as the newest steampunk game to hit the market but from what we've seen so far it seems a bit lacking. Although it does look like an enjoyable game for fans of top-down shooters the problem we have with it is it doesn't really draw you into any apparent steampunk universe other than the fact that some of the vehicles and building have a steampunk look to them. I guess technically this game does qualify as steampunk by most peoples standards but the fact that it's one of very few games that does so, and this is apparently the best there is to offer saddens me.

Steampunk Iron Man

        A steampunk version of Iron Man has been created by independent artist Jonathan Kriscak. Standing about 11 inches tall this has got to be one of the coolest interpretations of any superhero in recent years. The figure also comes with a victorian Tony Stark figure which is also pretty awesome in itself. The figure has been but up for auction on Ebay and is already getting bids of over $300. This artist has thought of everything when creating this figure including making the Iron Man suit "steam powered". You only have about a day left to claim this figure as your own so hopefully you have deep pockets. Happy Bidding everyone. Hey, even if you can't score this one of a kind masterpiece for yourself at least we no have yet more inspiration for future projects of our own.

Fun Victorian Card Game: Beggar My Neighbor

        Many of you may remember this game if you have read Dicken's "Great Expectation". Pip and Estella play this game early in the book when they are at Miss Havishams. The game plays as follows:

        Shuffle the deck and deal the cards as evenly as possible. Your draw deck is placed face down. The player to the left of the dealer starts the game by turning up his top card and playing it in the middle of the table. If the card is a 2 to 10, play passes to the left and the next player does the same. When a face card or an Ace (known as "court cards" in this game) is turned up, the next player must pay the following dependent on which court card is played:
 
A=4
K=3
Q=2
J=1
 

        If all of the cards in the middle are number cards, the player who played the court card collects all of the cards in the middle of the table. However, if one of the cards is a court card, the player paying stops immediately and the next player must pay based on the schedule above. If that is paid with only number cards, the cards in the middle of the table are collected by the last player who played a court card. This continues until one player wins the pile. That player then puts the pile at the bottom of his stack, face down. When a player runs out of cards, he's eliminated from the game and the other players continue to play.

Movie Review: Steamboy

        I'm sure many of you have already seen this animated masterpiece but I figured I should showcase it here just in case any of you have missed it. Steamboy is probably one of the most "steampunk" movie to ever be released. To this date steamboy remains as the most expensive japanese animated films ever created with a budget equivelent to $26,000,000. Released in 2004 this movie plays upon many major steampunk themes. The cast of this story is very interesting and there are many radical steampowered machines presented throughout the film. The main character, a 13 year old inventor following in his fathers footsteps, isn't really that original but his character is very fun and interesting. This movie has remained with me since the first time I saw it and remains my favorite steampunk themed movie to date.

New Fiction Available

I have just added part 2 of "The Journals of Javelin Blake" to the Fiction section of our site, located on the left hand side of the screen. Please enjoy and feel free to leave comments.

World Steam Expo: Events Announced

        The World Steam Expo has announced many of the main events on there website. Check it out now, especially if you can only go for one day of the convention to see what events will be taking place on which days. Can't wait to see everyone there.

Website Spotlight: deviantART

        For those of you who are unaware of deviantART (usually reffered to simply as "dA") and what it is, I would basically sum it up as a community of independent artists sharing their work of various forms with the dA community and with the world as a whole. Why is this website being showcased on a steampunk blog site you may ask? Well this site has what is probably the largest collection of steampunk art on the web. This website is a great place to draw inspiration from since it has just about anything you could imagine in some form submitted to the site and has tens of thousands of new entries daily. So whether you are new to the world of steampunk or a master steampunk artist of prop/costume designer dA is a must see website.

The Imperial Anti-Piracy Squadron

        The Imperial Anti-Piracy Squadron is a steampunk group of artists, crafters, and performers based out of Detroit, MI. This group appears at all sorts of gatherings including the upcoming World Steam Expo in Dearborn, MI. This group is devoted to keeping the skies clear of all pirates and other miscreants and is always ready to face new threats. Word has it the group is looking for a new cabin boy and are holding auditions at this years World Steam Expo. You may visit their website here.