Steampunk Digest - November 22, 2024

Thanks to photographer Kit Catlett, we’ve posted a gallery from the Vermont Steampunk Expo, which took place Nov. 9-10 in Essex Junction, Vermont. The program included tea dueling, a magic show, Celtic folk music by O’hAnleigh, and talks by authors Leanna Renee Hieber and Renee Fleury.

See the photos: Steampunks Gather in Vermont

Steampunk fans and creators continue to migrate to Bluesky, the new social media platform that’s emerged as an alternative to X/Twitter. New arrivals within the past week include Frenchy and the Punk, Lee Presson, The Cogkneys, Charles Mason, Wullie Steele (Atticus Oldman), Wheeler Stone, Brian Fadrosh, Professor DR Schreiber, Gabby Isabel, the Chicago Steampunk Exposition, and cosplayers Asgard and Lady Wheelsworth. They join many authors, artists, and other creators who have signed up.

We’ve become boosters of the platform for a multitude of reasons. Most notably, it lets you customize your experience in ways we haven’t seen before in any social network. It disincentivizes malicious actors such as trolls and bots. Unlike Facebook and X/Twitter, it doesn’t penalize posts that link to external content. And it’s blessedly free of advertising.

To help steampunk fans get on board, we’ve posted two starter packs that list accounts you might want to follow: Steampunk Authors and Steampunk Artists, etc.

We’ve also posted a commentary about the platform and a guide to getting started:

Steampunks Are Taking to Bluesky – Here’s Why You Should Give It a Spin

A Steampunk’s Guide to Bluesky

Professor Elemental is out with his new album Apequest 2, and along with it he’s released the first music video. “Friendly Vikings” is a time travel tale in which he’s accompanied by the Sweetchunks.

The album, produced by frequent collaborator Tom Caruana, was released Nov. 18 on Bandcamp. It will be available on other platforms beginning Dec. 2.

Events

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair kicks off its 2024 season on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Cow Palace Exhibition Halls in Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco. The event is much like a Renaissance fair, except it’s set indoors in a re-creation of 19th century London.

Guests will encounter characters from the novels of Charles Dickens as well as other historical characters. The fair will also feature a return of the Jekyll and Hyde Pub Crawl and Sherlock Holmes Experience, among many other holiday festivities.

The fair runs for five weekends through Dec. 22. For a taste of what to expect, see our coverage from last year and our video report. Learn more on the fair’s website and Facebook page.

See our website for comprehensive event listings, including steampunk events and regional fandom events in Canada, the U.K., Australia/New Zealand, and the New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, South Central, Mountain, and Pacific regions of the U.S.

Crowdfunding

New Jersey-based artist George Vega is on Kickstarter with Issue 3 of The World of M, a steampunk fantasy comic book series “set in a world where machines, magic and mayhem are the order of the day.” In this installment, his protagonists, including a sentient steamboat, must deal with “the formidable magic of The Swamp Priest” in Nouvelle Orleans.

Pledges begin at US$7 for a PDF and $10 for a printed copy. He estimates delivery in December.

The campaign launched Oct. 31 and seeks US$3,500 by Nov. 30. It’s reached about 53 percent of its goal. See the Kickstarter page for more info.

Ongoing campaigns:

Sherlock Holmes: Leviathan – A graphic novel in which the detective teams up with Captain Nemo to prevent a world war. The campaign has reached 75 percent of its US$8,000 funding goal. It runs through Jan. 3.

Aerathain - Aerenthia, Dark Awakenings – A steampunk-themed D&D 5e supplement. The book includes AI-generated imagery.

Last week’s Steampunk Digest misstated some details about the campaign. It launched Nov. 12 and is well past its €100 (US$105) funding goal. It runs through Dec. 12.

3D-printable steampunk-style dice tower – Downloadable STL files. The campaign is well past its £50 (US$63) funding goal. It runs through Nov. 28.

Murder on the Aurora Dawn – A steampunk murder mystery RPG compatible with D&D 5e. The book includes AI-generated imagery. The campaign is well past its €30 (US$21) funding goal. It runs through Nov. 30.

Elsewhere in the Aether

Western Australia: Charity Dinner Adopts Steampunk Theme (photos) (Fremantle Shipping News)

Boris Karloff is Frankenstein’s monster again in Legendary graphic novel (JoBlo)

New Frankenstein Graphic Novel Features an Original Design of Boris Karloff as The Monster (Geek Tyrant)

10 Obscure Time Travel Movies Most People Have Never Heard Of (MovieWeb)

Kansas: The Midwest Regional Ballet invites you to their production of Alice in Steampunk Wonderland (KOAM-TV)

Review: Jeckyll & Hyde on stage in Winchester, U.K. (Winchester Today)

Launch trailer: “49 Keys” is a narrative puzzle video game inspired by 16th century magic books (Bleeding Cool)

Hundreds of 19th-century skulls collected in the name of medical science tell a story of who mattered and who didn’t (The Conversation)

From Jealous Spouses to Paranoid Bosses, Pedometers Quantified Suspicion in the 19th Century (Smithsonian Magazine)

Scientists Resurrect 145-Year-Old Shipwreck Seeds. Now, They Want To Make Whiskey (IFL Science)