Steampunk Book Review: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1
Vol 1 Cover art
Steampunk is all about literature, and nowhere else will you find so many Victorian-era characters rubbing elbows as in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from Vertigo. The creator, Alan Moore (whose brilliant mind also brought us The Watchmen) and illustrator Kevin O’Neill take their audience on a wild ride which spans several classic works of science fiction and creates a way for them to occupy the same universe.
The story opens with the corpulent Campion Bond (an ancestor of James Bond) who convinces Mina Murray (aka Wilhemina Harker’s maiden name in Dracula, 1897) to go on a recruitment mission on behalf of the British government. She picks up the opium-besotted ex-adventurer Alan Quartermain (King Solomon’s Mine, 1885) with the help of Captain Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1870). After a jaunt into The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) for the title character and a school run by notorious fictional dominatrix Rosa Coote to pick up The Invisible Man (1897), the league is ready for action.
They head next to London’s East End, where the nefarious Fu Manchu (referred to only as “The Doctor” for copyright reasons) has stolen a valuable mineral that allows heavier than air flight. He is at war with another crime lord on the West End (none other than Professor Moriarty of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1894), and the conflict is on the verge of costing countless lives. Can the heroes beat the bad guys, and the clock, to save the day?
This is a really fun book and I definitely recommend it for fans of Victorian-era fiction. Over the many iterations of the series literally hundreds of literary figures and places grace the pages, so it is kind of like a who’s who of Victoriana. I occasionally have issues with some of the liberties Moore takes with core character traits, but otherwise it is a great display of imagination. As a bonus, if you get the first volume you also get 30 pages of cover art, games, stories and fake historical factoids in the spirit of the Victorian era.
Alan and Sundered Veil
Fair warning, Volume 2 goes darker, dirtier and deadlier, and you can read all about it next week when I review it!
Have you read this book? What did you think?
The Lady ParaNorma By My Pet Skeleton
The Lady ParaNorma by My Pet Skeleton (Vincent Marcone)
Mechanical Menagerie: Under the Sea
Automatons need not be confined to human-shaped robots when the whole animal kingdom is out there for mad scientists to toy with! I absolutely love the combination of the organic with the constructed so I am always collecting cool images of “mechanimals.” If you have an image to share or you see something that has been mis-attributed please let me know by leaving a comment below.
Click on any thumbnail to open a gallery of larger images. You can also see lots of Steampunk octopus and squid in my Steampunk Sourcebook: Cephlapods post.
Check out this amazing video by Pes Film, whose 2013 “Fresh Guacamole” was nominated for an oscar. .
Music to Steampunk By: Lindsey Stirling
I can’t get enough of this adorable little peanut who dances for joy and writes dub-step violin masterpieces.
Shadows by Lindsey Stirling
Moon Trance by Lindsey Stirling
Some Steamy Offerings From Lost Bohemian
I was visiting a friend over the holidays and told her about this blog and what Steampunk is all about. Her reaction?
“All of that stuff that I really like, it has a name! And that name is Steampunk.”
Welcome to the fold, sister.
She was so inspired after our little chat that she created a beautiful, hand painted decorative plate, which is available for $250. You can reach her through her Lost Bohemian Facebook page.
And in addition to drawing and painting, she is also a world-class crocheter. I found this adorable scarflet for $40 just today on her website. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
Van Helsing is Getting a Reboot and I Can’t say I’m Happy About It
Tom Cruise “saluting” the symbol of Scientology, which is inexplicably a cross
So the first Van Helsing movie was great and I was really hoping for a sequel. Unfortunately, what we are going to get is a “reboot” with professional crazy person Tom Cruise at the wheel. Apparently Universal Studios is seeing fit to do this to both of Stephen Sommers’ monster blockbusters, so The Mummy will also be getting a makeover by the same redundancy-loving writers who saw fit to reboot Spiderman only 5 years after Toby Maguire kicked all of his enemies back to the funny pages. Ugh.
Does anyone else feel like there isn’t anything new anymore coming out of Hollywood? Do they think we are stupid or just have extremely short attention spans? Rebooting Batman was genius because it has been around forever and had basically slipped into the realm of farce in Batman and Robin, but Van Helsing the billowy-coat monster hunter is a character that Sommers created only 10 years ago and there is nothing at all wrong with the original.
Let me know what you think below!
Chappie, It’s Cold Outside!
I live in the frigid North (ie, Minnesota) and the temperature was -9 yesterday. This made my thoughts turn to warm drinks, roaring fires and cool coats to keep winter at bay. If you are in a cold climate, I hope this gallery of steamy coats and my recipe for a Hot Toddy will warm you right up! This drink dates back from the 1700s and was definitely enjoyed during Victorian times.
Hot Toddy
1 cup hot water
1.5 ounce whiskey or brandy
1 spoonful of honey
cinnamon stick
lemon juice (optional)
Pour hot water into your mug and stir in honey until completely dissolved. Add liquor of choice (using whiskey adds a smokey flavor, brandy is sweeter). Add a squirt of lemon juice if you choose (I am allergic so I never do but that is the normal way to make one) and stir with cinnamon stick.
Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
For Whom the Gear Turns 