Monthly Archives: November 2012

The Steampunk Art of Brian Kesinger

Brian Kesinger spends his days working as a story artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Now, for a lot of people, having a dream job like that would be enough, but not for Kesinger. In addition to his work at Disney, he has been putting his own distinctive stamp on Steampunk artwork for the last two years.

Kesinger first came to light for most of the Steampunk world with a post on IO9 called “Hey Disney, this is the steampunk princess movie we want!”. While I heartily agree with the sentiment in the article, Kesinger’s Steampunk art had been slowly infiltrating the web for a while before that. In his “Tea Girls” series, he uses tea staining to bring a rich warmth to his playful illustrations. His “Otto” illustrations about a woman named Victoria and her pet octopus are whimsy at its best. He has also given the world illustrations of Steampunk Darth Vader, Steampunk Cobra Commander, and best of all Felicia Day as the recruiting poster girl for the Dirigible Corps. Let’s hope the others at Disney are taking notice.

His drawings from these series are available as prints, t-shirts, etc. from our friends at Clockwork Couture.

Now, feast your eyes:

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Steampunk Lighting at Restoration Hardware

Steampunk continues to make inroads on mainstream style. Restoration Hardware has always showcased distinctive styles and their current lighting offerings include a number of options that have a Steampunk feel to them. Of course, the prices aren’t exactly budget friendly, but if you are creating a Steampunk look for a room, the investment might be well worth it. And if you can’t go fully monty, you can still dress up a less expensive lamp with their vintage-look Edison-style light bulbs.

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Six Steampunk KickStarters You Funded in November

More people turn to KickStarter each day to get their projects off the ground and Steampunk creators are no different. It’s been a good year for Steampunk on KickStarter, and in November alone you successfully funded six different projects.

1. Laser Lace Letters – 7 Tangible Steampunk Stories

A very unusual art project. The stories of seven people told in fragments, notes, and pieces left behind when each went to a London shop to have their cameo cut. Each set of clues to the story comes with a laser cut and hand woven lace cameo of the character in question. Together the seven stories show a world of assassins, airships, mad scientists, and adventurers as well as showing us how their lives interconnected before their disappearances. Seems pretty cool.

Funded: 105%

2. The World of Steam

Envisioned as a Twilight Zone for Steampunk, The World of Steam will be an ongoing series of short films in a Steampunk world. The hope is to have high quality stories shot with high production values and the idea really caught the imagination of the Internet and the funding just rolled in. I can’t wait to start watching the episodes.

Funded: 155%

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Amazing Flying Machines from Red Ronin Games

Amazing Flying Machines is the first game from a newcomer Red Ronin Games for the iPad 2 and 3. The game is centered on a series of missions against sky pirates in an attempt to rescue the world’s gold supply, gold being necessary for the Tesla-designed engines that run the airships in the game.

As you gain experience, you can unlock other characters, weapons, options, and even new airships (a total of seven are available in all). Of course, the challenges increase as well so the game should remain challenging. The game is free and available from the app store, of course.

Take a look at the preview:

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Steampunk is Terrorism?

Some of you may have already heard the story. If not, let me bring you up to speed. Last Thursday, Geoffrey McGann of Rancho Palos Verdes, California tried to take a flight from the Oakland airport. As with other passengers, he stood in line at security. When he got the front, he put his backpack on the belt and his watch in the little bin. And that’s where the trouble began.

McGann’s watch was not a simple Dakota Watch Company thing from a mall kiosk. Nor was it fancy Patek Philippe or a even a Timex or Seiko. No, McGann’s watch was his own customized creation and it did not look safe to the TSA folks. Fast forward a day and the Associated Press has a nice little article about McGann’s arrest. The article also mentions his boots as being “unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles.”

So, why was McGann arrested?

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