Favorite Steampunk Media

Just a little nook for SteamPunk folks to talk shop, costuming/cosplay, media, and rub elbows.

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PrettyPrincess
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Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by PrettyPrincess »

I just want to start a thread where we can recommend our favorite steampunk books, movies, music, and more.

I will start with my love of Sky Captaion And the World of Tomorrow, and Wild Wild West as two of the films that got me interested in the steam aesthetic.
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scantrontb
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by scantrontb »

about a week ago, i picked up the first two books in a series called "the ministry of peculiar events", the first book is "phoenix rising", and the second one "the janus affair" i haven't actually READ them yet, but the back-cover blurb was interesting enough to catch my eye and get them... authors Pip Ballentine and Tee Morris
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by PrettyPrincess »

I did enjoy the Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau - not exactly steampunk, more like post apocalyptic loss of technology, but it has that same gritty flavor I like about steam. I'll have to look up these books, I'm always looking for good stuff to read!
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Boxilar
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by Boxilar »

I'll admit, my exposure to steampunk is limited. I've seen Wild, Wild West and Skycaptain. I'd say Skycaptain edges over into Diesel Punk. Same asctetic with more internal combustuion and less external combustion. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Phoglio was my intro to steampunk. I got a wild hair recently and went looking around the web for 19th century clothing and dicovered that if I want to buy a 19th century Steampunk costume off the rack, I'm going to have to loose some weight. And even if cut down my waist size, my chest will still limit my selection somewhat. I'm male, but I currently have a 51" inch chest. Not all muscled up mind you, I just have a big rib cage. A mantled great coat that I really liked only went up to 46".

Anyway, I highly reccomend Girl Genius. Great stuff, just be ready for the archive binge.

http://girlgeniusonline.com/

Also, this place looked great for costumes.

http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/gentl ... k=19688248
The Fansheep
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by The Fansheep »

Well i love the Steam Boy Anime i really can recommend it to everybody liking that style. There are some other small animes going around that topic but non really catches the feeling of steam punk most just uses it as platform for strange air ship.
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Knighttrap
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by Knighttrap »

The Anime, Last Exile has a very steam punk feel to it. If you've never seen it I would deffently suggest checking it out on Hulu.
Prester Fred
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by Prester Fred »

And, as was inevitable, someone here is sooner or later going to mention Abney Park.

Oh, wait, I just did.

Their music is all over YouTube, so I won't point you at any. They started out as a Seattle Goth band, but one of the better ones (Goth is inherently pretentious, but at least they knew how to have fun with it). Then, as time went on, they started feeling hemmed in musically. So they sat down one day and made a list of the stuff in their songs they wanted to keep and the stuff they didn't, and the "keep" list looked more and more like Steampunk as they went on.

Titles I'd recommend you look for on YouTube: Their signature piece, "Airship Pirates." "Post-Apocalypse Punk" sort of explains how a Seattle Goth band wound up becoming airship pirates. "Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll" is a rather somber song about a clockwork ballerina and the uses to which she is put. "Victorian Vigilante" and "Until The Day You Die" use 1920s jazz instrumentation to very good effect.

And then there's a pre-Steampunk number that they still get requests for: "The Wrong Side" -- totally a Goth anthem, but a good one, techno beat and some good lyrics -- and they recently released a new acoustic version for banjo and piano. Did I mention they know how to have fun?
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Jabberwonky
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by Jabberwonky »

I LOVE 'Sky Captain' , and the spider-mech, from WWW, is a thing of beauty. 'Steamboy' is great. I'll have to look up some of the other suggestions.
I will recommend 'City of Lost Children', http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/, very steam-punkie tech in it, including a steampunk Brain-In-A-Jar character. Too much fun. (a friend suggested the movie to me because he thinks that I am 'One')
And, the 'Crimson Skies' material, there's a PC game, X-box game and, with a lot of digging, a table top rpg. Closer to diesel punk, but has that wonderful feel. And Zeppelins-O-Plenty!)
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by PrettyPrincess »

Can't believe I forgot to mention the SyFy mini series (2 or 3 episodes, I think?) Tin Man. It's a really interesting take on Oz, years later with a descendant of the original Dorothy Gale.
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DinkyInky
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by DinkyInky »

I second the recommendation for Girl Genius.

They also have put out two Print Books as companion pieces to their online comic--Agatha H and the Airship City and Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess, both put out by Nightshade Press and available on Baen Books website for e-book format, or wherever you like to shop for books. They expand on the gorgeously illustrated comics. Both are equally good(for me, the print book gives more behind the scenes than the graphic novels).

They eventually will have print books for all eleven (currently) volumes of the drawn story, and have graphic novel print form of all eleven(currently) volumes of the story.

Abney Park is a bit much for my tastes. I listen to Stravinsky, Ravel, Bartók and Hindemith when I want that little bit of discord in my music(Neoclassical seems more fitting for the SteamPunk Genre). Generally I listen to Vivaldi, Mozart, Dvorak, Tartini, Verdi, Beethoven, etc. More romantic and baroque pieces. I'm a bit of a closet Rennie, so SteamPunk is a bit out of my depth(as I got out of the whole Goth thing when I decided I was ready to become a parent). Certain aspects of it fascinate me(some of it even remind me of the Gothic Lolita and EGL fandom). I can see some of it easily interchange with modifications.
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Chaise Murphy
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Re: Favorite Steampunk Media

Post by Chaise Murphy »

I recently read Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) by Gail Garriger. Wikipedia describes it as a steampunk paranormal romance novel, which I can hardly improve upon. It's set in an alternate Victorian England which includes werewolves and vampires as well as steam-powered airships. There are four more novels in the series, as well as several spinoffs/sequels, and some very good manga adaptations of the first few novels. The heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, is a competent, acerbic twenty-something spinster at the start of the series, and I like her (and the books) a lot.
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