Oh bloody hell, that time again?

So, I did go to the Steampunk Soirree; and as much as I would love to tell you that my hiatus was caused by some ruffians who invaded the concert and took captives, and that I am back only by the grace of god and the aid of a lockpick I keep tucked in my goggles at all times, I would be lying. The truth is I simply forgot about updating. Which is perfectly reasonable, as I am a time-traveler, and am quite unused to using a computer. (Note: this is also a lie, and my typing speed is insanely fast for most I shall have you know.)

So some news: We have cut cable and home phone lines here. We use cell phones in this day and age (yes, this Victorian vigilante is equipped with a smartphone, as I have always loved modern technology. I try to stay ahead of the curve) and the cable was nigh on useless for anything but the news, which was far too depressing anyway. Turns out, we don't particularly miss either commodity.

I am working with Kylee Lane of LuxuryLaneSoap.com, and will be doing one of their Artist Series soap sets. The blog will (hopefully) be alerted as soon as the soap sets are up. I will be drawing some very familiar superheroes for the set. I gain no profit from the soaps (and for this set, neither does Kylee) and the money made will be put toward a charity. Personally, I might buy a few just for the sake of having something I drew on a bar of soap. It'd be neat!


Back to news of Abney Park, the Steampunk Soiree was amazing! I drew some cards with each of the band members on them and had them sign copies of the cards. They got to keep the originals, while I have autographed copies of the drawings. The band members seemed to love them, as well. We had the Brass Section and an extra guitarist this time, and the song "Airship Pirate" has never been so awesome (up until something else started playing mid-song and the crowd was baffled, if highly amused). I also brought along a dear friend of mine, who had never been to a concert before. (I didn't want to go alone, and she needed to see the crew play live). She wondered why it took me so long to bring her with, afterwards. Which just goes to show that everybody truly needs to see Abney Park. Really. It's amazing. One of the members of the Brass Section is making his own CD soon, which I would love to hear more about, but my memory of that evening is a little foggy after the fact that it was awesome and people loved my drawings. All in all it was amazing.

Soon I will be going into the dark and scary world of education once more, using the Internet as my only shield against its trying ways and attempts to distort sanity. Not to say it is all bad, mind. I love education and learning. I merely hate the efforts and lengths I am often pressed to. I still believe I may succeed (despite having two classes on opposite sides of the campus within ten minutes of each-other) and will attempt to keep the world posted.

I will make an effort to post here more often. But I do wonder how -during my absence from the blog- I managed to get so many extra readers. I shant question it, however, and only welcome you all. And I promise, it won't always be this bloody boring.

Unrelated, I hear that Doctor Steel is no longer in

Ye gods!

So, what have I been up to from this WAY TOO LONG haitus? Drawing, mostly. Most of which you can see on my Deviantart page here:

http://pentharis.deviantart.com/


I've been offline for a bit, tried to gather some people on Twitter to work on the fancomic from the last post, things have kind of fallen out, and I've come to a conclusion: Don't start any projects with a group you can't finish on your own. Or at least, that's how it tends to work for me. I don't know why, but every time I try to get people together to work on a project we're all enthused about, we wind up drained and dying a little on the inside every time we think about it.

In unrelated news: I'm looking for a job, either writing or drawing. I can draw on commission (So long as it's not explicit, racist, sexist, that sort of thing) and tend to be entirely devoted to my drawings. Any takers?

Tomorrow I'll be attending Abney Park's Steampunk Soiree. I'll have to report on it the day after, so everybody who doesn't already know how much I love Abney Park can get an earfull about it, any everybody who already knows can hear it again!

Steampunk writing

Some may wonder why I add Steampunk to the stuff I write about on my blog. The rest of it is reviewing and rants, and Steampunk doesn't really fit in.

Well, it's just another obsession. I have quite a few, but I think we have enough blogs on Batman, and I can only say so much about Alice in Wonderland, really. I like Steampunk because it's unique for every person who is into it, and there is nothing that needs to be uniform about it (Unless you're a Doctor Steel fan, in which case, more power to you. Call me when he has funding for those robots)!

So let's talk Steampunk!

Steampunk is almost always set in the Victorian era of time (around the world, not just England. What makes it unique is that it isn't historical, it's the past re-thought. What would happen if Steam power functioned better than they thought, and became the main source of power for everyone?

Better than that, What would happen if they had the inventions we have today, only steam-powered or powered by clockwork?

Now throw in some airships like Zeppelins and blimps; only they can go faster, maybe they had sails, and add a steam-powered auto-pilot or a pirate flag!

What about zombies? I mean, we're talking fiction and all, right? Why not?

Time travel! That's always fun, maybe someone brought some machines back from the future and showed everyone how to build them with their own technology in the 1800's!
Gears are nice, let's add some of those in, whether you're in the party of people who thinks they can be decorative, or the party of people who thinks they need to do something.

Well now we're getting to the heart and soul of Steampunk. It's what you make it. Whether it's a poison gas turning people into Zombies or it's a set of rockin' airship pirates, your story is what you want it to be. The only real requirement is that you're having fun! Steampunks are really nice and really open-minded about their fun. If you want to know more, all you have to do is ask "Hey, What's Steampunk about, anyways?" and they'll gladly tell you all about the clothes, the awesome bands, and the great literature.

For the record, my favorite bands that involve Steampunk are:

Abney Park
Doctor Steel
Voltaire
The Clockwork Quartet
The Cog Is Dead

Some other bands to look at are the Gypsy Nomads, Midnight Sunday Driver, Vernian Process, or the Unextraordinary Gentlemen. There are many others, so google it!

Some interesting books to check out are Boneshaker, Boilerplate, and old classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. (You may be starting to notice that this sort of thing is what made BioShock look so unique.)

There's a Steampunk episode of Castle I highly recommend, and a Steampunk episode of NCIS LA that I really don't recommend. Seriously, don't pay attention to that episode. Castle is WAY better. (Also it has Nathan Fillion in it and he is always awesome.)

There's plenty of fun and interest to be had in Steampunk, so just take a look around, and support a local Steampunk artisan! (you can find them on Deviant Art, Etsy, and at any local steampunk event.)