Nearly there with 3 days to go!

There are a lot of really neat things out there tagged with term 'Steampunk' but very few of them are as truly wonderful and unique as "Virtuoso," a Creative Commons licensed comic from friends Jon Munger and Krista Brennan. 

Jon and Krista are hoping to Kickstart Book One of the series, they have already completed the prologue and it is as engaging as it is beautiful. I'm in, and I hope you too will help them bring this marvelous project into the world!

The story: Jnembi Osse is an inventor in a world run by springs and ruthless expansion. She is the kept woman of the vast Mahanake Empire, held in a sequestered University to churn out military and civil inventions. But Jnembi has a secret.

Rather than endlessly revisit her old rifle designs, Jnembi builds a printing press a single person can carry on her back. It's small and simple, and violates the draconian laws of the Empire. Books are the purview of upper class, and copying them is ruthlessly suppressed.

Win a von Slatt original! To sweeten the deal and in addition to the offered rewards, the single largest contributor will receive an original Jake von Slatt creation! This will be a piece that is just staring to come together on my workbench as we speak.  I'm not sure what is is yet but it fits inside a #2 Bell Jar and will look great on your mantle! 

Details after the cut . . . 

I'm pretty excited about this! The author, Jon Munger is a friend and he along with artist Krista Brennan have done an amazing job!! 

Virtuoso is an alternate history of an Africa that never existed, one run by steel and springs, commanded by vast matriarchies and past the height of its culture.

Virtuoso is the story of Jnembi Osse, a professional weapons manufacturer for the most powerful empire in the world, and how her private rebellion becomes a full scale international incident.

Read the web version here and see where to get the full comic here!

Back in August I received a slightly odd email:

Phil is drawing a cover for Windycon's Blaylock short story collection, and he sort of used you as the guy building a mechanical dragon in his garage... Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

If it wasn't, and you'd rather we made it not look quite like you, please e-mail me and let me know! 

(I know we should have asked first, but we got carried away... sorry!) 

Thanks-- 

--Kaja

Of course I was deeply flattered and quickly responded that I, in fact, felt honored that they chose to use my likeness!

Click for a larger version and the opportunity to buy a print if you so desire

Our own Meredith Scheff be showing her art in a show tomorrow. It’s her first show outside of school and she would love to see you all there. There will be prints, originals, and comics. 

here’s the info:

http://www.missioncomicsandart.com/upcomming

Space Gallery: 1141 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
on Friday 07/24/09 – from 9 PM to 2 AM

From the Mission: Comics site:

Mission: Comics & Art will be a retail book store and art gallery that specializes in graphic novels, monthly comic books and fine art.

While I continue to work on securing the right location for this venture, come join and celebrate the comic book art form, and enjoy artwork influenced by comic book or working with comic book themes.

DJs: Discobotic & twiita (myhouse)

Artists:
————————————————————
Audrey Welch
Betsy Lam
Chris Conroy
Eli Maness
Matt Delight
Meredith Scheff-King
telephone & soup
Travis Nichols
W.A.M. – Women’s Art Movement

Mer hopes to see you there! It should be awesome!

I've just discover a new web comic via @nathanfhtagn called "Lovelace and Babbage" and it is pretty brilliant!

Even better, in the finest Steampunk DIY tradition, there are "Making off" blog enteries interspersed with the content, these are as entertaining as the comic itself!

Stuff like this:

I’m working on Part 2 of Lovelace and Babbage vs the economy but I had to draw this for some reason:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was like the Wolverine of the early Victorians.  He was short, ripped, had big sideburns, smoked 50 cigars a day, AND KICKED EVERYONE’S ASS!!

Heh.

I spotted- not that you could possibly miss it- this storefront in Tokyo. It's a comic book store called Mandarake, which is supposedly the biggest comic book store in tokyo. The actual store was about 4 flights downstairs, and also had an amazing selection of vintage toys. They got a little chuffed when I tried to take pictures inside, though.

The long awaited (release has been pushed back several times) cover art book for Fables has come out today. It compiles all the amazing and moving covers that James Jean has done for the series, issues 1-75.  The cherry on top that is really making me squeal with happiness- each and every one is accompanied by sketches and progress shots. Yoyza.

Every Wednesday since I've been traveling, I've searched out the local comic book purveyor to see if this book had come out, and the wait has been more than worth it. James Jean is a jewel of an artist- creepily beautiful, deadly sexy, and intriguingly surreal; his art knocks my socks off every time.

For some reason, Amazon has the release date as next week, but your comic book shop should have it now.

As anyone who's hung out with me for more than a short while knows, I'm a long time Tori Amos fan. Well Tori's latest project Comic Book Tattoo is an intersection of two of our favorite worlds here at The Steampunk Workshop; music and comic books.

From the Amazon product description:

Over 80 of the best creators from every style and genre have contributed over 50 stories to this anthology featuring tales inspired by the songs of multi-platinum recording artist, Tori Amos! Featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman and an extensive roster of talent, Comic Book Tattoo encapsulates the breadth, depth, and beauty of modern comics in this coffee table format book.

Oh I do hope the first Tori song I ever heard Spark is among them!  Oh and Happy Phantom and Sweat Dreams and and  .  .  .

Here's an interview with Tori From the folks over at Comic Book Resources :

The always interesting and oft times quirky Married to the Sea does Steampunk.

I'm telling ya, getting made fun of is one of the important milestones on the path to world domination.