Batmobile, 1889 edition

art by @47ness

I just learned that Lackadaisy is considered Decopunk (or more specifically Ottensian Decopunk). Decopunk is basically a subgenre of dieselpunk but is more focused on the 1920s and 30s but with a Sci-Fi twist. I am not exactly sure what about Lackadaisy is considered Science fiction because despite the cast being drawn as cats, everything else about the series is pretty grounded. Maybe it’s just the non-canon material.

If cassette futurism and cyberpunk are complimentary, in that they can be separate or together, as are dieselpunk and decopunk, what is complimentary to steampunk? My first thought was "clockpunk," but I've never seen that as separate from steampunk. Clockpunk stuff always has steampunk stuff in the background, and steampunk always has keys, springs, and gears mixed in.

Is there some neo-victorian subgenre that I'm missing?

Here we go for self-promo, which I never am fond of doing but know I have to do it in this case! My self-published, indie comic, Robust Heat is now in pre-launch on Kickstarter! You can find it here.

It is going to be printed into a full volume, graphic novel, with 150+ pages. Full colour, American standard comic book size (6.625" x 10.25"). The printed version is going to be more polished, have rewritten, relettered, redrawn parts that the webcomic version does not have. If you like slight Baccano! vibes mixed with Netflix's Hollywood (2020), then please consider checking it out :D. The actual launch date is going to be on April 2nd, and if you'd like an email notification when the campaign goes live, the notify me button will do the job for you. And if you have anyone in mind that you think might enjoy these series, please pass this along to them! I know I don't have a wide reach/big audience, and what my comic is--I consider kind of niche-so I'm hoping to get this word of mouth get rolling. Thanks in advance \O/ PS, I will be in PCF (Prairie Comics Festival), and hopefully DCAF (Dartmouth, not Dublin, Comics arts Festival) later this year. If any of you are from those spaces, do let me know if you'd be interested in local pick-ups.

reminder that smoking is bad for you UNLESS!!!! you can make it homoerotic, then it's okay and sexy actually

Ambientación | Normas | Guía

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente is my all-time favorite book that no one has every heard of. It's about space, but it's also about grief, and it's about cinema, but it's also just a father and a daughter and everything that could possibly go wrong in that equation. It's a murder (?) mystery in that someone has died, but the characters make it so the concept of "murder" goes a little bit fuzzy around the edges.

It's also, for what it's worth, batshit insane. I love the worldbuilding because it reeks of someone having a baffling idea and devoting their entire novel to it. Valente commits to the bit at every turn, leaving no moment untouched by creative decisions that should logically fail and yet never do. I think it has to do with her tone-- the whole book is written in such a "duh" voice. Of course the moon is the modern Hollywood. Of course there are kangaroos on Mars and whales (?) on Venus. Of course Pluto and Charon are linked in a celestial dance by an organic bridge of tree limbs and flowers. Of course, of course, of course.

It's also the type of book where every character talks circles around what they actually mean. Every page is a treasure hunt, and trust me when I say that the hunt is entirely map-less for the first two thirds. But who likes their quests easy? It's only satisfying if you work for it.

I suppose my main point is that you should read it. It is a book that makes me happy and I would regret it forever if I didn't give you the chance to read it too.

3d Practice on blender

Kronopolis at night n.1

New Stelia explanation

New Stelia is the setting of my current lancer campaign. Primarily taking place in the titular mega city, New Stelia is (sorry for the buzzword puke) a retro scifi, decopunk world. Heavily based on Bioshock and New Capenna, New Stelia is a world where mechs have wholly replaced all forms of transport (for the aesthetic). Cars are just Everests, Bartons, etc. Buses are Lafiettes. Big trucks (semis? 14-wheelers) are Hawkins. Fancy cars are the SSC Chrysalis or similar crab chassis mechs. Boats are just really big, aquatic hotdogs. Blimps are also hotdogs but strapped to big balloon. (I have a reasonable number of Lancaster esc mechs)

New Stelia (the city) is built on/in/above a plateau that shields the city from the heavy radioactive gas that covers the flush plains surrounding the city. There are districts that handle the various functions needed for the city but in all honesty I havent fleshed them out at all which is a bit problematic.

Rather than the interstellar origin of the manufactures, IPS-N, SSC, GMS, and HA have altered backstories to fit the world. Much mettling doesn't need to happen for this. Wow IPS-N is speciallied in making lancaster esc mechs instead of starships; HA did have three clone rules and orignate from a old iteration of Union, they just aren't from space. And for HORUS, of course they're here, just more occult (see below).

Another notable change to the setting from the core Lancer one is what an NHP actually is. Rather than just being the technological/digital consciousness of a eldritch entity peaking into this reality from blinkspace, only contained through a black box containment unit that shackles the entity's perception of reality and itself to be vaguely human like; NHP's are ghosts. But like the lighting ghosts from Mob of the Dead (CoD Zombies). They function identically to NHP's on the surface level of interfacing with electronic systems (because yk, lighting ghost) but are summoned from blinkspace through ritual rather than just being found in the field and shipped off to Venus. NHP's can still; be cloned but its more of cutting up the original ghost like a flatworm than copy+paste code. Oh also the Deimos event basically happened but not really; Ra was there, NHP's became more active, etc. but no moon take over and stuff.

To match the prohibition era conflict, New Stelia has a drug sweeping Union territory. A substance called Halo. While blatant theft of concept, this substance has a different origin than the angle juice from New Capenna that I can't say for spoiler reason. Halo is known to produce vivid hallucinations of what feels like other lives, from escaping a collapsing facility to dredging your way through a swamp. Despite the possible horrifying visions, Halo is highly addictive due to its euphoric prolonged effects.

On the top of my head, that's it. I mean sure there are locations outside of New Stelia in various states of livability and purpose but until I write more on them I don't feel inclined to sharing.

My final piece for 2022.

See y'all in 2023~!

Flapper collage

I really love decopunk

Bergmann Model 3A

Source

Robust Heat Early Bird Pricing ends Apr 9!

Heyho--I still feel the same about self-promo-ing, but I know I have to do it, or else the people that may one day have interest in my comic may never find it!

Robust Heat, Volume One is now available to back on Kickstarter! But also, there is one day left to get the gold foil cover at the Early Bird price of $45 CAD. If you'd like to see all the campaign details on Kickstarter, please check out this link: Here

Here's a short run down! Genre: Decopunk/Dieselpunk, LGBTQIA+, Drama, Action Additional tags: Bi/Polyam protagonist, Slowburn, Wartime Some Inspiration: Baccano! (2007), FMA: Brotherhood (2009) & Hollywood on Netflix (2020) Rated: Teen+ (synopsis is after the page samples)

Synopsis: In the first volume of Robust Heat, a young adult and aspiring artist, Soozi Jung, faces the adversity of losing her parents as a child in the Great War. With many sleepless nights and dreams of memories she isn't sure to be true, she finally chooses to confront her late father's partner, Daniel Walker, for more information.

As Daniel struggles to dig deep, Soozi sifts and jumps through the bits and pieces of her childhood, aware that there are large gaps missing from her memories. A core memory stands out to her as she is able to picture it perfectly: the night her family intentionally juggled the thought of becoming fugitives to the head of state, Kaiser Khöpr, with bounties on their heads.