The Website is Back!

June 3rd, 2009

Since the tail end of last year we have had ever-increasing problems with the website as a result of hackers who broke in and have been using Steampunk Magazine to spread spam and malware. This problem has got exponentially worse over the past few weeks, and culminated two days ago in my needing to take the website offline in order to prevent any further damage.

I have now managed to remove the offending codes and pages and carried out a complete update and re-install of all blog and forum software. For now, all that means is that you may be getting warnings from Google about the site until they check us again and give us a clean bill of health. It also means that things around here (especially the forum) are going to look more than a little different.

This is an unfortunate side-effect of our having to upgrade the forum. Fortunately, it should mean that we get fewer spammers registering in the future (which will in turn mean that we can make the registration process a little easier on everyone).

Over the next few months, hopefully both halves of the website will be undergoing a re-design, and will come out the other side looking much prettier. Until then, be rest assured that the website is once again safe to visit.

Warm regards,
Allegra

Posted in Website | 5 Comments »

SPM at Makers Fair!

May 27th, 2009

We wanted to let everyone know that Libby will be representing Steampunk Magazine at this weekend’s MAKE Magazine Maker Faire (San Mateo, California), which is the largest DIY festival worldwide.

We will be one aspect of Carnival Mechanique, which is an enlarged version of last year’s Steampunk Contraptor’s Lounge. We won an award at the 2008 faire for this area, and received attention in an issue of MAKE Magazine earlier this year. Libby has previously covered a bit of the Maker Faire experience as part of her interview with the Chronabelle folks in Issue #5. SPM will be joined by many of our extended family members: Jake von Slatt, Datamancer, Deshret Dance Company, Suzanne Forbes, David S. Dowling, members of the Etsy Steam Team, and more.

Libby will have print copies of Issue #5 available for barter or purchase. If you will be in attendance, please come say hi, brainstorm, dance with Nathaniel Johnstone’s band of wayward musicians, have a snack with us, etc.

http://www.makerfaire.com

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SteamPunk Magazine, Issue #5 Released!

April 13th, 2009

Some people said it would never happen, for a moment in there some of us even thought it would never happen, but now, over a year since the release of our last issue, it brings me immense pleasure to announce that the fifth issue of SteamPunk Magazine is now available! Featuring everything from emergency welding to a very special guest essay by Bruce Sterling, it is available for download on our downloads page, and can also be purchased, as ever, through Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness.

Good hunting!

In other news, some of us here at SPM will be heading up to Whitby Goth Weekend in two weeks time where Abney Park are playing. If you’re planning on being in the area, drop us a line. We’d love to see you there.

Posted in Releases | 25 Comments »

Issue #5

April 6th, 2009

Just a quick note to let everybody know that there have been a few hiccups with the printing and distribution of issue #5, but hopefully it will be coming to a website near you very soon indeed.

We are still scheduled for the release of issue #6 some time in July, and thank you all for your patience as we work out the last few knots.

It won’t be too long now, we promise!

Posted in Releases | 4 Comments »

News Roundup

March 4th, 2009

With Issue #5 well on the way to completion (and appearing on a website near you in the next week or so) we thought that it was about time that we posted something of a news feature.

To begin with, a couple of items that relate to the magazine:

For starters, MAKE magazine have an excellent article in their latest issue, which is completely steampunk themed. The article is written by Cory Doctorow and is available to read online. It is titled ‘Love the Machine, Hate the Factory’, a motto which has long been associated with us here at SPM. In fact you can still buy patches with it on over at Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, should be so inclined.

Also on the topic of the media for those of you in the UK, we will be taking part in an interview on BBC Radio Scotland. The interview is part of Radio Scotland’s Radio Café show (a culture program covering film, books, fashion and theatre), who are running a feature on steampunk on Wednesday 11th March. For those of you in Scotland, the show will be live from around 1:15pm, and for anyone who happens to be in the rest of the UK it will be available for seven days afterwards through the iPlayer.

Further afield, there are various other events taking place over the next few weeks to appeal. In Australia, the a steampunk club, Prometheus Bound, has just opened in Brisbane showcasing a variety of local musicians, writers and performers, while between 6th and 8th March, Pomona in California will be paying host to Gothla, a belly dance event that this year has a decidedly steampunk theme.

This weekend also marks the end of auditions for the Airship Diaries, a series of short podcast-style audio plays. Once the cast list is announced, there will be ten episodes of this in total, which will begin broadcasting from 11th April.

Finally, we would like to share the work of Andy Clark with you, who has just finished working on a painstakingly-crafted replica of a Victorian flea circus chariot using only the techniques and equipment that would have been available in the late 1800’s.

Flea Chariot

The chariot is around a centimetre long, and truly a marvel of engineering. There is a video available of the chariot in action, and it is also well worth taking a look at the Workshop Shed blog, where there is a step-by-step guide to just exactly how Andy did it, which should be of interest to all you metal-workers.

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Updated Submission Guidelines & Theme for Issue #6

January 29th, 2009

I am happy to say that the Deadlines & Submissions page has now (finally!) been updated with information regarding the recent happenings at SteamPunk Magazine. There have been changes to the frequency and submission windows, and (as you can see) we are also now accepting poetry.

In addition to this we can also announce the theme for Issue #6 of SteamPunk Magazine: ‘The Pre-Industrial Revolution’. We will be accepting submissions (both themed and unthemed) from 1st April onwards until the end of May, with Issue #6 slated to come out some time in July.

At the same time, be assured that we are still hard at work on Issue #5, and on course to bring the latest instalment to a PC near you by the end of February!

Posted in Other | 2 Comments »

The Future Of SteamPunk Magazine, Part III

December 31st, 2008

Hopefully, this shall be the final announcement regarding the future of the magazine that you will read for quite some time.

As you all know by now, Margaret has allowed me to take over some of the editing and day-to-day running of SteamPunk Magazine, and I am both honoured and delighted to be allowed do just that.

I would like to begin by both praising and thanking Magpie for all of the tireless work and indisputable talent which he has brought to the project over the past few years. He has done so very much to establish this magazine as a genuine force to be reckoned with, and I for one applaud him for every effort that he has made in doing it. I am glad that he has decided to continue be a part of the SteamPunk Magazine along with myself and the other editors, and would also like to wish him all the best of luck for his new project, Post-Civilized.

Since its creation, SteamPunk Magazine has demonstrated how this mostly-overlooked little subculture of ours needn’t be about simply dressing up in pretty clothes and painting cogs on laptops.

It has shown us how steampunk can be more than just a website – more than just a blog, a magazine, or a set of cap and goggles. It has shown us how it can be a way of life. It has helped us to see how it can be a lens through which we see the world around us: a way we can engage with it, and a way in which we may re-imagine its future while at the same time preserving its past. It has shown us that maybe we have moved forwards in the name of progress long enough, and that perhaps it is time for us to begin in looking back.

More than anything else, you should all be assured that I shall make it my highest priority to ensure that SteamPunk Magazine continues to put the punk back into SteamPunk.

Obviously there are going to be some changes happening over the next few weeks and months, however you can be certain that even as I write to you, issue five of SteamPunk Magazine grows ever closer to being completed. It is looking likely that it will come out on or around 25th February 2009 – one year since the last issue was released.

As to what happens after that, well that is very much up to all of you. I have set up a discussion on the Gaslamp Bazaar where we call all talk about what changes may be made to the magazine after the release of issue #5. I have shared a few of my own ideas for what the future may hold for us, and I hope that you will all feel encouraged to do the same.

Wishing you all a very happy new year.

Warm regards,
Allegra

Posted in Other | 8 Comments »

The Future Of SteamPunk Magazine, Part II

December 21st, 2008

I am sad to announce that I am stepping down as primary editor of SteamPunk Magazine. Suffice it to say that, for a number of reasons, I am not able to continue running the magazine. Fortunately, someone has stepped up to take the mantle. It’s no small thing to be the volunteer editor of a popular magazine, and I salute her courage. Hopefully, she’ll introduce herself on here soon. Expect some changes, some new love going into the project, and most importantly, expect new issues. I’ll still be around as layout editor… layout is what I loved the most.

Steampunk has come a long way from where it was when we started the magazine two years ago. It’s a new landscape, one both exciting and alien to me. I still have hope for the genre. The waves of commercialism will bash up against our hull, but we steampunks are a stalwart bunch and we’ll hold fast. Hell, we’ll grow stronger: every day another person gets involved with steampunk and recognizes something valid, realizes it provides symbols that help them understand themself. Because steampunk is more than a meme. Steampunk is a reimagining of the world. May it live forever.

As for myself, besides laying out SteamPunk Magazine, I’ve been collaborating with a few others on a new journal, Post-Civilized, which plans to be a resource for those looking to enact a post-civilized approach to life. I’ve got a few other projects in the works, including a book of interviews and plenty of my own fiction. I’m sure I won’t be a stranger. To keep up with my other projects, I’ve a blog over at Birds Before The Storm and I’m always still involved in Strangers In A Tangled Wilderness

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Killjoy

Posted in Other | 3 Comments »

Bryan Talbot on Bastable, Brass Goggles and badgers.

November 30th, 2008

Bryan Talbot illo
<-{image by Leah Moore}->

Bryan Talbot is a man of many talents; renowned in the field of comics for his outstanding abilities as an artist, Bryan has collaborated with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Pat Mills, Alan Moore and Bill Willingham during his illustrious career. Never a man to be pigeonholed however, 2007 saw the publication of The Naked Artist: Comic Book Legends – a book of humorous anecdotes collected by Talbot during his many evenings spent chatting to other comic creators in convention bars. More recently Bryan penned the graphic novel Cherubs – a supernatural comedy with British indie artist Mark Stafford handling the visuals. Yet, it is arguably in the role of writer/artist that Talbot has achieved his greatest successes; 1995’s The Tale of One Bad Rat earned Bryan much well deserved praise for its beautiful artwork, masterful story telling and sensitive portrayal of a teenager escaping an abusive home life. Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment is another fantastically well respected work of Talbot’s. The book was several years in the making and is an extraordinarily dense and visually luxurious blend of history, psychogeography and the life and works of Lewis Carroll, amongst other things. However, as wonderful as all Bryan’s above mentioned works are, there is little doubt that by far his most attention-grabbing stories, so far as this publication’s particular field of interest is concerned, feature a certain Mr. Arkwright. Talbot’s The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its 1999 sequel Heart of Empire (AKA The Legacy of Luther Arkwright) span multiple parallel worlds within a Moorcock-ian multiverse, which logically have more than a whiff of steampunkery about them.

Now in 2008, Bryan is midway through working on a brand new steampunk graphic novel entitled Grandville which stars Detective Inspector LeBrock – a “large working class badger” in Talbot’s own words. Grandville is set in a retro sci-fi world populated by anthropomorphic animals and looks likely to become yet another Bryan Talbot masterpiece. Bryan was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the upcoming graphic novel, his work in general and what steampunk means to him. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Interviews | 3 Comments »

Translated Introduction To The Italian Version of the Apocalypse Guide

November 30th, 2008

Edit: I credited this wrong, have now fixed it.
Our Italian friend Reginazabo has furnished us with an English translation of their introduction to the translated steampunk’s guide to the apocalypse. I just read it over and it’s wonderful: it really nails most of what steampunk is about for us, and explores some new theoretical territory I hadn’t previously considered. Teaser paragraph below, the rest after the break:

We live in a world at the edge of the ecological catastrophe, in a world where the race for hoarding profits and resources is recreating all over the planet slums typical of 19th-century London, and the individual’s rights, obtained through fierce collective struggles in the last two-hundred years, are starting to wear away again one after another. That is why many people are beginning to consider the idea of de-growth, of slowing down production rhythms—or even of going back to early industrial conditions—as the only real solution to the death of the world as we know it and to the definitive establishment of a society ruled by control and fear, by a fundamental reduction of labourers to slavery and by a suicidal and ecocidal hyperproduction.

Read the rest of this entry »

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