Still bummed that we’re not going to make it to Steam-Con this year. Had a minor kerfuffle trying to get my registration refunded, but hey, they’re new, and they finally did make good once things were more fully explained to them, which is good sign for the future.
On the subject of things steamy, here’s an interesting blog entry from Shawn Gaston, creator of the Clockworks steampunk webcomic about his first pro convention attendance.
Two things he wrote stood out for me, and so I’ll quote them in full here:
Steampunk is the New Black. Seriously. Archon is exactly the same this year as GenCon or Dragon*Con were in that regard. All of a sudden Steampunk has hit critical mass, and the costumes/outfits are everywhere. This was of course good for me and the comic, but just kind of fascinating to figure out how all of a sudden something just flips over and becomes part of the gestalt. I’m looking forward to two years from now, when I can sit in on the Is Steampunk Played Out? panel. Speaking of SitNB: There is seriously a much larger fandom/audience for awesome steampunk stuff than there is media being put out. There are tons of movies/games/books/tv shows/etc that have steampunk elements. Everything from Avatar the Last Airbender to Warehouse 13 to the movie 9 has stylistic elements and hints and whatnot. But there is really an audience out there for more straight up steampunk stuff. I don’t want people who really want to write horror or hard sci fi or whatever to start pumping out crappy steampunk novels; but if you’re creative and you love this stuff anyway, go start making stuff. There are seriously more people in to this than there are people catering to us. (For now. See you in two years at the Is Steampunk Played Out panel.) Don’t just churn out steampunk crap to jump on the trend, but if you already love airships and stompy robots and smoke filled metropolises and mad science and goggles, start writing a story or drawing a comic or painting or taking erotic photographs or filming your indie movie or whatever. The world needs more cool steampunk media.“
Specifically interesting is the latter point, which I’ve been saying for a while now… and, in fact, gears have been turning, and you should expect an Official Announcement (™) in the next month or so, once I’ve got the site ready for viewing….