The Searchers

 

RIGHT!, with a bit of luck, patience and perseverance my latest literary acquisition is the full set of the mini series of comic-books titled 'The Searchers'. I first found this comic-book back in 2008, and again picked up an issue in 2013. ebay can be your friend...!

 

Written by Colin Clayton and Chirs Dows, and printed in 1996 to 1997 by Caliber comics.

 

The Searchers - The shape of things to come

 

The Holy Grail Of SteamPunk Comic-books.

 

What immediately caught my attention, was the date it was published 1996, 3 years before "The league of extraordinary gentlemen” was written by Alan Moore and printed. And its use of Fictional Victorian literary characters, even the act of Magic that was use to pluck those characters from the very minds of their authors and making them real flesh & blood people, and seeing what their Grandchildren get up to!

Transposing Fictional literary characters, into a historical contents and their events, or creating a new alternative point in History or bringing a multitude of characters from different Authors together (for the World building), is quite a satisfying read when done well.

[Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes (printed in 1857), had the fictional character, of the school bully Harry Flashman, this character was taken by developed by George MacDonald Fraser, in total there are 18 books published from 1969 to 2005 collectively known as  "The Flashman papers, due to the Auther's death in 2nd of January 2008 there are no more.]

 

 ["Copyright" and "Public Domain" - In most countries the term of protection of copyright expires on the first day of January, 70\75 years after the death of the latest living author. In the USA Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.  The phrase “public domain” refers to works that have effectively become public property and are no longer protected by copyright law. This occurs when the copyright in a work of art expires.]

Now to look for 'War of the Worlds' comic books....

 

The Campaign to Bridge the Gap!

Bridging the Gap! (part one)

SteamPunk: like an explosion on the verge of happening.

From the generation of 'The Young Controller' with his real passion for trains and steam engines (like any little boy of that age), all the way to the fond memories of steam from our Grandparents, and Great-Grandparents - the nostalgic past of our engineering greatness spanning over one-hundred years, from giant beam engines powering our industry to steam locomotives on roads and rails.


What of the youth of today, the teenagers and the twenty somethings, rebelling against authority and consumerism, and not just standing on street corners intimidating passersby, will they bridge the generational gap?

With the arrival of the myriad of SteamPunks consisting of Literary fans, Artisans, Contraptors, Idealists in decorum, Fashion enthusiasts of both neo-Victorian and SteamPunk apparel and steam devotees, there is hope to bridge the gap.
Combining Jules Verne's imagination of the1800's (much like the late Walt Disney's imagineers) and Victorian engineering you can create artwork and contraptions, and even Life-styles.
This misplaced generation are finding out for themselves, the skills and crafts of an older generation, the cut of a suit and the allure of the corset, the appreciation of physical machines and mechanical apparatus by reinventing the past, and recycling a future that never was.

With this mixture of sensibilities and ideologies a new sub-culture has been forming, linked by the virtual communities on the internet, now like an explosion on the verge of happening, SteamPunks can be spotted out in the open with their telltale artful Victorian clothes and good manners. Look for them among the traction engines and steam-rollers, among great beam-engines and steam locomotives, on omnibuses and trams, in the grand halls and botanical gardens keeping alive a very different age of Steam!


For the uninitiated, - SteamPunk is the amalgamation of two branches of the same fictional genealogical tree, Scientific Romances the proto-Science Fiction from the 1800's to the early 1900's, and modern authors of a type of Science Fiction using the setting of an altered historical past, usually the Victorian era, SteamPunk has become a sub-culture of craftsmen working in brass and copper and recycled materials; engineers and inventors taking our present technology back in to the past, for instance a computer keyboard that has been re-engineered and remodeled using brass and steel and now its keys are those resembling the round keys of an Victorian typewriter; taking the modern Japanese sub-culture for young adults of CosPlay - the fun of dressing-up to show what type of devotee you are, has grown in to an exhibition of photographic celebrity, (even the now accepted video-gaming culture, has online avatars with SteamPunk fashion accessories).


I hereby invite you to Join the Campaign to Bridge the Gap!

Campaign details to follow.....

Signed

The SteamPunk Empire's devoted servant and protector

The Steam Brigadier