What Is SteamPunk
Steampunk is a science fiction subgenre that takes, as its inspiration, the industrial steam-powered era of Victorian times and also the American “Wild West” and imagines what would happen if steam power had remained in mainstream use. It also uses stories from fantasy worlds that use steam power. Its most recognizable features include technologies that might have been invented by the Victorians, such as Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) or H G Wells (War Of the Worlds) and include clothes that Victorians or wild west cowboys and cowgirls might have worn, although the term “steampunk” only seems to have been in use since 1987 or so.
Steampunk is becoming more important to people today. Why? It is because of the interesting premise on which steampunk is based: science fiction (like modern horror movies or tales) set in the “age” of steam-powered machinery. The term steampunk has been applied to the Mars novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs in which John Carter is transported to Barsoom (Burroughs’s ficionalized name for Mars) and encounters alien creatures and other humanoids. The first book in this series was published hardcover in 1917, though it had previously been serialized from about 1912 as “Under The Moons Of Mars”.
“Rainbow Mars” is a collection of science fiction stories by Larry Niven, including a short story with that title in which the hero visits Mars using a time machine and finds the creatures there are mythical creations from the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories.
Steam Power
The beauty of steampunk is that it takes us back to an earlier time in which steam provided a lot of power and machines were built from metal with many pistons and cogs, all on view.
Balloons and airships are also important in steampunk, as are humanoid and animal cyberbeings. There are even steampunk pirates and one specific costume is of a plague doctor, which is a bird type full face mask – very chilling!
The world of steampunk is very interesting. It is intriguing to see how things have changed and how technology has allowed for this to occur. Steampunk offers a glimpse of what might have been; where everything was powered by steam – sounds like a world from a distant, unrealized future, doesn’t it?
Steampunk fashion is based heavily on Victorian clothing. Items such as Victorian hats with a scarf or round steampunk glasses are just a few suggestions for steampunk outfits. Cosplayers will wear heavy coats of the “Ulster” style, which is a long coat covered by a cape, in the Sherlock Holmes’ style.
The Wild West, cowboy style and gothic costumes are also popular in steampunk. The materials used in these costumes truly convey a unique air of mystery, intrigue and the wild west. And if you can’t find a costume you like to buy, you can always make your own!
Of course, if you enjoy coloring, you will love a steampunk coloring book, this can include costumes, mythical animals, humanoids, cowboys and robots for instance, as well as airships and fantastical transport machines. A great many different kinds of ideas to color. Many of the pictures will include cogs, wheels and pipes, as well as futuristic machines, special looking binoculars, amazing time pieces and of course robots.