Artist Eric Orchard, currently working with Jeff VanderMeer on a graphical adaptation of Jeff’s The Situation, has launched a new blog, Meta Chronicles. Eric will be using the site to explore a topic close to the heart of many a science fiction reader, retrofuturism – that intriguing mix of science fiction ideas with history, taking in sub-genres like Steampunk for example. I’d imagine many of the elements of Moore and O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen might also fall into this category with their re-imagined pasts (look at the enormous Steampunk Channel Bridge in the first LOEG for instance and that’s just a background detail). Its an area of interest which spills out from prose (Neal Stephenson), illustrated (Five Fists of Science) and movie fiction (Sky Captain, Rocketeeer) to other areas too – just look at some of the lovely Steampunk ‘modding’ some creators do to their PC and laptops to make them look like Victorian Difference Engines; its an area of endless fascination and, as Eric points out, a rich location for adventure. Eric is planning to use the blog as a place to examine the stories, the art and what they say about our culture and our desires. One to bookmark, methinks.
Tue, Jan 20, 2009
Art and animation, Books