Tag Archives: Beyond Victoriana Turns Four

For our final giveaway for the week, two steampunk comics that you should have on your shelves if you don’t already — Girl Genius Omnibus Vol 1: Agatha Awakens and The Battle of Blood and Ink!

This hardcover volume of Girl Genius contains issues 1-10 and has been re-colored and re-lettered to showcase the fan favorite series in all of its glory.

Book Description:

Girl Genius, the multiple Hugo Award–winning steampunk webcomic by Phil and Kaja Foglio, now collected in hardcover!

The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable, if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters.

At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh.

Swept up to the Baron’s Airship City, Agatha finds herself in the midst of the greatest minds of her generation, as well as palace intrigue, dashing heroes, and an imperial cat. Agatha may be the most brilliant mind of her generation and the key to control of the continent, but first, she just has to survive.

The Battle of Blood and Ink has everything that draws people to the sub-genre: high flying adventure, led by a daring young woman, and of course, the power of the written word to take down corrupt government conspiracies.

Book Description:

If you’re visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker’s Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets—including many that the overcontrolling government doesn’t want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city’s powerful leaders.

Soon Ashe is on the run from thugs and assassins, faced with the choice of imperiling her life just to keep publishing, or giving in to the suggestion of a rich patron that she trade in her voice and identity for a quiet, comfortable life. It’s a war of confusion for Ashe, but one thing is very clear: just because you live in a flying city, you can’t always keep your head in the clouds.

Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.

Since we’ve always been about international relations, it only makes sense that today’s giveaway comes from TeslaCon 4: The Congress of Steam! The premiere steampunk immersive convention in Madison, WI, is setting its sights globally for its Year Four. The propagator of this event, Lord Bobbins, has been inviting steampunk communities around the world to participate. One of the stated goals is to have a space where people from different communities can talk about what steampunk is like where they are from, and — perhaps — even come to some sort of fandom-wide agreement. That’s pretty ambitious, but whether you want to come for a rousing debate or some cultural exchange, I think that TeslaCon 4 has a lot of potential for being a convention to remember for years to come.

And Lord Bobbins is serious when he says he wants international folks to come — in fact, he’s giving away hundreds of weekend tickets for free to all international attendees. And Beyond Victoriana is lucky enough to grab a pair of tickets to give to one lucky winner. This is a $136 value and a helpful discount for anyone planning on booking a flight to come to the US this November (but anyone inside the 50 states has a chance of winning these too of course!).

Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.

Artist James Ng has rocked the steampunk world with his Imperial Steamworks series, which envisions an alternate world where the Industrial Revolution began during the Qing Dynasty in China. His imaginative vision, dynamic use of color, and attention to detail has always blown me away, and now you have a chance to own your own print.

I’ll be giving away prints of the Imperial Sheriff, the Crystal Herbalist and the Imperial Airship. Three winners will be chosen for this giveaway!

Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.

The first giveaway this week comes from Button Me Up, who are offering a quality set of nine steampunk buttons. Because what says steam more distinctly than an octopus in a top hat and what screams punk fashion more than sticking random things on your safety-pinned striped vest or tucked into your bowler?

Their description:

“This set includes the following buttons: Mustache and monocle, a gentleman octopus, Sherlock Holmes, I Gear Steampunk, Got Googles?, powered by tea, gear, clockwork heart, and clockface.”

Also check out their tumblr and like them on Facebook.

Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.