Scarlet Traces on the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast

The latest 2000AD Thrill-Cast focuses on the new Scarlet Traces anthology. It consists of an hour-long discussion between Scarlet Traces co-creator and anthology editor Ian Edginton, writer Maura McHugh, Rebellion commissioning editor David Moore join, and 2000 AD publicity droid Molch-R, about the world of Scarlet Traces, the legacy of H G Wells' original novel, imperialism and speculative fiction, and moving from comics into prose.

It's an interesting listen, but when the spectre of steampunk rears its ugly, cog-adorned head, it's clear that people have a problem with steampunk, to the point where Pax Britannia, Rebellion's own steampunk novel series, doesn't even get a passing mention.

You can purchase Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology, which includes my story Wonderful Things, here.

British Science Week

Seeing as how this week is British Science Week, it seemed like as good a time as any to plug my Pax Britannia steampunk books.

Early on in writing the series I made the decision not to include anything supernatural or magical in the books. Yes there are vampires and werewolves, but these are a form of genetic mutation.

However, having said there's no magic, there's actually magic aplenty in the books, it just goes under the catch-all term of 'mad science'. The crazy inventions and experiments of various characters have the same affect as magic on the narrative, helping to drive the plot into unexpected places and generally causing Ulysses Quicksilver and his friends no end of grief.

If you've not tried the books out for yourself yet, there are eight in total, plus various short stories, and the first six novels have been collected in two omnibuses.

     

Talking of mad science, Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein* text is published today, complete with husband Percy’s corrections of her misspellings.

Frankenstein inspired Stan Lee when he was creating the Incredible Hulk, and both of them inspired my own take on the Creature that appears in the Weird War Two adventure Anno Frankenstein.

* And first published 200 years ago this year.

Steampunk Cable

I've posted steampunk versions of Batman and Iron Man on this blog before, but here's one of Cable from the X-Men universe.

The image is by artist Rahsan Ekedal and is taken from the Project: Rooftop - Superheroes, Redesigned blog, which you can find here.

The Justice League - steampunk style!

Meet the steampunk Justice League!

Ampney Crucis Investigates

Starting in 2000AD prog is a brand new Thrill, Ampney Crucis Investigates, created by the redoubtable Ian Edginton and Simon Davis. The two have previously worked together most notably on the Stone Island books, and it looks like we can expect more of the same gruesome goings on within a real world setting with the opening story Vile Bodies.

This is right up my street, with Davis' macabre and colourful art perfectly complimenting Edginton's unpleasant imaginings. After only five pages of strip and one teaser pic there's not much to go on, but I'm guessing Mr Crucis himself is going to be something of a Lord Peter Wimsey/Noel Coward-type character, and in some ways he already rather resembles Ulysses Quicksilver.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to more of this and am already (optimistically) hoping that there will be more to come after the conclusion of this opening adventure.

By the way, Ampney Crucis gets his name from an actual village in Gloucestershire.