Geekdom

You may have noticed the nifty title (and title graphics!) to my blog. Well, I sure did – thinking of a title cost me half a day in starting this thing! I’m ashamed to admit how long the title banner took.

And so it is time to subject you, the reader, to an examination of each piece of the multiple-personality pie that will be this blog. I had planned to start with a Bull Moose segment, but my Geek muse caught hold of me today when I saw this:

That’s right – steampunk Flash. It just doesn’t get better than this! Geekdom comes in many flavors, but steampunk must rank among of Geekdom’s Universally Accepted Genres (UAG’s), along with space, ninjas, robots, pirates, superheroes, and monkeys.

[Note that any combination of UAG items is also inherently cool (or inherently geeky, as the terms are interchangeable). Thus, space ninjas, pirate monkeys, or especially robot ninja pirate monkeys are all concepts that will cause instant salivation among geek fanboys and fangirls.]

But steampunk really gets me – I love all things Victorian. Geeks owe a certain debt to the era – after all, science fiction (known as “scientific romances” at the time) has its earliest roots during the Victorian time period. I would be bereft in my duties as host if I didn’t recommend some of my favorites: the Miller and Walter translation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (accept no other translation!), Gibson and Sterling’s The Difference Engine, Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog (although you need to read predecessor Doomsday Book first), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and from television, "The Wild Wild West" and "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr."

But this – steampunk Flash – is simply awesome.

Now I don’t know much about netiquette, and I don’t plan to outright steal things very often, but I must credit Newsarama with pointing me to Sillof’s Workshop’s version of Gaslight Justice League! Check out the whole series – as well as his steampunk Star Wars sets and Star Wars: 1942 line. Great, great stuff.

I played City of Heroes for a good while, and my main hero was a super-speedster. I’d have given a lot to make him look like steampunk Flash!

So how am I a geek? Because I get excited about stuff like this.