July 2011 Articles (57)

On Killer Serials, we showcase the episodic adventure films that were popular in the days before television.  Serials were typically short (20 minutes was average), about 10 - 15 chapters long, packed with as much action as possible, and almost always had a cliffhanger ending so the audience would return for the next installment.

This week, we're showing the diesel era's most famous private detective, Dick Tracy.  Based on the comic strip by Chester…

Want to travel in style? No problem! Take an Empire Class flying boat!

Actually, "flying boat" is a clear understatement: the Empires, built by Short Brothers for Imperial Airways, were a class of flying luxury liners. They carry a crew of five, 17 passengers, and 4,480 lb (2,035 kg) of cargo at a maximum…

Studying the life of Hellé Nice, the Bugatti Queen, is like reading a novel. A quite unrealistic novel that is. Such are the twists and turns, the steep rise and deep fall, that hardly any writer could dream it up.

Hellé Nice in an undated photograph (Jean-Pierre Poiter, Chelles, France/Random House)

Hellé Nice was born as Helene Delangle near Chartres as daughter of a postmaster, moved to Paris as teenager, posed for naughty photographs sold to…

Introduced in 1922, it was a true Futurist automobile:

The Lambda was one of the most innovative cars of the twenties with its chassis, independent suspension and compact engine. It was the first to feature a load-bearing monocoque body which adopted by almost every manufacturer thirty years later. Vincenzo Lancia personally envisioned the Lambda after considering ship design and the strength that a hull needs to battle the great seas.…

Everybody knows who was America's WWI Ace Number One. But can you name Number Two?

Meet Capt. Gillet aka Gillet 'Razors'!

Born Francis Warrington Gillet, he was a student at the University of Virginia when he joined the U.S. Air Service on April 1, 1917. Like many, he did not adjust to flying easily and was flunked out of flight school. After…

July is traditionally the month of the Tour de France. Reason enough to look back at the heros of the road in the 1930s, at a time when roads were predominantly dirt tracks, derailleur use wasn't allowed and competitors carried their spare tire wrapped around their shoulders. And of course a time of style and fashion (when will somebody feature more sports fashion on Dieselpunks?).

The 1930s saw further…

Look at the Armageurra OG-43, meanly beautiful looking gun. It has angry function written all over it. Drop this in the hands of any Dieselpunker or Science Fiction trooper and it would blend into any speculative fiction universe. Think about all those Word War II period guns that armed the Empire in Star Wars. Science fiction blends with small arms fact. And in the case of…

Welcome to Two Fisted Tuesdays, Dieselpunks' weekly beat on the mean streets.

Starring Gerald Mohr and starting with the famous lines, "Get this and get it straight! Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave." The Adventures of Philip Marlowe runs about 25 minutes without commercials. You can listen to this blast from the past in MP3 format for free at the link below.…

Life saving Coca-Cola...

The first version of a Buster Keaton style illustration for the inner booklet of the new Kid Creole and the Coconuts album, again.…

Lights out, everybody.

On Miskatonic Mondays, we celebrate the "weird" fiction of HP Lovecraft and the genre of otherworldly horror that it spawned.  This week, I'm highlighting the Lovecraftian artist Junji Ito.  Best known for his horrific Japanese comics (manga), Mr. Ito has the squirmy-alien style of Lovecraft's beasts down to a science.  Here's a portrait of old HP that demonstrates his mastery of the art.…

The first French full-streamlined locomotive had something in common with Alexandre Dumas' character:

In 1935 such locomotives entered service of the Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée Railway (PLM), the pioneers of French streamlining. The locos were not new. In 1934, when the decision to establish fast streamliner service had been taken, the management's choice were already retired…

The latest page of our webcomic WARBIRDS OF MARS is up:

I'm very proud to say that author Jeff Mariotte did a lovely little write-up on the comic. http://jeff_mariotte.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/07/warbirds-of-mars.html

We now have a complete website up with the Online comics, Print…

I just learned that a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the Liberty Belle, caught fire and crash-landed in a field outside Chicago back in June of this year.

It was being used to give plane rides and exhibitions when it took off from Aurora Municipal Airport and was forced to land about 20 minutes later near Chicago, Illinois.

Here's a video report on it:…

"The changing perspectives of flight constitute an absolutely new reality that has nothing in common with the reality traditionally constituted by a terrestrial perspective.

"Painting from this new reality requires a profound contempt for detail and a need to synthesise and transfigure everything. "

These were two quotes from a 1929 Futurist manifesto,…

Hi everybody.

Last night we finished the 4th episode of Constitutionens Voktere, known to you as Guardians of the Constitution, and as always, my first order of business is to share it with my fellow dieselpunkers.

This time we are throwing a time machine into the mix, and start a storyline that won´t be resolved until 1943 (or, the next episode). The episode is set in 1933, four years after the events of Monster Noir. And yes, the title is a referanse to…

Steam tractors, steam wagons, steam omnibuses, steam rollers... An endless source of inspiration.

Here's a collection of these glorious machines, alive and kicking, attending Steam Weeks, rallies and other events, brought to us by Damian Sharples aka day 192 @ Flickr:…

...But you only have to stand up and salute for the last number.

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