SteamPunk Originals, Volume 2 Written by Various
Art, Color and Letters by Various
Coordinated and Edited by Mike Schneider
Additional Art by Mike Schneider and Anne-Marie Woolley Arcana Studios
Release Date: January 29, 2014
Cover Price: $14.95
For everyone that was a part of this comic, I apologize. There is no way I could get everyone’s name listed above and still have this format in any decent way. There are no less than fifty people attached to SteamPunk Original, Volume 2 and I couldn’t, in good faith, only pick a few names to spotlight. Open call anthologies such as this are a massive undertaking and I applaud everyone for their hard work here.
Mike Schneider edited this collection of twenty-four stories for Arcana Studios. It also appears that he had his hands in several of the individual tales. A compilation like this is bound to have a little bit of everything and this particular one definitely fits the bill. Ranging from very juvenile in their focus to the extremely heart wrenching, the comics contained in this book are sometimes bits and pieces of a larger tale and just short self-contained stories at other times. I’m going to mention just a few that caught my attention.
I can’t think of a better way to showcase the aesthetically pleasing visuals of steampunk than with a comic book anthology. In Arcana’s newest collection of comic shorts, Steampunk Originals, multiple writers and illustrators are able to push the boundaries of steampunk tropes by combining its concepts with those of other genres. The end results are a culmination of many creatively engaging stories. Check out my picks for some of the best from the volume.
“Rule Britannia: The Messenger” by Axel Howerton and Red Tash is the story of a girl who’s taken over her brother’s messenger job when he signed up to a pilot. She is tasked with delivering a note to Prince Harry from his brother, Prince Billy; but she’ll have to fight her way through a group of sleazy bar patrons first. Steven Yarbrough’s art draws you in from the first panel with is fast-paced, cartoon action and over-the-top characters.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press