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YOUR TIME MACHINE TO THE PAST
BOOK REVIEW
BOILERPLATE
HISTORY'S MECHANICAL MARVEL
What a cool book! Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel, measuring approximately 11 1/2" X 9," with a hundred and sixty eight pages of photos and illustrations is a magnificent steampunk put-on about a history that never occurred. Created by the husband and wife team of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennet, it recounts the adventures of a robot -- created by professor Archibald Campion in 1893 -- which participated in key moments of our history.
Boilerplate with Archibald Campion.
Boilerplate with the Rough Riders.
The detail here is nothing less than mind blowing. Boilerplate's life story, for want of a better word, is not only carefully thought out but masterfully illustrated. Everything that one might to expect have happened, were the story real, is presented here in beautiful period art. Most impressive is the photography; one has to wonder how, even given today's digital technology, the robot is made to seamlessly blend in with its historic surroundings.
Pancho
Villa poses with Boilerplate in this photo taken near Guerrero, March 27, 1916.
What we have here, in effect, is a science fiction story presented as a documentary. And because of that, it makes the reader, who is discovering this mechanical marvel's history, a participant in the story. If you're into steampunk, science fiction, great art or just superior story telling, this book is highly recommended. -- Bruce/Swapsale
Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage's Analytical engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
Paul Guinan is a Chicago-born multimedia artist whose eclectic career includes stints as a storyboard artist, cinematographer, ad-agency illustrator, kinetic sculptor, mural painter, production designer, radio DJ, model maker, silkscreener, and even wax-figure restorer for a Ripley’s Museum. His Victorian robots web site has garnered international acclaim, especially his pages about Boilerplate, the Mechanical Marvel of the Nineteenth Century.
Anina Bennett is the original webmaster of BigRedHair.com and the writer/editor/designer of the Heartbreakers Superdigest series of science fiction graphic novels. Her first Heartbreakers story, created with Paul, saw print in Dark Horse Presents back in 1989. It was the first action comic to feature a female lead.
FOR MORE INFO GO TO: http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/index.html
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