Steel Seas & Sky Machines: The Dieselpunk Art of Tony Snipes

Posted in Art, DieselPunk on July 7th, 2026 by Dr. Warthan
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Tony Snipes Aerocycle dieselpunk art book illustration

Somewhere in an alternate 1940s, Abraham Lincoln survives, the Reconstruction goes differently, and battleships take to the skies on the back of bold leaps in electricity, magnetism, and gravity. That is the premise baked into every rivet of Steel Seas & Sky Machines, the Portsmouth, Virginia exhibition showcasing the dieselpunk world of artist Tony Snipes and his fictional Portsmouth Aeroshipbuilding Co. Detailed sketches, 3-D models, and digital works, all locked in to an alt-history where the home front didn’t build Liberty Ships, it built Aerocycles and aeroships. The Doctor approves of this timeline.

If you missed the exhibition, Snipes has a live Kickstarter running right now for the Aerocycle Art Book & Model Kit, a product launch straight out of The Yard itself. An art book AND a model kit. In a dieselpunk universe. For actual money you can spend. This is the Omega7Red Formulae applied to “what if WWII-era industrial propaganda was awesome on purpose” and the result is exactly what you’d hope. Go back this thing. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a tabletop Aerocycle might come close.

Via: The Steampunk Explorer

Thelomeris: City of Time

Posted in ClockPunk, DieselPunk on July 3rd, 2026 by Dr. Warthan
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Still or promotional image from Thelomeris showing the clockwork city aesthetic with cogwheels and dark industrial imagery

Somewhere between 2008 and the heat death of the universe, Hungarian director Balazs Hatvani has been building Thelomeris: a city of cogwheels and clocks where the citizens exist solely to feed the insatiable Clock Factory, and no one knows who built it or why. That is, objectively, the most on-brand premise I have encountered since I invented the Omega7Red Formulae. ClockPunk. DieselPunk. Noir. A city that is itself a machine that makes more machine. The Doctor approves so hard he pulled something.

And they got Mark Hamill to play the mysterious Stranger and serve as a script consultant. Luke Skywalker. The Joker. That Mark Hamill, in a brooding Eastern European clockwork dystopia. The Formula was applied by a Hungarian filmmaker with impeccable taste, and the result is either going to be extraordinary or the most beautiful catastrophe ever committed to green screen. Either way I win, because both outcomes are things I want to see. The film has been in development since 2008, which means it has been cooking longer than some of my laboratory assistants have been alive. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but apparently this movie is going to try.

A trailer exists. Hamill is credited. The city is dark, cold, and run entirely on clock-powered despair. Someone please get this thing released before the gears stop turning. Via: Screen Anarchy

Sucker Punch

Posted in DieselPunk, Movie, SteamPunk on July 24th, 2011 by Dr. Warthan
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Sucker Punch is an American action-fantasy film written by Steve Shibuya and Zack Snyder, and directed by Snyder. Sucker Punch features an ensemble female cast that includes Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung. The film follows a young girl in the 1950s about to be lobotomized as she attempts to escape an asylum with her inmate friends.

Watch the trailer.  As you can see, there’s a lot of Steampunk influence in there.  In fact, this movie has more Steampunk in it than many other pure Steampunk imaginings (like Riese Kingdom Falling, for example).  Snyder has described the film as “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns”, including dragons, B-52 bombers, and brothels. Snyder’s wife and producing partner Deborah Snyder concludes, “in the end, it’s about this girl’s survival and what she needs to do to be able to cope.”

“Sucker Punch” is an epic action fantasy taht takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality.  Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.

Dr. Warthan’s Review: ΩΩΩΩΩ – Five Omega’s
That’s right, I own it on Blu-Ray!  I love movies that set the mind free.  It’s on the same level as the Matrix and 300.  A definite must-see and must own.

Via: Sucker Punch

FailPunk: Airship Fail

Posted in Art, DieselPunk, Humor, SteamPunk on September 3rd, 2010 by Dr. Warthan
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This is why we can’t have nice airships; Nazis suck!  I’ve invented a new term: FailPunk.  I searched and made sure no one else was using the term, and I couldn’t find any sites with Steampunk fail, Cyberpunk fail, or any other kind of punk fail.  Maybe it’ll catch on.

Want to make your own image macro?  I used ROFLbot to make the image above, which I think is far superior to the LOLbuilder.  If you’ve got a Punk Fail or LOL, send it to me and I’ll post it.