Welcome back!

One of the things that happened after Exhibition Hall

took a break was I got hella into art. Specifically Museum art,
and especially Art Museums. I love them, and I've been to
dozens since, from SFMoMA, LACMA, and Cantor Arts Center
on the West Coast, to MoMA, The Met, and the Guggenheim
in New York. I'd been to most of those New York ones before,
but really, it was after my kids got borned that I started to go
to Museums specifically for art. It used to be I'd haunt history
museums, but that's changed.
I also got really into podcasts and podcasting, but
that's another story!
On my most recent trip to NYC, I got a ton of photos
of Art Deco in the city. It's mostly confined to one area, the
area around Rockefeller Center and 30 Rock, but still, it's in-
credible and I spent hours taking photos.
And at the very lest, it's got Dieselpunk vibes, and
that's Steampunk-adjacent, no? That's a lot of the art for this
issue.
This issue, I look at what once was in Steampunk fan-
dom, and a bit about fashion!
Can't say how often these issues will come out, or
what I'm gonna be covering, but I'm excited to say that I'm
loving doin' these again and I am finding material left-and-
right!
In one of my other zines, The Drink Tank, which I co-
edit with Alissa Wales and Chuck Serface, we did an entire
issue dedicated to Goth. It's well worth reading!
https://efanzines.com/ExhibHall/ExhibHall-30.pdf
Looking back at the beginning

Fifteen years ago, when we started Exhibition Hall, it’s unde-

niable that we were in the most-powerful wave of Steampunk
as a fandom. It lasted for several years, I’d argue it crested
with 2013, but I know others point to dates earlier and later.
The first Steampunk-specific cons were rolling out on the reg-
ular, and for that to happen, you had to have established
groups and activities to draw people together from.
The lucky thing is that we have Archive.org to help us
connect with our fandom history.
When you search for Steampunk, you’ll find an incredi-
ble amount of art and projects, some sadly listed as by anon-
ymous. It’s something that I think can be fixed by diligent
readers who know the space, but it’ll be a long-term chore.
There are a few that I had seen many times before, including
a couple that had appeared as covers for this very zine! Go
figure! There’s a Steampunk Supergirl Fanart (https://
archive.org/details/steampunk-supergirl-fanart-by-
anonymous.) that I think is amazing. Yes, there’s a lot of AI
Art in there too, the one showing a Steampunk Chevy Nova is
probably my favorite.
I remember there were a rash of Wikis popping up in
the 2009-2011 space, some of which are long dead and
gone. My favorite was Steampunk Wiki (https://
web.archive.org/web/20180726020556/https://steampunk-
wiki.wikispaces.com/) which appears to have gone dark not
too long after 2013. That capture is a good one, and it
shows what a largely Western Steampunk would most re-
member of those days. The photos are pretty awesome! There
were at least four or five others, and I think they all had their
place. There are several others that are recent, including the
Steampunk Wiki on Fandom.com (https://
steampunk.fandom.com/wiki/Steampunk)
 Of course, the anthologies are there, almost all of
them from the single most important library in the world. You
can check them out for an hour at a time and that’ll usually
give you enough time to read a story or two. The one’s I rec-
ommend (and that have aged well, as some of them certainly
haven’t) are Steampunk Poe, from 2011, The Mammoth Book
of Steampunk, from 2012, Clockwork Canada, from 2016,
Steampunk!, which I wrote about last issue from 2011, and of
course, the Steampunk anthologies edited by the Vander
Meers. The second and third one are up there, though I have-
n’t found the first one. Also, gotta shout out Mike Ashley’s
Steampunk Prime, which I wrote about in an early issue.
The books that looked at the overall Steampunk thing
are, perhaps, the most instructive in figuring out how we got
here, and really where we were so long ago. The Steampunk
Bible has some issues, but really it’s a great introduction
piece. Thadeus Tinker’s Steampunk Gazette is another really
good one, and I seem to remember reading it when it first
came out, though I don’t think I wrote about it. Might have to
fix that (yay, more content ideas!)
And, of course, there’s Steampunk Magazine.
When I started, there were sorta three Steampunk
mags (and a ton of blogs and the like) but it was Steampunk
Magazine, started in 2007, was the Granddaddy of ‘em All,
and still has an amazing place in Steampunk fandom history,
in much the same way that Propaganda had in the Goth
movement a couple of decades earlier. We all read it, or at
least nodded at it. It wasn’t exactly my taste, but it also had a
lot of stuff I really loved reading in it.
Then there was Nick Ottens’ Gatehouse Gazette. I read
it religiously, from its release in 2008. It was good stuff, and
it fell right in-between what they were doing with Steampunk
Magazine and what I would be doing with Exhibition Hall a
year later.
The three publications really had every little to do with
one another. I’d pop up in Gatehouse once in a while, I think
mostly in letters to the editor, and Nick would pop up in Ex-
Hall. It was a thing. There were others over the years, but
mostly, the zine thing was surplanted by blogs before we
even got started, and it’s amazing that Steampunk Magazine
managed as much penetration as it got.
So, these are the things that are out there. Of course,
there’s so much more on there, so many novels and collec-
tions, Steam-
punk Art books,
and things like
The Steampunk
Sourcebook, and
you’ll even find
some great
Steampunk mu-
sic. I’d say
spend some
time digging
and you’ll find
out why we all
fell so gaga over
Steampunk
when the years
had two zeroes
back-to-back.
Steampunk Fashion

OK, start by going to https://harpersbazaar.com.au/steam-punk-

fashion/ and taking a look. It’s from 2021 and actually a half-
decent article that does a good job of covering what Steampunk
fashion is, or more accurately was, and then shows some runway
examples of the 2020 season.
And some of them qualify, especially an incredible ensem-
ble of top-hat and leather drape-coat by Christian Dior from the
2011 Fall/Winter fashion show. It’s a fantastic outfit, and Karlie

Kloss wears it incredibly well. That entire show looked like it

stepped off the pages of a Gail Carriger cover photoshoot.
OK, that may be over-selling it, but really, they’re wonderful
pieces.
 The article, though, oversells the work of Alexander
McQueen, who is an icon I adore, as being steampunk inspired.
They specifically call out a show of McQueen’s from 2014 where
there is clear influence from Victorian gowns, and the Rooney Mara
dress that is referenced actually struck me as more influenced by
the work of Gautier in the mid-1990s than by any sort of steam-
punk aesthetic, but what are you going to do?
There is, however, an excellent article that looks at Steam-
punk fashion from Atomic Jane - https://atomicjaneclothing.com/
blogs/news/steampunk-fashion-the-corset. It’s an excellent over-
view that skews much closer to what fans might be looking for.
There are Steampunk shops that I appreciate most heavily. Steam-
punk Style (steampunkstyler.com) is one, and they have a Steam-
punk Victorian Dress that is absolutely to dies for. Their accesso-
ries are great too, though I’ve never been overly impressed with
their designs for men. For men, I say Historical Emporium. They’re a
bit less fancy, but I like ‘em.
Then again, what do I know; I rarely wear anything but
black pants and a t-shirt.
Still, Steampunk fashion exists at all levels; from the ama-
teur to the cosplayer to the big design houses, the aesthetic is pre-
sent at varying de-
grees.
Letters
Let's hear from the great Lloyd Penney!!!!!
Dear Chris:

Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve sent you a loc! Welcome back
to you and Exhibition Hall 30, and let’s get busy on this! I’m on a
roll…sent a loc to John Purcell’s Intermezzo earlier today.
As much as I like steampunk, I did find the few books I’ve
read to be a little stodgy and slow, but then, I think they were
written to match the slow speed of novels at the time. I freely admit
that as a former Worldcon masquerade entrant, it’s the costumes I
like.
How have you been? Sounds like you’ve been better, but
your family is standing behind you. I am pre-diabetic, so with the
new warm weather will come a series of long walks and other
exercise. Yvonne and I don’t do buffets any more, but on special
occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries (both just recent!), we
go to breakfast restaurants to snarf down a plateful.
Things are getting easier every day!
Tell me more about this new job. I 1-day a week job I have
is a pain, and once I find out just how much I will be getting from
the government as my pension (probably not much), I can then see
how much I can take from my investments, and see if I can live a
quiet life based on my bank account.
I love it! William Saroyan is a fun writer, and I get to do a lot of The-
atre History stuff that makes me happy. And I do layout for publica-
tions, which is right up my alley!!!
Steampunk up here…is pretty sparse. There were historic
house and library steampunk events, but they are all gone.
Steampunk has had its day, say they, and it’s a thing of the past.
However, in the hour-away small town of Fergus, Ontario, there is a
yearly event, the Fergus Steampunk Festival. We went last year
only as attendees, and I think that’s an attend event for us, rather
than be vendors.
Gotta fold it up, so tired, having trouble seeing. Good to
see another steampunk zine, and with some luck, we will see it
again RSN. Take care, and our best to the family.

Yours, Lloyd Penney.

Thanks Lloyd!!!