Saturday, March 10, 2007

Steampunk Star Wars: Death Star



Massive Solar-Orbiting Electro-Mechanical Analytic Engine, Mark 6

This enormous Imperial space station, the size of a small moon or asteroid, is in fact an immense analytic engine, a device capable of making millions of calculations every day. Inside is kilometer after kilometer of tubes and wheels, cranks and gears, all spinning and clacking, spitting out an endless series of numbers for the Imperials scientists to decipher.

Although the Empire has half a dozen such devices in operation throughout the galaxy, this version is unique. While the others spend their days crunching statistical algorithms or calculating flight models, the Mark 6 station (under the personal watch of Lord Vader) is dedicated to experiments with Arcane Mathematics, the mathematical study of the Force. They hope to discover a unified Force theory, allowing them to fuse the power of the Force with their technology to create unspeakably powerful weapons. The station already houses a product of this research, a terrible weapon capable of directing a coherent beam of pure Force energy1, strong enough to destroy all life on an entire planet. This weapon has earned the station the nickname of "Death Star".

[1]As it has not yet been discovered a way for machines to directly generate Force energy, it must be supplied by a powerful Force user. The user conjures the energy inside of a specially designed resonance chamber which amplifies the energy before directing it through a series of lenses to produce a powerful coherent beam of unimaginably destructive energy.

27 comments:

Sus said...

I really love, love, luuurve these. Super idea, incredible execution. Please keep it up! I'm enjoying it greatly!

Joshua Rothhaas said...

more!

Richard MacDonald said...

STOP FARTING ON MY DICK!!!

Unknown said...

Very nice and an awe some description. Especially the "device capable of making millions of calculations every day."

GJH said...

Awesome... how much better would a steampunk version of Star Wars be than Episodes I-III? These illustrations are fantastic. Really impressive. In terms of the Jabba discussion: I thought that making Jabba look like a traditional Victorian villan was the point. I can't remember any criticism on those lines for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's such a brilliant idea that I can't wait for the next one. (How about some stormtroopers, or droids, or x-wings...)

Gabriel Villa said...

great work... took the liberty of publishing your link in my blog:
http://www.donttalkaboutlife.com/2007/03/steampunk-star-wars.html
regards,
Gabriel
http://www.donttalkaboutlife.com

Abraxas Z said...

I absolutely love these. I've noticed on some art blogs that you can no longer save the jpegs. Is that an option you enabled or is it something on my end? Anyway, keep up the good work!

Daniel Wallace said...

Wonderful "difference engine" Death Star! I was expecting another character remix, but this is even better.

How cool would it be to see this as an animated feature?

John Dahle said...

I like how you made the Death Star an armillary-like device. I can't wait to see the Millennium Falcon.

mark p said...

I love these so much!

How about Luke and Leia?

Edward Pearse said...

Apart from the fact that I was stunned by the quality of your work and ideas, I was also pleasantly surprised by your last name. It's the same as my own (no my blogger account is for a Secondlife Avatar. Hence not my name.)

Continue the good work.

Well done!

Eric Poulton said...

sus: Thanks! I checked out your blog and enjoyed it quite a bit! Funny scientist girl = swoon.

spatulated: Oh, there are more coming. Eventually...

richard macdonald: You sure have a way with words.

clock: Thanks!

gjh: Thanks! I haven't actually read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (it's on my to-read list), but I'd trust Alan Moore to be more than capable of writing characters based on stereotypes effectively. It's more a matter of how the subject is handled.

gabriel villa: Thanks for the link!

abraxas z: I'm not sure what the problem is. It's not an option I'm able to set, and I don't have any problems saving these on my end.

dan: An animated feature based on my illustrations would definitely be cool.

loquax: Armillary! That's what they're called! I wish I'd known what they were called before doing this so I could've found more reference material. I had to make most of it up off the top of my head. Thanks!

mark p: I've got some ideas and sketches of Leia, but not much of an idea of how I'm going to tackle Luke's design yet. An idea will hit me eventually.

edward pearse: Hey cool! I don't meet many other Poultons (outside of the ones I'm related to, of course).

Randolpho said...

All I can say is "wow"

I just stumbled on this thanks to Shamus Young (author of DM of the Rings)... count me a new fanboy. :D

So... can I get higher-resolution images? That Death Star makes a nice desktop wallpapter, but I'm at such a high resolution it looks pixelly.

Also, when can I play Steampunk Star Wars the RPG?

Ok, I'm done geeking out. Very cool stuff!

Randolpho said...

Also.... I wonder what stormtroopers look like?

Unknown said...

All of these are GREAT!! Would you consider doing prints of some of them, or would you mind if I made some for my own personal use, would love to hang some of these up!

Nio said...

I would love this image as a wallpaper :O

Brandon said...

I love the art work. Well done, and an incredible idea. I wonder, however, if it wouldn't have been more in the Steampunk tradition if the death star had been a blimp, and the content kept purely terristrial.

Randolpho said...

common_sense worte:
I wonder, however, if it wouldn't have been more in the Steampunk tradition if the death star had been a blimp, and the content kept purely terristrial.

What's wrong with interstellar steampunk?

Abraxas Z said...

Hmm. Is anyone else having problems saving images from blogspot? I've tried several times on different bloggers and from different computers and it's a no go.

I've never had any problems saving images, then one day it wouldn't let me.

Shannon said...

These are terrific! I've saved the Massive Solar-Orbiting Electro-Mechanical Analytic Engine as my desktop wallpaper.

Xavysaurio said...

looks like my brain after 2lts of tekila ¬¬

greetings from mexico¡¡¡


clik...

Kenneth_Gray said...

Absolutely fantastic work sir, keep it up. This gives me the nostalgic feeling of being excited again by Star Wars and all its possibilities, before the horrors of Ep I-III. Now what about some droids next to a steampunk Jawa sandcrawler?

David Campbell said...

Fucking brilliant, this is.

Awesometron5000 said...

So amazing! I love some of the details like Vaders helmet showing more German influence. More please!

Michael said...

Every now and again I'm looking back in on this series... This is better than Lucas' original vision. It's truly a thing of beauty.

Vernian Process said...

Hello,

I'm not sure if you were aware, but some of us over in the Brass Goggles Steampunk forum, have ben working on ideas for a short animated film based on your idea.

I threw out a similar idea for a Steam Runner (Steampunk Blade Runner) short as well. You should swing by and check out the pages of concept ideas our members have been coming up with!

Oh and as a side not, you may like to check out my personal project http://www.myspace.com/vernianprocess

It's a Steampunk music project.

Cheers!

Josh

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