The Dangerous Alphabet
Posted By Traveler on 13. Juni 2010
I could not finish my Neil Gaiman week without mentioning The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Gris Grimly.
This is such a delightful piece of weird childrens’ literature. It is perfect for the Gothic Nursery, it is sweet, intense, heroic and: it has a few disinctly Dieselpunk and Steampunk elements in it.
The protagonists alone: A girl an a boy in Edwardian posh children’s dress and their pet Gazelle. This is all very dieselpunk, in a very sweet way.
Then the adventure: A quest into the sewers, armed with a sword, a brass telescope, and a modified bathtub/boat to best the sewers (which in turn are filled with brass piping, pressure-meters and monsters of various sorts).
And then there are the natives of the sewers on the page of “S is for somewhere…”, wearing massive brass diving-helmets, delightful, excellent, steampunk!
Of course, the quest has a happy end. A wonderful piece of art. Not recommended for the child, or adult, who is faint at heart, but definitely inspirational for little heroes, heroines and pirates!
I am an anthropologist and in this capacity a minor scholar of the Cthulhu Mythos and H.P. Lovecraft. I am also quite obviously heavily into Steampunk and Dieselpunk and like travelling.
For more info, just drop me a line.
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