Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam (ISBN 9781489580146) is the Gay City Anthology No. 5: a kind of gay steampunk collection of prose, artwork and poetry. It was my first introduction to the Kickstarter website where commercial, community, artistic or charitable projects in need of funding put up their details and hope the 'crowd' will see the merit of their endeavour and, in return for rewards, offer some money towards the project. In this instance I got the book, my name is inside as a supporter, I received also a poetry book from the Minor Arcana Press and a Gay City Supporter jockstrap (no, no, I won't be modelling it for the blog, I'm sorry but just no... now stop asking!). I've really enjoyed the whole Kickstarter thing and I'm now actively looking around for another project to support.
I haven't had time to read the whole book yet but if you think, as I confess I did, that gay steampunk poetry might be a bit of a tall order, think again, the poetry I've read in this anthology so far has been superb. Also, not so much a graphic novel as a graphic vignette by Jon Macy in which a gent finds a faerie at the bottom of his garden (in the person of a beautiful naked young man). The fact that the gentleman can't find anything for the faerie to eat but that it drinks all his perfume is a touch of genius I think. Add to this a glowingly rich cover by Mr John Coulthart that makes the whole production look like a casket of treasure, and we're off to the races. I can't wait to get further into the collection.