March 19, 2009 -- On the Road
Lots of trivia to cover here:
1) The automaton became so successful that von Kempelen had to move to larger exhibition space in London (actually, that's where Thicknesse saw it perform; I fudged history a bit here). There were several other stops on the tour between London and Leipzig as well, including Carlsruhe, Frankfurt and Gotha.
2) The Leipzig Trade Fair, or Leipziger Messe, still takes place today, as it has for nearly a thousand years. There are some really gorgeous old images of the city over at Wikimedia Commons, including this one, which I really wanted to use, but couldn't find a way to get both von Kempelen and Anthon into view and still show all that detail. Also, I think it'd be highly unlikely that they'd be exhibiting the automaton outdoors -- I could be wrong, I've got no concrete evidence, but my impression is that von Kempelen would've chosen an indoor venue.
3) The device in the second panel is von Kempelen's speaking machine, which he usually exhibited side-by-side with the automaton (Johann Jacob Ebert called them "the two most remarkable curiosities of the last Michaelmas Fair.") You can get a better look at it in last week's page, sitting next to him on the desk as he reads Thicknesse's pamphlet. This is actually his third and most successful attempt at building a speaking machine -- and we'll be seeing a lot more of it in the upcoming pages, and I'll supply more links and trivia then.
4) I just love Anthon's wistful expression in that third panel. He knows too well that the glamorous roadtrip is almost over -- when he gets back to Pressburg, the most exciting thing he has to look forward to is lining up the silverware at dinnertime.
5) Take a good look at our old friend; this is the last time we'll see the automaton outside of its packing crates until the next chapter. Shame that it goes to its temporary rest with its costume all shabby and worn out.
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My sympathies; all those crowd scenes must have been horrible to draw!
This may be an insensitive question considering that a week ago you only decided to keep the archives online, but is there ever a chance of seeing Clockwork Games in print? I'd love even just one volume to put beside my copy of Vogelein!
Which I have to buy a new copy of soon because every student on my floor has been by at some point in the year to borrow it.
Oh my gosh, Kay! Seriously, what a high compliment. I hear some authors whinging about "lost sales" when books go to libraries, but whenever I hear about someone like you passing my books around, it makes me want to send you flowers. Word of mouth has been pretty much the only way my stories get noticed, and it's largely been devoted fans like yourself who've made all the difference.
So email me your address and I'll send you a new copy, and one of the sequel if you don't have it yet.
As for CG -- well. Let's see if I can get the thing banged into shape first. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging money for it in its current state, but lets see what happens after I have a chance to plow through a couple of the scholarly works I just bought that talk about the automaton. If nothing else, the archives will stay up. In fact, considering all the links and comments and stuff, it's almost more fun to have it as an interactive media piece. I really would like to get it to where I could publish it, someday. It may just take a while.