Sci Friday #28: Raypunk
This one is a pretty recent name for a very old genre.
I was pointed at “Raypunk” for the genre name, which was apparently inspired by Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Nanopunk, etc. Man, enough with the punk things, folks. 🤦♂️
So, I got some crazy definitions: “space surrealism” made me think of drugged out space hippies. 🤣 I’m pretty sure that Raconteur wasn’t aiming for that.
One definition pointed me at Dave Stevens’s comic books. 🧐
I enjoyed The Rocketeer, but that’s more of a Dieselpunk vibe there. No spaceships, beam weapons, alien planets/races in the Rocketeer.
Some mentioned the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers cartoons/comics/serial movies from the 30s/40s. The kind of thing my dad would go and watch for a whole Saturday when he was a kid.
That I can see but less so the Flash Gordon movie from the 80s (well, yeah, I did enjoy the heck out of it 🤷♂️), or the Buck Rogers tv show from the same time period. Seriously, the robot in the Buck Rogers made me want to take a screwdriver and ball peen hammer to it. 🤦♂️
Anyway, you had tons of adventure, wonder, horror, and humor in those old comics/serialized movies.
We don’t really have that in movies and comics anymore. It drags you down instead of lifting you up. Even the Flash Gordon movie with Max von Sydow as the Ming the Merciless you really enjoyed hating managed to lift you up at the ending. Plus, you had cool spaceships and the soundtrack by Queen.
“Flash! A-aaaaaaaaah! Savior of the Universe!” 😁
I’m not sure if the image below by Darwyn Cooke is Flash Gordon, but it comes pretty close to what I think of as Raypunk:
Am I in? If I can shove the call into my schedule? Heck, yeah!
“Flash! A-aaaaaaaaah! King of the impossible!”
Anyway, question of the week, have you ever enjoyed these kinds of movies, tv shows, comics, or books? If so, which ones were your favorites?
Thanks. 🙇♂️ All y’all have a great weekend. I’ll be back next Sci-Friday. 👋
Ray Punk is harder to define than the other 'punks chopping up the larger genre of Retro Futurism. It's the SF of the 20's and 30's, heavy on the Art Nouveau and daring do done across all of space.
The Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials are the most accessible examples, and your comparison to Diesel Punk is apt. Think of it as Diesel Punk freed of most constraints turned loose on an unsuspecting galaxy and you won't be far wrong.
It's a lot of fun, IF the writers can remember that fun is the point.
Cyberpunk worked because we were punks doing cyber stuff. Steampunk did cyber stuff with steam so that sort of worked. The other names? 🤣🤣🤣