Lincoln Steampunk Asylum

I've just come back from a wonderful weekend in the city of Lincoln, which was hosting the fifth Steampunk Asylum (so called because the first events were based around the city's old mental asylum). It's the first big Steampunk event I've been to, and I had the most enormous amount of fun! It kind of reminded me of the early days of Star Trek conventions, when there was a great outpouring of fan creativity (this was before any of the films were made, and well before The Next Generation), and it was all so relaxed, and friendly.

This is me, dressed as a Steampunk (and Whovian) Alice in Wonderland - on the same day that Robert Rankin was signing copies of his new book Alice on Mars! A little while after this picture was taken, I found the perfect hat to go with the outfit in one of the vintage clothes shops up the Steep Hill - it's a 1940s round cap with a cascade of blue feathers down the back.

The following day, I took part in the Wild West shoot out!

Here is El Guano/El Zombiro fearlessly facing his opponents in the Castle grounds, courtesy of Mr Eric, who is pictured at the far right of the line (his wife was taking the photo). The final show down involved about a dozen gunslingers with nerf guns, and started off like the gun fight in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, with a musical box.