Cthulhu Pulp Metropolis Decopunk Image Dump #1

So this is for my Cthulhu Metropolis Decopunk setting I might do for a con this year - see links for this under my BRP sidebar. I keep finding more images and some will be handy for normal cthulhu, or pulp games. I dislike the term diesel punk as it is all too grimy for me (I loathe steam trains too). Deco art is something I love even though it was a mass produced corporate thing and not a organic movement like art nouveau (but it had plenty of corporate interest too). I also like that Deco buildings and bakelite radios sometimes reminds me of ancient Iraqi buildings. I might draw some radios for practice getting deco forms down. Everything here not strictly deco but retro future at least. Also retro hair. Not enough good hair in role playing games.

Aviatrix was a respected profession for a female adventurer this era. To think by 1970s Jamie Summers in The Bionic Woman was a tennis player because there were so few excuses for a international independent woman by then. This woman is not to be messed with.

Yes I like 1920's hair alot and I've painted more girls with bob hair than any other haircut. This woman has a amazing retro look. Jazz age fashion still thrills me.



Scary thing about the post war Jazz Age it must have been like punk rock to their grand parents. The war had given many women a taste for traditional mens work, So many women had experience in industry. With a generation of aritocrats dead in the trenches people were to hell with traditional norms. If you watch dance numbers from 20s and 30s, the 40s and 50s seem a massive throwback. Androgyny was bigger in the 20s and 30s,



Performers and actors are also good options for female globe trotting independent characters. For every glamorous wealthy success far more had to look fabulous and earned money from tips and selling jewelery from dates with the rich or worse. I have a book detailing the sex clubs of the Weimar republic, with experimental masturbation machines, artists and even maps of clubs and clientelle. Shadow of the Vampire has some glimpses of this life, Id like to see more but the book alone is one of the most amazing shocking things Ive ever seen. Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin by Mel Gordon. Not for feint of heart and interesting take on gender and sexuality.



Coleen Moore, not as serious or sexy as my favorite Actress Louse Brooks but seemed more cheery and amiable and jolly by far. She certainly has many quirky facial expression.



Hugh Ferris did lots of amazing designs and I hope to get several Dover books of his one day (after I get the new Moon Knight comic compilation obviously - some more good Osprey books too). Many of his iconic designs were based on New York zoning laws that never happened. 

This would be a nice gun for a vain millionaire or perhaps a villain. I ran a White Dwarf Cthulhu adventure where cultists used WW1 sapper armour and automatic weapons. The players won using AK47s from a time traveling cult in Shadows of Yog Sothoth and survived but after that the players became frightening combat monsters using this armour, custom mausers with drum mags, tommy guns, grenaides, BAR, and more. Ive had players bomb cultists with dynamite from biplanes. Once players know how easy it is to get this stuff it is kind of hard to stop it. A bunch of WW1 sapper vets would really mess up some monsters. Actually in my vikings game the melee prowess of characters really messed up monsters usually a menace in modern mythos games.



The elevation of a cenotaph dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton as given in a drawing by Boullée in 1784. Hitler planned a city Germania that was to include a structure like this so big it would have micro weather. Airship hangers had this effect too.




So many amazing things never built but in my games they all got built

More mystery retro monster sky scrapers


Amazing car. Metropolis film didn't think of cars so much but this is the kind of thing a playboy spy or batman might ride. Im tempted to do retro roadwar game one day. The Cars That Ate Sanity in white dwarf magazine - included in rules since was one of the things that got me into car wars using BRP. Star Frontiers had good vehicle fight rules too, especially with dragon magazine add ons.



No idea where this from and possibly later than the era I use but certaily looks like a dance outfit that could have been around in deco era. Queen of outerspace? Villainess? Venusian conqueror?



More brilliance from hugh ferris



He is so the boss



Really captures the feel of the the colossal cities of the setting

From his book ‘Metropolis of Tomorrow’ (1929) Dover books have well priced versions



Not sure where this from. French? Im terrible at referencing where i get stuff. I just spend hours down loading stuff like historic costumes and buildings in a daze.



Auto giros are a must. So many films and pulp mags show autogiro landing points on rooftops. Eventualy improvements in metalurgy made helicopters work. Early attempts to make copters fell apart. Videophones like in the boring but beautiful "The Tunnel" (1935) and in metropolis and we dont quite have every day yet or Dick Tracy wrist TVs.



This is fabulous. i work in part of Sydney called Ultimo the densest urban space in Australia.



A bit later but fits pretty well and shares many ideas of earlier visions





































Controls of a airship, the more graceful way to travel when autogyros wont do



This is from earlier batman movie. The burton films really captured that gotham and the setting were an major character. Last few films could have been any city. I think last Dredd film didnt do mega city one as well as the stallone version.



More conceptual architecture

Found this great article which coincedentaly talks abouut some of same stuff I have here but better.



Ive shown this before and reminds me of Bohn ads from 40s and 50s showing future stuff. Now we live in the future we are harder to covince.



This is a bit later too but pretty awesome



This is for a world fair but it shows one thing other concepts lack - advertising. Actually i liked the inclusion of ads in the star wars prequels.



A Hugh Ferris bridge with skyscrapers included



Im probably over doing it now but at least in game i can show every skyscraper and plan a rooftop battle or airship landing



A little bit more high tech but not a big leap from Metropolis. Possibly a space centre?

Thats enough for now may do more deco sf porn again....