Victorian Secret - Girls of Steampunk Collection, collects artwork previously published in the following comics from Antarctic Press:
Victorian Secret
Victorian Secret: Summer Catalog
Victorian Secret: Winter wardrobe
Victorian Secret: Masquerade
Victorian Secret: Victorian Secret Agents
This volume doesn't contain any stories; this is strictly a pin-up collection, nothing more. The back cover description says it all:
Presenting for your delight and edification, a positive bounty of bold belles in brass and leather, satin and silk. When adventure calls, these daring damsels are ready to answer, clad in their most flirtatious/fictional finery and strapping on their goggles and steam=powered accessories. They'll stoke the boilers of your heart!
The contributors include many of Antarctic Press' top artists: Fred Perry, Ben Dunn, Rod Espinosa, David Hutchison, Joe Wight and Brian Denham. There are lesser know artists (at least to me): Chris Allen, J.L. Anderson, Kelsey Shannon and Will Terrell. Unfortunately, the artwork isn't specifically credited as to who did what; there's no table of contents or an index. Unless the picture is signed (some are, many aren't) and you can read it, or if you recognize the artist's style, it's a guessing game as to who drew what.
The artwork features women in a variety of dress (and undress), lots of cleavage (the majority of the women are of the busty variety), frilly undergarments, corsets, short shorts (did they really have those, much less wear them, in Victorian times?), etc. Many of the women wield guns of the size that would make Dirty Harry envious. Swords, spears and other various weaponry are also on show.
So how good is the art? In my humble opinion, so-so. Some of it is very good, fine attention to detail,anatomy and perspective with good coloring. They would fit in nicely with any Marvel or DC title (if it took place a hundred years or so ago that is). There's manga inspired artwork, and even one piece that looks like Sarah Palin going steampunk rogue! Other pieces are okay, but nothing awe inspiring. I wouldn't say any one piece is badly done; they're better than anything that I could draw. With the number of contributing artists, there's bound to be varying degrees of quality, and that's true here.
The book itself is a trade paperback; the binding is solid. One problem with the book is that a number of the pictures take up two pages, so you can't really preview the picture without risking breaking the binding. The pictures work in a comic book format; less so in a paperback edition. It's full color all the way through, which is good. It starts with the title page, including copyright information. The back page is an advertisement of the various steampunk titles that Antarctic Press puts out (with Professor Steamhead front and center). It's all artwork the rest of the way. There's no separate cover gallery for the issues that the artwork is taken from, which is disappointing, but most of the cover art is represented as individual pin-ups throughout the book.
Summary: this was a blind buy for me, as I'm a fan of several of the Antarctic Press artists, so I generally support their work and buy most anything they put out. From the description, I figured there would be a lot of fan service artwork in the collection (and there is - don't show this to Mom), but I also thought there would be some one shot stories included, and there aren't. But that's my fault for not researching the title more. If I had the opportunity to preview the book instead of pre-ordering it, I probably wouldn't have bought it. If it had been the work of a single artist, say Fred Perry or Ben Dunn (Rod Espinosa or David Hutchison I would also give serious consideration), I would have bought it without regret as I know the style and quality these guys deliver on a regular basis. In the end, it is what it is; an okay pin-up collection that won't win any awards. But if you're really into steam punk, you may find more value in it than I do. I'm just not a huge fan of the genre.
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