Day 1 – Lift Off
For April, I decided to dedicate my daily drawing practice to the world of Atompunk. A retro-futuristic version of the world influenced by the pre-digital age, a perfect place to dive into after having technological doubts. Even though April is over, there were no fixed prompts for this challenge, so if you feel inspired, take part and have a go. Explore the great world of Atompunk and get inspired. Who knows, maybe you’ll fall down the same rabbit hole I fell down a couple of years ago and discover the fantastic derivatives of dystopian settings.
Day 2 – Tennis Ball
With most stadiums being played in zero gravity, old world style tennis balls had to get a little upgrade, otherwise they’d get sent into deep space if they’re hit too hard. Thankfully, with the invention of gravity repulse engines, it started to make sense to adapt them to use in things other than automobiles. Now every tennis court off-world has they’re own set of anti-grav balls, and tennis as a whole got a lot more interesting.
Day 3 – Lemon
With the absence of digital technology becoming too advanced and the fear of it taking over the world, a lot of horror movies that boomed in our reality didn’t really stick here. Most trends during this time seemed to love the rise of quirky slashers and monster movies that could send a chill down your spine but not leave you with an existential crisis. My favourite was a fun movie called Tang, a tale about a killer lemon with a vulgar sense of humour wreaking havoc in suburbia. If you find yourself dimension-hopping, I would highly recommend it.
Day 4 – Screwdriver
Advancements in technology tend to go one of two ways. They either upgrade objects to be stronger or more efficient, or they make everyday objects more convenient and accessible to people. Screwdrivers in this reality are always troublesome due to the variety of screws and the sizes of the screwdrivers. Thankfully in this alternate future, they conveniently shoved all the screws into one multi-tool! Equipped with buttons to have the shaft retreat and swap the head, and a wheel to rotate the head so you can save your wrist some bother. Now you don’t have to carry around a dozen screwdrivers to fix something; you just need the one.
Day 5 – Rock
Sadly, not all atompunk futures are utopian; a lot of them had deep conflicts with atomic energy to the point where the world was sent to ruin due to inevitable war and nuking one another into oblivion. However, even with the world being a radiated wasteland, civilisation still exists and humanity is going strong, even if there are still factions that exist going for each other’s throats. A great way to fight back both metaphorically and physically is creating music that can be played on a weapon so that you can defend yourself as well as rock out on your downtime. Since most instruments are made of rare materials, they were melted down years ago, so a lot of instruments in circulation during this time are made from scrap and look like garbage. Still can churn out a bop or tw,o though.
Day 6 – Crystal
To help drill deeper into the Earth’s core to find new materials, scientists develop high-intensity laser drills so that they can stop wasting harmful energy sources on big machinery. Now that those loud construction sites have been eradicated, these new drill systems are a lot quieter and more efficient at breaking down stone into finer chunks. Each drill takes a Laser Core to power it, which includes a crystalline centre that supercharges the laser inside before expelling it outward at the touch of a trigger. I wonder what else this core could power.
Day 7 – Spool of Wire
In the wasteland, electricity is scarce but still exists. I mean, you can still access terminals and see automatons roaming the streets like it was back before the collapse. Due to this shift, wires have become very high in demand, so that people can use generators to maintain crops or utilise them to repair companion droids. Most wires tend to be finicky, and you need specific wires for specific things, but the holy grail is finding dual-colour wire. These suckers were universal with every type of electrical component in this reality so it went fairly quickly. Now it’s rare to even find scraps of it, a whole spool is unheard of, but hey, a survivor can dream.
Day 8 – Brush
In a time of convenience and finding new ways to do things, nothing was flying off the shelves faster than Squeaky Clean brushes. A mega toothbrush made entirely of bristles that are motorised and will clean all your teeth at once, kind of like a car wash for your mouth. Simply press your tongue down on the clamp and the rotors will spin, cleaning your teeth at a slow, soft speed while also releasing a choice of toothpaste from the customisable handle. Each comes in a variety of flavours such as Fresh Mint, Strawberry and Peach.
Day 9 – Box of Tissues
There is a weird myth that after a nuclear fallout, only the cockroaches survive and due to all the radiation, they evolve into giant versions of themselves and attack anyone that crosses their path. Granted, they are a bit bigger, but honestly, they aren’t hostile, they are just incredibly daft! I’ve been meaning to throw out this empty tissue box for a while, but it’s the perfect form of entertainment. Just watching the same few roaches climb their way up and fall in over and over again. If I could name them, I would, but it’s hard to tell which one is which since they all consistently look stupid falling into that box.
Day 10 – Candy Cane
It is always important to keep a clear mind and try not to panic in intense moments of stress. Sure, this was your first time seeing a candy cane printer and in your excitement broke the lever and caused the machine to malfunction, but that’s all in the past now. No use crying over all the spilt candy canes that are crystallising into clumps all over the floor, you gotta figure out how to stop it before you’re drowning in sugar. Want my advice? Beat the crap out of the machine until it stops, it is the only way.
Day 11 – Matchbook
Ads have always been a weird concept to me, both in this world and others. I just don’t get the art of deception when trying to lull people into buying something or going somewhere. If you want someone to buy something, make it good! If you want someone to go somewhere, make it special and have the allure come naturally. Take matchbook ads, for example, they’re still used in this realm even if the match is outdated. The matchbook never went out of style, and even though it’s empty, the art still entices someone to check out where it originally came from. That voice of curiosity poking at the back of your skull, meddling in your schedule so that to make things right, you let loose that crazy cat and find what you’re looking for. What do I know anyway, I’m just a schmuck.
Day 12 – Tin Can
In the wartorn realities, food is either good but pretty scarce or really odd concoctions made by locals, where it is a coin flip whether it is safe or not. Thankfully, a lot of canned goods have an amazing shelf life, so they’re good as long as you find them not open. The only problem with canned goods, though, is that if you can’t see the label, you have no idea what you’re tucking into until you tear the can open. The first time it happened to me, I thought I hit the gold mine with a Salisbury Steak in a can, got halfway through it before it started tasting funny, and I realised it was dog food. As gross as the memory is to look back on, I’ve actually grown quite fond of the taste. Don’t knock it till you try it.
Day 13 – Empty Jar
With all of the radiation, a lot of different stuff can evolve into strange things. I found a small blob of slime that was just slowly inching its way toward me one day, and thought it would be something good to study when it comes to the effects of radiation. However, after a few days in containment, the blob slowly started growing bigger and bigger. I left to try and find something sturdier to contain the specimen. I just hope the other scientists at the facility don’t intervene.
Day 14 – Seed Packet
With the vast advancements in agricultural technology, many household kitchens are equipped with globule farms which allow for the growth of select vegetables all year round. Depending on your specific tastes/favourites, the farms themselves are paired with a range of seeds specifically bred to grow produce efficiently and effectively within the globule. My personal favourite is the vegetable medley cause even though it’s marketed as different vegetables, it all comes out as some kind of Franken-Veggie when it is fully grown. I try not to keep them in the farm too long, as I have a slight fear it’ll spawn arms and legs and attack me.
Day 15 – Phone
As phones evolved, a lot of people loved the unique features that touch-screens and smart technology brought to the product. However, when companies kept developing sleek models of the phone, people were just not buying them due to the style. That’s why when they introduced the Home Model Phone, it skyrocketed and could barely stay on the shelves. With its sleek, easy-to-hold design, people can just pick up the phone from the dock and take it wherever they need to go! I mean, who needs a phone that can fit in your pocket when there is so much to do outside of having a piece of tech on you at all times?
Day 16 – Pint of Ice Cream
I was surprised to learn that before ice cream was stuffed into all sorts of plastic containers, it was all neatly stuffed in cardboard boxes, ready to be served with whatever dessert was on the menu. However, in this reality, boxes never went out of fashion due to their excellent ability to stack within a freezer, but they’re no longer made of cardboard. For example, Kelvin’s is a brand made for the risk takers or people who just love licking frozen poles to see if their tongues get stuck. Housed in a polycarbonate box, you can’t get ice cream as cold and fluffy as a pint of Kelvin’s.
Day 17 – Teddy Bear
Normally, teddy bears are used in a way to comfort children in times when they are scared of the dangers that lurk in the shadows. However, down in the vaults where the last of non-irradiated civilisation has resided, bears are used more as a tool to both teach younglings about the creatures that roam the wasteland as well as scare them into not disobeying the societal order and leaving the vault. This lovely bear is an example of a Yao Guai, a mutated descendant of the American black bear that is always prone to hostility. With patches of moss and mushrooms growing from its fur and vibrant green radiating from its skin, these things are the furthest creatures from friendly. Not the teddy bear, though, even as a scare tactic, it is still pretty adorable.
Day 18 – Can of Whipped Cream
Nothing accompanies dessert better than a fresh dollop of whipped cream, but there is so much hassle spooning it onto pies or squirting it out of the can only for it to explode and ruin the look. Now that is all about to change with Insta Whip, A high-pressure can equipped with a fast-action piston which creates a perfect dollop of cream every time. Simply smack the bottom of the can once over a dish, and plop goes the cream in one fell swoop. Now you’ll have the coolest looking pies in town, unless you’re one of those impatient buggers who smacks things too much. In that scenario, you’ll bug the can and have a kitchen full of cream in 0 – 10 seconds flat.
Day 19 – Vegetable
Most of the time, seeds from the Old World grow in a pretty standard way. Not sure what happened to this batch, but I have no idea which way up this one goes. Feel like it would work well in a soup, but who knows?
Day 20 – Hot Sauce
When it comes to helping spice up the flavours of your meal, you can’t go wrong with a hot sauce that packs a punch. Back in the day of our reality, there wasn’t really that much choice compared to the vast ocean of hot sauce that floods the market now. However, in one reality, the fascination with cold desserts died down, and people found a new love for rebellion and all things spicy. A main contender of that tension was TNT Hot sauce, a vibrant, scolding sauce that only needs one drop to light the fuse. Some say chugging a whole bottle feels like eating a lollipop made of dynamite, but I’m not gonna even attempt that urban legend.
Day 21 – Medicine
Most of the surface world is semi-toxin-free, but there are a lot of ways where you can still get irradiated. Whether you’re taking a shortcut through a murky pond or accidentally drinking water out of a toilet, radiation can get into your system, so it’s best to have a cure on standby. That’s why Rad-Away is a very useful resource in the wasteland. I usually carry around 30 of these bad boys on me at all times cause my smooth brain loves slurping up dirty water every chance I get. To be fair, I have no idea how you’re actually supposed to take this. I just punch a hole in the bottom and shotgun it and it still manages to make me feel better so I’m either really lucky or about to pass ou…
Day 22 – Television
There is a little mistake when it comes to the notion of time travel and dimension-hopping. Everyone presumes that the future is going to be so advanced, or parallel dimensions are going to be so surreal and different. The problem with the infinite is that there are a lot of realities that are practically the same as our own. For example, in one atompunk reality, there is a huge hyperfocus on wanting the TV to come with us wherever we want to go, but the problem is that television sets are too big to lug around.
Rather than do what we did and make the ability to watch TV on the go easier by making small televisions that fit in our pockets, they decided to give the sets legs so they can follow us. It seems like an okay idea until you remember it’s AI running the code, which makes televisions either run out of range of receivers or end up causing major accidents. I saw one accidentally stall out at a train station, and when it finally came back online, it just started chasing a train to catch up with its owner. Honestly, I do not know how people can think this sort of technology is superior.
Day 23 – Adventure
Meet Glubbo! They’re not quite sure what they are but they are so damn excited to be here. One day, they woke up in a jar, not quite sure which way was up, but after breaking out, they have been enjoying the bounties of the wasteland. They are cute and friendly, but now that they have this axe, I’m not sure how safe it is to be around them at the moment. Best advice would be to keep your distance and if they start chasing you, run cause they are faster than they look.
Day 24 – Mask
Even with the world descended into madness, traditions tend to stick around one way or another. An example of this are these odd masks jotted around town that locals wore for Fasnacht, each getting weirder than the next. With that in mind, be sure to keep those eyes peels when venturing in the wasteland, cause old world items like these are a great find.
Day 25 – Lamp
If you ever find yourself reality hopping and you’re not sure where you have ended up, it’s easy to figure out if it’s atompunk through the unnecessary splashes of colour everywhere. They love a vibrant pop with pretty much everything in existence. A big product that boomed because of this love for chromatic colours was fluorescent lamps that beamed light through the shade and the base, creating both useful light and aesthetically pleasing light that could fill a room. Although they are pretty to look at, just hope it’s in a room with carpet, since if they smash, they’ll gladly eat through anything and leave a giant hole in your floor.
Day 26 – Bottle of Pills
With the laws of the wasteland practically being non-existent, a lot of various experimental drugs flooded outposts to see what new kinds of radiated chemicals could do to the human body. It ranged from inhalants that slowed down time all the way to tinned tablets that increased your intelligence in order to better bypass encrypted locks. Personally, I do not partake, but if I had to recommend one kind, Buffout are always good to keep handy in case you get cornered by a bunch of bandits and need to pack an extra punch. Just make sure not to cut it with Psycho, otherwise that’ll be quite the slippery slope.
Day 27 – Apple
I know nowadays there are already too many apple varieties that you’d think we wouldn’t need anymore. However, do you really think this would stop a society that has a limitless potential of where to put their scientific efforts toward? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Most realities like this have cross-bred every fruit imaginable and even found new forms & tastes for fruit to become. I’m quite partial to a speckled apple cause not only are they intensely sweet, but there is no core, so you can eat the whole thing, including the stem, leading to no waste. I can imagine growing them to be a pain if they don’t leave seeds behind, but I guess that’s just a well-kept secret behind closed doors around here.
Day 28 – Cereal Box
Searching for rations nowadays is a bit tricky since you never know what is chock full of radiation when combing through cupboards in the wasteland. What sucks the most is a lot of the food is packaged to look delicious and probably was before the fall. Now it’s just stale radiated crap hidden in lovely looking packaging. For example, these Sugar Bombs look like a snack anybody would love to have a bowl full of. However, a handful of this stuff tastes like dry sponges that raccoons have had their way with for years. Strongly advise only eating these if there is nothing else left.
Day 29 – Letter Opener
Delivering mail is a trivial thing in futuristic settings like these, mainly due to the advancements made in order to be able to send things absolutely anywhere. Whether it is across the globe or to the other end of the star system, packages are neatly packed and shipped with the highest efficiency. However, due to the high speeds and uncertain conditions that these parcels endure when being delivered, they have to be packaged in such a way that is tricky to open with just your hands. Thankfully, with the advancements in mail delivery, there were also improvements in terms of tools to help receiving, opening and dismantling packages. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a laser letter opener, especially if a nuclear apocalypse is always imminent and you need an improvised weapon at arm’s reach.
Day 30 – Soda Bottle
Well, now I’m all out of power cores, so I can’t be dimension jumping anytime soon. Although I love atompunk and its astounding interpretations, figuring out objects to draw from these worlds got a lot more challenging as the month went on. Hopefully, by next year, I will have a better way to go through the challenge, or maybe there will be another one in its place, but that’s for future me to figure out. Right now, I’m just going to kick back, enjoy a crisp Nuka Cola and watch the world blow over while I try to figure out what I’m gonna do in May. Many thanks to everyone who has supported the pieces this month, and I hope you stick around to see what comes next. Take care!
Samuel Mathias 