Webcomics Review: Girl Genius

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted so I decided that it was finally time to dust off the keyboard and see what I could come up with. Several weeks ago a friend of mine wrote a review of a webcomic that I introduced her to (read her blog at A Guide to L-Space) and I jokingly told her that I should write down my own two cents to post at the same time. It obviously didn't happen like that, but she's needled me a couple of times since then, so I decided to finally get off my ass and follow through on my word. And so this week, I give you Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Now, I know a lot of people may cringe a little when they hear the term "webcomics" and I have to admit that its a reasonable response. The sheer volume and breadth of webcomics available on the internet is kind of staggering and honestly, a lot of it isn't very good. There are really two ways you can find the gems amongst the rubble: 1) Go through it yourself and follow links from site to site and reading a little bit of everything you come across; 2) Have someone else do 1) and let them suggest the good ones to you. I stumbled across Girl Genius following method 1) and I can honestly say that it's probably one of the best webcomics that I currently follow and one of the most professional looking.

Girl Genius is set in an alternate Victorian-esque Europe (called Europa in the series) that is dominated by all sorts of steam and gear driven contraptions: flying machines, automatons, lightning guns, Frankenstein-esque beings called "constructs", etc. I came across the word "steampunk" for the first time not long after starting to read GG and I think it's a word that describes the setting fairly well, although it is less dystopian than the word would suggest. These wondrous and terrible technological marvels are the work of "Sparks", individuals born with a preternatural (or even supernatural?) affinity for inventing, tinkering and the drive to act on it. Basically, they're mad scientists. Years before the start of the story Bill and Barry Heterodyne became living legends for being champions of good and right, forging peace across war-torn Europa, and fighting the forces of The Other, a particularly powerful and evil spark, before mysteriously disappearing along with their foe at the culmination of the war. Agatha Clay is a young student in Beetleburg who seems to have an anti-knack for inventing (nearly all of her stuff malfunctions) who hides a secret that she isn't even aware of. This secret will propel her into a life of danger and high adventure.

Now to be honest, this series had caught my attention at "mad scientists" and it certainly plays up that aspect when it gets the chance. Sparks have laboratories filled with large, mysterious machines, large orbs that arc lightning, and giant switches. Everything is wonderfully over the top, but its done with enough charm that everything seems natural within the context of the universe that the Foglio's have created, and that's thanks largely to the artwork. The Foglio's have been involved with scifi/fantasy work for years and their art has a distinctive flair to it. Unfortunately I'm not able to adquately describe what makes their artwork unique, so I'll just add a picture of the main character Agatha here to just show you.














The first volume's worth of pages (GG started life as an indie-published comic) are done in black and white, but transitions to full color starting with volume 2 and it benefits immeasurably from the switch. Suddenly the art seems to become much more detailed and the vibrancy of the colors helps to fully flesh out the world that they have created.

Now normally, I would write extensively in my reviews about the plotline of the series or the characters and what I do and do not like. In the interest of spoiling as little as possible, I will try to keep this section unusually brief, and instead only touch on a couple of things. The plot is a mix of comedy, a hint of romance, and a generous portion of high adventure, with a healthy mixing of intrigue involving Agatha's past and how it affects her future. The characters are all complex and well developed where it would have been easy to leave them as simple genre stereotypes. My friend listed as a drawback that the occasional descent into high drama of some of the mad scientists comes acrossed as occasionally "forced" or "bipolar or hyperdramatic", but I counter that it is SUPPOSED to be hyperdramatic. The background of the panel fades to red, the word bubbles and text become bolded and distorted, and the lighting changes to seemingly illuminate the face from below. The popular conception of mad scientists is that they give themselves to these highly dramatic moments just because, and in several instances this happens in the comic either because the character is extremely emotionally agitated, or deliberately going for this effect to terrify some stooge. It is the result of the authors paying homage to their inspiration and source material.

In short, if you have any positive disposition toward good, old-fashioned adventure and fantasy tales, you owe it to yourself to check out Girl Genius. You can read the comic here, at: www.girlgenius.com