Girl Genius Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 with Agatha Heterodyne

Authors Phil & Kaja Foglio

Pencils Phil Foglio

Colors by Mark McNabb and/or Laurie E. Smith or Cheyenne Wright for Books 2 to 6

Inks by Brian Snoody on Book 1

 

Not being all that familiar with Steampunk, I jumped in tabula rasa to this sort of world, but what I have heard is that “Steampunk” means different things for different people. Be that as it may, this is not a review on how well Girl Genius falls into that category, rather what a delightful romp Girl Genius books one, two, three, four, five and six are. We have a Victorian setting industrial age, mad scientists and the “spark”, which allows certain individuals to be set above the rest in their ability to create these mechanical creations, as the author describes it, the capability for true Mad Science. Being a spark leads to all sorts of complications, though…

 

I am going to give my thoughts on the storyline and characters of each of the books and then bring it all together with a review of the series up to this point as a whole.

 

Book 1 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank - The detail in the background causes a bit of a jolt for the reader as it feels like too much is going on in this book. This is where we are introduced to Agatha Clay, a student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, where she can not build anything that seems to work. The reader can feel a little overwhelmed as we start this book with the host of characters and giving the reader the background of those characters and the world. By the end of Book 1 though is where you can really start to enjoy it as you feel like the story falls into place and we start to get a feel for each of the characters introduced. We also have our main villain Baron Wulfenbachand and his elite soldiers the Jagermonsters. We have an extra color story at the end that solves many of the details of the background issues.

 

Book 2- Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City - Uh-Uh-Um it is in f’ing color, awesome. This is the volume that starts to excite the reader. Gone are the issues with only black and white and the backgrounds. In this volume we start to appreciate the backgrounds and all the subtle details that they hold for us. We are introduced to Baron’s Airships which are a city in the sky, and all the inhabitants, both good and evil. We have a “Heterodyne Boys” episode in the middle of the book, these little interludes are set perfect as a middle book break and give us information to fill in our background knowledge of the story before book 1 and the Hetertodynes. This issue is also where we start to really see Agatha in the personality sense as well as the skin sense, as the pajama scene with Agatha…well lets just say it was well worth it being in color! The story is really starting to take shape and I do not feel as lost as I did in book one. The relationship of Agatha and the Baron’s son Gil is also a nice plotline. The Jagermonsters also fit very well now within the storyline and their speech works for them, where I originally thought it would annoy me.

 

Book 3- Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine - We are really into the meat of the story. Did I really just start to realize how fun the story and the artwork are? Shame on me. We also have a talking cat, The King of Cats. I have to say I really like it even though one would think this wouldn’t work. This cat is no Garfield, wait maybe he kinda is. There is also a two page spread of Agatha dreaming which is gorgeous, where is the full sized poster version of this. We also start to get a taste of some of the secrets of Agatha and who she really is and what the Baron is really up to. Whenever there is either a full page panel or even a two page panel it really is a sight to behold.

Book 4 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams - The Traveling circus was just awesome, all the characters were fleshed out perfectly. I loved the caravan and the secret that these traveling actors were hiding. The spider riders about halfway through the book though seemed a tad out of place, even though they play a more prominent role in the next book. The interaction of Agatha with the characters is so well done, and how she fits in like a cog (!) with the circus works well. We even get some good scenes with The King of Cats. This book features Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure and I loved it, could be my favorite book of the series so far.

 

Book 5 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess – This is where the series turns a bit weird. Not weird in a bad way, but weird like you really have to pay attention to what is going on in the second half of the book because so much of the larger back-story is thrust upon you and it can be a bit disconcerting. Once you get into the story though you realize that Agatha Heterodyne's story is not what you once thought. We get introduced to some real cool steampunk muses, who are the clockwork pieces, alive or not alive is the debate. Think Clockwork Smurf if you are from the 80s. If you thought the Baron was the only villain, hang on for the ride.

 

Book 6 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite - In the beginning of this book the confusion starts to come to a close and I am really in vibe with the story again. Maybe I am just stupid though and it is not confusing at all, take that for what it is worth, even though my college degree says otherwise. Coming in at 155 pages this book is also a chubby one. The artwork again is superb. This is a tough one to really review without giving anything away, so take these tidbits: there is a huge battle at the end and some people do not survive. Again the story really picks up again from book 5 (my least favorite book) and makes me go Girl Genius crazy again. Where is book 7!!

 

 

I do not want to give too much away of the story so they are more a commentary on each book rather than a full blown summary where I may ruin something for you the reader. That would be a shame as it is such a wonderful story.

 

Team Foglio gives us Heterodyne extra credit stories buried in the middle of volumes (or end) that work out well for breaking up the story and giving you a lot of background to the story. It is like a Super Bowl commercial where you actually want to watch it in our Tivo age.

 

The backgrounds are filled to the brim with all sorts of fun things going on, it seemed to be distracting in the first book in black and white, but once the story moves to color it does not seem as distracting and works real nice. For the reader it is fun to re-read and notice something real funny going on in the background. Whoever made the decision to go from black and white to color really vaulted this graphic novel into the must read status.

 

The writing/story and the artwork are interwoven like a complex blanket that not only keeps you warm but also looks good on the back of the couch. Okay, that was a bit cheesy, but it does sum up how I feel about the story and artwork together. The story is funny and silly, but in a way that makes it enjoyable rather than stupid.

 

The characters are very well developed and go from Agatha Clay, The Baron and his son Gilgamesh, a traveling circus, the King of Cats, Jagermonsters, various monsters (mechanical and otherwise), pirates, a nanny with an attitude, ancient relics turned alive…phew, it has it all. There is not a lack of new and exciting characters, and they all seem fleshed out to the level appropriate to their involvement in the story.

 

Angela Clay is sexy, smart, and funny. So what if she is a mad scientist, that just makes her an even better catch.

 

I like to read the works in the collection in tactile paper, but for all the people that cannot wait you can check out the new stories at the website. While you are there, check out all the other neat things on the site.

 

Check out more Girl Genius at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

 

I heard there is a 7^th volume, hopefully Airship Entertainment will forgive me for being so long with the review and grace me with a copy because I am sure looking forward to the further adventures.