Girl Genius is an ongoing
comic book series turned
webcomic, written and drawn by
Phil and
Kaja Foglio and published by their company,
Studio Foglio LLC under the imprint Airship Entertainment. The comic has won five
WCCA awards including
2008 Outstanding Comic, and been nominated for a
Hugo Award for
Best Professional Artist, an
Eagle Award and twice for an
Eisner Award.
On April 18, 2005, Girl Genius became a
webcomic, and quarterly publication of the comic ceased. It is still organized into volumes and sold as such as print collections. Its site had two streams, "101" (for back issues) and "Advanced Class" (for new material) until the former caught up and made the entire comic available to read at a sitting.
Contents[
hide]
1 Plot
2 Gaslamp Fantasy
3 The Spark
4 Characters
4.1 Agatha Clay/Heterodyne
4.2 The Heterodyne Boys
4.3 Baron Klaus Wulfenbach
4.4 Gilgamesh Wulfenbach
4.5 Othar Tryggvassen
4.6 Krosp I
4.7 Zeetha
4.8 Ardsley Wooster
4.9 The Jägermonsters/Jägerkin
4.10 Bangladesh Dupree
4.11 More Cast
5 Awards
6 Published collections
7 Connections to other works
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
//
[
edit] Plot
Girl Genius is a
steampunk tale; “a gaslamp fantasy with adventure, romance and mad science”, set in an
alternate history "where the
Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war" due to the appearance of "Sparks" – highly charismatic
mad scientists with supernormal abilities in one or more sciences.
The main character, Agatha Heterodyne, is (as far as is known) the sole surviving descendant of the
Heterodyne clan, a centuries-old Spark
dynasty. Known for their unique family trait, a form of
autosuggestion called "heterodyning" involving a hummed tune that enhances their already prodigious abilities
[2], they were among the world's most powerful Sparks – and the most villainous.
The only exception to the family's nefarious nature were Agatha's uncle Barry and her father William (or Bill). As the famous Heterodyne Boys, they established a
Golden Age in
Europe that lasted years and almost completely redeemed the family name. However, around the time of Agatha's birth, it came to an end with the appearance of the most dreaded Spark in recent history – a mysterious force known to most only as "the Other".
The Other possessed almost unimaginably powerful technologies, chief among them the terrifying Slaver Wasps, parasitic insects which transformed their victims into Revenants – servants who, despite retaining their intelligence and consciousness, become somehow dominated by the Other in a hitherto unknown manner.
[3] Leading the fight against them and the Other were the Heterodyne Boys. After several years of war, the Other disappeared – and so did the Heterodyne Boys.
[4]
Bill has not been seen since, but Barry raised Agatha in secret until she was seven, when he disappeared once more, leaving her in the care of Punch and Judy, two "constructs" (artificial people in the style of the
pop-culture version of
Frankenstein's monster) originally built by Bill and Barry. At the beginning of the series, Agatha is ignorant of her true heritage, and is being raised under the name of Agatha Clay, knowing her adoptive parents only as Adam and Lilith.
But when she loses her locket, her only keepsake of her parents which Barry told her to always wear, her life changes. She is expelled from the renowned Transylvania Polygnostic University and discovers that the locket held a secret – it suppressed her Spark. She quickly draws the attention of the ruthless ruler of much of Europe, Baron Klaus Wulfenbach – a former associate of her father and her uncle, and a former unsuccessful suitor for her mother's hand.
[
edit] Gaslamp Fantasy
Kaja Foglio coined the term "Gaslamp Fantasy" (an alternative to
steampunk) to describe the work. In her
April 24,
2006 LiveJournal entry, Kaja Foglio explained how the term came to be coined:
"I called it Gaslamp Fantasy because, around the time we were bringing Girl Genius out, there was a comic called
Steampunk on the shelves and I didn't want any confusion. Plus, I've never liked the term steampunk much for our work, it's derived from
cyberpunk (a term which I think actually fits its genre well) but we have no punk, and we have more than just steam, and using a different name seemed appropriate. I mis-remembered a term that I had come across in the foreword to an
H. Rider Haggard book, where the author was talking about
Jules Verne,
H.G. Wells, Rider Haggard and that sort of pre-
pulp adventure material, and came up with "Gaslamp Fantasy." I felt a bit foolish when I discovered that I had made up my own term, but it works and I like it."
It also differs from classic steampunk in that technology is not just limited to machines but also encompasses biology. Thus alongside the clanks (impossibly advanced steampunk
robots), dirigibles and walking gunboats of the world there are constructs - biological creations which range from
Frankenstein-style creatures to talking cats and mouse-sized mammoths.
[
edit] The Spark
The Spark is the center of the fictional Girl Genius universe. It is what makes the
mad scientists of the story what they are; people say someone is a Spark if he or she has the Spark.
[5] It is a rare
hereditary trait found mostly within a small number of families - most of the common population that "break through" are either relatively weak or unknowingly related to one or more of these families.
Most of the time those who carry the Spark seem no different from anyone else, but they are capable of entering a state of
hyperfocus (sometimes called "the madness place"
[6]) that greatly enhances their
charisma,
comprehension and
intuition – at the cost of all their
rationality.
[7] In short, they can become
fanatically obsessive savants at the drop of a hat (though
stimulants can easily induce it
[8]) – and it is not at all uncommon for some to act as such almost constantly.
On top of that, the first time a Spark enters hyperfocus is (with only one exception) always traumatic. Most are almost immediately killed by their breakthrough creations, or by rioting townsfolk. A fair number become incurably insane. This period is especially dangerous for females, which is one of the reasons why most adult sparks are male.
[9]
Most of those who survive quickly gain followers (commonly known as
minions) through sheer
magnetism, and eventually gather
tremendous support unless killed by rival Sparks. Those that survive this process of attrition become the power players of their fictional world, and if they successfully reproduce they begin lineages that are nothing less than
royalty – right down to personal
heraldic sigils: the Heterodyne Trilobite
[10], the Aaronev Sword-and-Gear
[11], and the Wulfenbach Winged Rook
[12], for example. (Those who accept the Baron's Peace wear winged versions of their sigils
[13], though their underlings wear theirs). However, this does little to satisfy their obsessions, and they spend most of their time dueling rivals when not engaging in dangerous experiments. The world of Girl Genius is one of unending conflict and cataclysm.
Though a Spark requires tools and materials to work, there seems to be nothing beyond their capabilities if they desire it enough. Every stereotype accredited to mad scientists is possible for them, from resurrecting the dead to changing animals into people to creating life from scratch. Mechanisms of astounding complexity and capability are common, many beyond the reach of modern science. Foremost among these creations are weapons of unbelievable power. However, when these capabilities are paired with their lack of rational thought, the results are devastating. Though the average Spark is smart enough to make the impossible possible, they are also dumb enough to rarely understand the consequences of their actions. It's noted on at least one occasion that many Sparks meet their doom owing to the fact that "they're smart enough to build death-rays and dumb enough to turn them on armies all by themselves."
[14] This suggests a dichotomy in the brain of the spark, since many seem to be more than willing to conduct experiments of questionable morality whilst under hyperfocus
[15]and yet still be willing to sacrifice themselves in a heartbeat to save others.
They are thus almost always generally despised. Many dub them "madboys" (but never when one is within earshot).
