Moe Lane

I typically pick up these graphic novels as soon as Studio Foglio Kickstarts them, and Girl Genius Volume 16 is no exception.  Girl Genius has been going on since… wow. I can’t remember when I wasn’t reading Girl Genius online. According to Wikipedia they started the comic in 2001 and put it online in 2005, which means that I’ve been reading it religiously for sixteen years.  ‘Course, I’ve been reading Phil Foglio himself for almost thirty.

Because I’m OLD. Or at least getting there. Anyway, good series, check it out.

this is the most wonderful thing that i will see today

…huh.  Darned if I know what this post was supposed to be about. I therefore declare this post to be about this line:

These are no ordinary subterranean mecha-narwhals!

(pause)

Guess that you had to be there.

…himself.  It must be tricky, coming up with ways to utterly sabotage the commands coming from the alien mind control device in your head while at the same time appearing to be following its orders to the letter.

Although, to be fair: “following orders to the letter” is one of the classic sabotage methods.

Heh-heh-heh.  If you don’t follow Girl Genius… well, tsk, tsk, tsk.  Suffice it to say that the guy being steadily loaded down with people being rescued in that panel is a fellow predisposed by genetics, training, and perhaps just a little bit by inclination to be the sort of Mad Scientist who doubles as a shadowy ninja cult leader.  Only there’s this girl…

I was just remarking to my wife that we hadn’t seen you in the comic for a while; and there you are.  You fit in… surprisingly well, really.

Moe Lane

PS: Nice hat.

PPS: The Girl Genius store.

Punchline to today’s Girl Genius.  Man, I love these guys…

…but I’m starting to wonder when the webcomic is going to actually reach some sort of climax.  I think that we’re somewhere in Act III, or maybe the beginning of Act IV; and the Foglios are very, very good at this sort of thing.  Still, if they were thinking about dragging it out I would argue that they shouldn’t, largely because I’d rather see the comic get wrapped up rather than lose any quality.

Yeah, I know, I know: who asked me?

That’s just… ow.  OW. Don’t do that.

But I’ll believe it when I see proof.  This is, after all, Girl Genius: which is to say, a comic about Mad Scientists going out and warping reality and destroying the local landscape in order to get a better lemon scone.

(Warning: the below assumes you follow the Girl Genius webcomic – and, really: if you’re not, well, let’s just say that your unfortunate condition is in fact treatable.)

That’s a pretty innocuous statement to have a sneering grin like that associated with it…

Oh.

Ohhhhhh.

Yah, yah, hyu iz kind of screwed there, mine friend.

…about the events in this Girl Genius comic if it weren’t for the fact that it almost certainly happened before the events in this Girl Genius comic.

And, yes, if I am ignorant of any way that this potential temporal paradox can be reconciled with the loss of one of my favorite Girl Genius characters… well, I treasure that ignorance, thanks.

…of the Girl Genius universe – England being sunk (but not depopulated), North America being inaccessible, the odd ubiquity of mountaintops with which to put a Mad Science castle/deathtrap/lair, one might almost be tempted to find the Steampunk/Mad Science setting attractive… until you see webcomic entries like this.

It’s not that the Male Love Interest #1 is lying; he’s not.  It’s not that MLI #2 is accusing MLI #1 of lying; he’s not.  It’s not even that MLI #1 did bring back Heroine’s family from the grave as a romance gambit.

It’s that it’s a recognized romance gambit.  One that’s been done, ah, to death…

Despite their ultimately-sincere protestations to the contrary, it’s a well-deserved award: Girl Genius is one of those indispensable webcomics, and doubly indispensable for those of a steampunk or neo-Victorian inclination.  My (few) interactions with Studio Foglio have always been very amiable, as well.  In fact, my only regret on this is that Girl Genius winning meant that Schlock Mercenary did not, and I’d be writing a broadly similar post if Howard Tayler had won and Kaja & Phil Foglio had not.

Again, congratulations.

Moe Lane

PS: Now GO FINISH GURPS GIRL GENIUS, DAMMIT.  We wants it, we does.