Girl Genius is an interesting success story among webcomics. It started its life as a print comic produced by Studio Foglio. However, lackluster sales almost led to its cancellation. However, while it was one of the more successful independent comics, sales of the print comic only grew sluggishly. Only when Phil Foglio listened to his wife Kaja and continued the comic online did it gain significant audience (and sales) growth. Indeed, even as other webcomics seek to be published in print, this hybrid has walked down the opposite path, using the internet to build the readership needed to make its existing print run a financial success. That’s only part of the story, however.

In truth, if this was just another bland Marvel or DC story, it would have been dead in the water. It’s the artistry of Phil Foglio and the storytelling of both he and his wife Kaja that led GG to become a massive hit. The setting is Victorian Steampunk (or what the Foglios like to call a “gaslamp fantasy”) and has captured the minds and imaginations of its readers. Part of this is due to the multitude of detailed backgrounds that inhabit the comic. The Foglios have managed to utilize overused storytelling elements (such as information dumps) in their proper proportion, carefully balancing these elements and making them work effectively. Indeed, Girl Genius may be among the first professional webcomic models, rather than the webcomic tradition of amateur works that ended up a success.

However, it’s Agatha Heterodyne and those around her that have brought the comic to life. The mixture of story and characterization works well, and is a large part of the humor inherent in the strip. Indeed, recent strips showcase this (such as Agatha pulling a drill out of thin air and offering to drill holes in the head of one of her companions when told those holes are needed to commune with the intelligence behind Castle Heterodyne), adding some much-needed humor to a story that is admittedly dark in places (though it’s through the art that the humor is truly driven home). Now that the entire archives are available online, now is the perfect time to start this classic tale of mad science and madcap adventure.

Addendum Note: I’d like to thank Alice Bentley who was able to set me straight on a few things concerning Studio Foglio. It appears that Girl Genius was not at the verge of being cancelled. Instead, I had drawn that conclusion from several factors: the cancellation of the print comic, comments on the Girl Genius website about eliminating debt accumulated over the years, and so forth. Instead, GG was among Studio Foglio’s most successful comics; the move to the web was due to the fact profits from sales of the print compilations were greater than that of the print comic. It just goes to show that it’s easy to draw mistaken conclusions when you don’t have all the facts, and I apologize to Studio Foglio for the error.