Customer Reviews

Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne & The Airship City

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Volume two in the continuing adventures of Agatha Clay is in color, and the coloring work is as good as it gets. It opens with Agatha awakening aboard Castle Wulfenbach, mistaken for the lover of a soldier mistaken for a Spark (think supergenius mad scientist). She finds herself thrown in with a group of hostages kept by Baron Wulfenbach to guarantee the good behavior of their families.

The Baron's son Gilgamesh discovers Agatha's true talents, about which she has no clue. As she discovers her abilities, her true origin comes to light; she is the offspring of one of the Heterodyne Boys, Sparks who rejected their evil family heritage to battle the forces of chaos. Agatha's genius makes her both feared and prized, and everyone wants a piece of the action. As she gleefully explores her Sparkhood, plots hatch and thicken and characters both gonzo and fearsome appear in droves. It keeps getting deeper, funnier, and more charming with every page.

This is a brilliant, lighthearted adventure-romance. The characters are human, mechanical, animal, and/or artificial. The plot and background are deep and complicated, but loony and inventive without being silly. The artwork is marvelously detailed, and almost every frame is loaded with subtle comic touches.

Girl genius is a masterpiece, and it's the most entertaining thing of ANY type that I've read lately. After fifty years of reading all sorts of comics, this is now my all-time favorite.

And Girl Genius is definitely a Quality comic. Out of all the comics I've enjoyed over the years, from Marvel to Viz to Keenspot to Oni Press, this is one of my absolute favorites. The superb writing, fantastic art, and beautiful coloring all come together to form an amazing piece of work. Phil Foglio and his wife Kaja are an amazing team and everything they've done is a pleasure to read.

I recommend this one for any comics, sci-fi, steampunk, or fantasy fan. Even those who dabble. I haven't met anyone yet who didn't enjoy it.

In a cookie-cutter world, Phil Foglio's work is a breath of fresh air, truly original. The art is a cross between a vivacious cartoon style, & Art Nouveau, certain to please, & the use of color is grand & dramatic.

In this second installment of the Adventures of Agatha Heterodyne, laughter & danger intertwine as Agatha is held captive on an Airship Fortress, by mad (or perhaps very sane) Baron Wulfenbach, who is trying to conquer the world in order to save it, or vice versa.

And then, there's the Jagermonsters--orc-like beings, created by Mad Science as shocktroopers/Keystone Cops. A typical conversation between two Jagermonsters--

"Minsk: Gorb. Dis iz turnink into vun of dose plans... Hyu know - de kind vere ve keel everybody dot notices dot ve's killin' people?
Gorb: It is?
Minsk: Uh huh. And how do dose alvays end?
Gorb: De dirigible iz in flames, evryboddyz dead an' I've lost my hat.
Minsk: Dot's right. Und any plan vere you lose you hat iz?
Gorb: A bad plan?
Minsk: RIGHT AGAIN!"

This series is a great gift, for young & old alike.

The Hipster gives it a Big Thumbs UP!

This second collection is just as good as the first one (while there are certain aspects that are better, the "raw fun" of the first one is a little more controlled here). There is little I can say to praise it enough that has not been covered in the other reviews or in the description, but I do want to point out something that makes me love this series.

While Girl Genius starts out as sort of a silly story with an odd cast, it quickly exposes one of its themes: the nature of legend versus truth. In this second volume, we begin to see more and more of the legends that build up the world. In contrast, we get more and more hints that legends do not always tell the story as it truly happens. This juxtaposition between belief and reality plays an important part in the storytelling method. False thing become increasingly chipped away at, enabling a story that seemingly is given away at the start a chance to actually grow and mature. Though we are told in Volume 1 what will end up happening, we quicly learn that there is a big divide in the legends and the reality which brings them about.

You end up becoming entranced, nervous, even though you know "the outcome".

Great fun, this series.

The Girl Genius comic book was exactly as described, and in great condition. Shipping was fast. Thanks!

Girl Genius is an excellent comic series, the story and characters are great and continue getting better as it goes along. The art is darn good, if albeit stylized in a manner some readers may not appreciate, and both the binding and print quality just fine.

The only real problem with the series, is that most volumes after two are extremly hard to find due to being out of print so long. Hopefully the publisher will come back and re-publish at some point, but unfortunately I really wouldn't hold out hope at this point.

At the end of Girl Genius Volume 1, the unconscious Agatha Clay was taken prisoner by the efficient and thorough Baron Klaus Wolfenbach, who left the details to his son Gilgamesh. But Gilgamesh was just a little more thorough.

Agatha awakes to find herself the Baron's involuntary guest. She must learn what this entails as she finds friends and enemies among the other "children" on the Baron's flying castle. The way to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but the way to a mad scientist's heart is through her laboratory.

It is here on the Castle that Agatha has her first close contact with the Jagermonsters, monster-soldiers created by the ancient Heterodyne family. She and Gilgamesh almost get themselves killed testing out a flying machine. And just as her luck begins to turn, she receives a most unlikely warning--from a talking cat.

This second volume and the one that follows it were colored by the same artist. The work has an airbrush-like feel to it. It's convincing, but the Foglio's changed to a new colorist for Volume 4, and to another for Volume 5 and beyond. Each has strengths and weaknesses, but I would rate the latest as the best. This is a small matter however; the art in this volume serves the story well and the coloring supports Phil Foglio's clever stylings, which move easily from one visual vocabulary to another, always in service of the story.

The Girl Genius webcomic from which these books are derived was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story of 2008.

Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City is the second collected volume in the Girl Genius series, with material from issues 4-6 of the comic. It's also the first of the series in full color, which is welcome; the color works much better than the B&W art.

In general this volume works better than the last - the art has only occasional hiccups, mostly from the tendency towards wild over-exaggeration of character's expressions - a good fit for the book, but overplayed at times here. More importantly, the Foglio's continue to room to their imagination, and the "mad science" part gets better as the comic develops.

There's great pacing here as well - both the backstory and main story unfold at a good pace, and revelations around the characters are built up. While probably not the best volume of the series, it's an improvement over the first and probably the best place to start. ****

Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne & The Beetleburg Clank (Girl Genius)Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne & The Airship City (Girl Genius)
I found the first two in this series to be well drawn and have a very good story. I will be sending this very good juvenile fiction to my daughter.

Great fun, as are all of the Heterodyne books - I especially appreciate the "overdrawn poking-fun-at-Gothic" artwork throughout, and the "biographies" of the contributors. On a side note, thanks to these, one of my friends is actually trying to build a dirigible... oh well!

One slight problem with several of the Girl Genius volumes - the binding is very weak, and I've actually had to get Amazon to replace this one, as it fell apart when I opened it. Luckily, Amazon is simple and easy, and this one isn't their fault - the publisher is being scrooge-ish with their glue. Examine carefully when they arrive, and don't hesitate to send them back for replacements. This series is too good, and too compulsively readable to miss! (or to suffer with bad copies... )