Girl Genius: Omnibus Edition #1

Girl Genius is a webcomic that's published on the internet. When they get enough strips together, they release a printed volume. Everything in this book can be read online for free before you decide whether or not to buy it, and I would advise you to do that rather than buy this book because the quality of this omnibus is truly awful. The comics are far too large and detailed for the small pages in the book, which makes the whole thing feel cramped. The first volume was always black and white, but volume two and three were originally in color on the internet and were converted to grayscale for this edition. It looks terrible. And the book was plainly printed as cheaply as possible. The binding started breaking a few days after I got it, just from reading it normally. Currently, some of the pages have started falling out. If you like the webcomic and want to buy the book, or if you're looking for something to read, don't get this omnibus! Get a different edition. The authors have switched to a different publisher so hopefully better quality books will be released soon. I love Girl Genius and will grab a new edition the day it's released.

To those complaining that this collection (the first three chapters of Girl Genius) are in black and white, not color... they always were. Back in the good old days, before Phil and Kaja (*not* Dixie) Foglio started releasing GG on their website (girlgeniusonline-com), they released GG as standard little comic books, once every month or two. The first three were in black and white, and only with Chapter Four did they go to full color. I'm a huge fan of Phil and Kaja Foglio, and this is a great introduction to their stuff. I just wish Kaja'd let him do more XXXenophile...

And little else to say... Well drawn, wonderfully told and a really original story. It's as good in B & w as in color!

This is good, very very good. Oh you want a review? Girl Genius is an ongoing project by Phil and Dixie Foglio (it's been a monthly comic, a quarterly comic and now a web comic) covering the coming-of-age story of a young girl in a world of mad science. There's steampunk, mad scientists, Frankensteins (as my four-year old cousin would say), derring-do, smooching, a talking cat ... need I go on? The art is beautiful; while I miss the rich color tones the small format black-and-white presentation in this book is crisp and clear allowing a lot of the detail work to shine. As a bonus there's some Edwardian-styled underwear fan service. What's not to love?

I've been following the webcomic at [...] for some time now, and enjoy the series. The main character, Agatha, is smart, assertive and mischievous. The story covered in this omnibus is how she discovers her true identity and sets out to fix wrongs done before she was born. This book is not for children, because there is a little violence and her habit of sleepwalking leads to her showing up in her (very conservative Edwardian) chemise and bloomers every so often. The phrase "gaslamp fantasy" sums this up well, because while as the authors have said, it's steampunk without the punk. This is a great comic for anyone who isn't a comic person to read, too, it draws you in instantly to the story, and going back and finding the little gems in the artwork is fun too. The omnibus itself is high quality, the pages are thick and strong and once you break in the binding a bit (gently, now!) it makes for a great collection. It is in black and white but the B/W balance is well handled, I was impressed by how they did the color to B & W change in the latter two thirds of the omnibus. A great read! Edit: Just wanted to update that I've owned this for a couple years now, and it's still in great shape. Also, I really want to point out that I think this is a particularly spectacular series for teen girls, as the main character very much pulls *herself* out of the fire when necessary- and that's been getting more obvious with time. She does not wait for some guy to do it for her- and usually rescues the guys as well, though they are not bumbling buffoons either. I think she's a great role model that way.