Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City

This was my only purchase at this weekend's Great New England Steampunk Exposition.

Title: Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City
Date: 2010
Publisher: Airship Entertainment
Writer: Kaja Foglio, Phil Foglio
Penciler: Phil Foglio
Colorist: Mark McNabb

This is the second volume collection the webcomic by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Former student Agatha Clay awakens aboard Baron Wulfenbach's airship city following an incident involving an out-of-control clank (robot). A rogue soldier named Von Zinzer is assumed to be the creator of the clank, and therefore possessing of the spark of mad science. Now he needs Agatha to help him keep up the charade long enough to find a way out of the airship city.

The plot really thickens from here. As I mentioned in a review I did of the first volume (this review predates this blog), Agatha herself doesn't get much of the spotlight in the beginning. That is quickly fixed here, and the character is really allowed to shine.

Girl Genius is primarily a comedy, but it's an adventure-comedy with an excellent plot and some really important issues underlying the slapstick jokes. This volume also introduced an excellent array of supporting characters and a bunch of subplots.

Phil Foglio's art style is a distinctive mix of cartoony characters and action sequences with some spectacularly detailed renderings of machinery and backgrounds. The two-page spread that revealed the airship city was simply awesome.

This volume took a series that was already quite good and kicked it into high gear. But don't take my word for it. The whole series is available as a free webcomic. Go to www.girlgenius.net.

Rating: 8.5/10