Jim's Brain Online

On the off chance that Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius comic has not been plugged enough, I figure I'll mention it here. It's a great comic.

There are two forms of it available online. First, Girl Genius 101 which is issues 1-13 of the printed comic, reprinted on the web. Second, there's Girl Genius Advanced Class which takes up where Girl Genius 101 leaves off. The difference is that everything in the Advanced Class is appearing for the first time. I'm not completely sure why they chose to do it this way, but I'm going to guess that it involves money. Specifically, I'm betting that they're likely to make more of it if they sell printed graphic novels as opposed to individual issues. Plus, they're likely to expose themselves to more potential buyers online than in comic stores.

From this point forward, those sensitive to spoilers should stop reading. I'm reading both comics simultaneously and for the first time and don't get bothered by that at all. As such, I don't feel like pretending not to know stuff. Thus, spoilers likely start in the very next paragraph. Be warned.

Here's the gist of it: Agatha Clay lives in a version of Europe in which mechanical engineering dominates technology. Thus, mechanical robot servants follow people's commands, but there's no plastic, no transistors, and no computers. At the same time, there are people traveling by horse and carriage. In short, technology seems to have passed by the majority of people, being mostly used by the nobility, some of whom are "sparks."

Sparks are people with an almost magical ability to create/fix machines.

Agatha begins the story living with her guardians and going to Transylvania Polygnostic University. Unfortunately for her, Baron Wulfenbach (ruler and uniter of numerous germanic kingdoms) visits the place causing a series of events that ultimately result in her being expelled from the university, taken captive at Wulfenbach's castle, and learning that she's really a great deal more significant than she thought she was. She's a spark, of course (and a fairly major one), but also descended from some popular but mysteriously vanished heroes.

Hence she's got not only the ability to defend herself, but also good reason to fear for her life.

There's more going on than just this, but I don't want to make this an extremely long post. I just thought I'd mention it since it's one of the comics I look forward to these days.

P.S. I love the Jagermonsters (artificially constructed soldiers). They're hilarious. Also, they have a lot of teeth.

P.P.S. Apparently Phil and Kaja are working on a Girl Genius GURPS supplement. I'd love to buy it--even if I end up ignoring GURPS and just using the supplement as source material for my own game.

UPDATE: All Katja's changed to Kaja in an effort to be accurate...