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Frequently Asked Questions


When is the next volume of the collection coming out?
Will you be reprinting that volume that's out of print right now?
Will you be making more hardcover editions?
Will you be making more of the Secret Blueprints?
What was printed where in the comics?
Can I get a Girl Genius tattoo?
How's the Role-Playing Game coming along?
I want to help write/edit/playtest the RPG!
I have this great story idea...
Where can I buy the books?
What is Girl Genius?
What age group is Girl Genius written for?
What is "Gaslamp Fantasy?"
What's with the "101 Class" and the "Advanced Class" thing?
How can I help spread the word?
I want to make a fan site, but I don't want to step on your toes.
I wish to mail you something wonderful! Where should I send it?


When is the next volume of the collection coming out?

Volumes of the Girl Genius Collection are published roughly once a year, as we gather enough pages to fill a book. We have found that running a KickStarter campaign is a great way to gauge the scale of and pay for our print run. We never print a new volume without going on about it a lot on our various sites, so watch the main Girl Genius page (or one of our social media outlets) for news about our our next KickStarter campaign! You can also form a fairly reasonable hypothesis regarding the imminence of the newest volume by looking at the page number at the bottom of the most recent online page, and comparing it with the page counts of previous volumes.

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Will you be reprinting Volume (whatever is out of print at the moment)?

As far as Girl Genius softcovers go, the answer is yes, we plan to keep those in print. So when one goes out of print, we reprint as soon as we can. It can take a few months, though. Hardcovers, being expensive to make and stroppy to warehouse and mail, are not reprinted. Until something changes, they're a one-time print run for us.

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Will you be reprinting the hardcover editions?

We make the hardcover editions of each volume of the collection so that we have our own lovely copies. We don't really intend to reprint them, as they are rather expensive to make. When we get the first collection colored and printed, we will do another hardcover run of that book; but otherwise, when they're gone, they're gone. This could change if a larger publisher picked us up and re-released the books in hard and soft cover, but for now that's the way it stands.

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Will there be more Secret Blueprints?

Sure, the Role-playing game and sourcebook is in the works right now! The Secret Blueprints were a little comic we published as a teaser when we were first starting with Girl Genius. It featured portraits and bios for several of the key characters in the early stories, and went out-of-print right quickly. We always thought we would do more of these, but we've been pretty busy and haven't got to it yet. And really, the RPG and Sourcebook is pretty much the same kind of thing, only better. So hang in there.

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What was printed where in the comics?

When we first started publishing Girl Genius, we were doing it as a traditional pamphlet-style comic book.

Collection 1: Comic Book Issues 1-3

Collection 2: Comic Book Issues 4-6

Collection 3: Comic Book Issues 7-10

Collection 4: Comic Book Issues 11-13

Issue 13 was the last of our "flimsies." After that, Girl Genius was released online before being collected into Studio volumes.

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Can I get a Girl Genius tattoo? How much do you charge for something like that?

Of course you can! What do we charge? Why, a tasteful photo and bragging rights, please.

Keep in mind that printed temporary tattoos are NOT what we're talking about here. We still hold copyright for those. But if you want to take one of our pictures to a tattoo artist and have him or her needle that sucker onto your actual body, you may do so to our enthusiastic cheering.

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How is that Girl Genius Role-Playing-Game-and-Sourcebook, Powered by GURPS coming along?

Slower than it should have. We'll let you know when it's ready. Yes, it's been a long time. We regret.

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I want to help write/edit/playtest the RPG!

Thank you! But we already have writers and editors, and those are grumpy territorial animals. Grr. Potential playtesters, on the other hand, are advised to look into the Steve Jackson Games playtester program. There's nothing to do for GG yet, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

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To heck with the RPG, I have a great story idea that I want to send you!

Noooooo! Please don't! It's not that we don't love you, or that your idea is bad. It's that in order to protect ourselves legally, we must stick to a strict "no submissions, please" policy. That and we have enough ideas of our own to fill several lifetimes. We won't get to it all as it is. Please don't add to our workload stress!

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Where can I buy the books? What about other Girl Genius merchandise?

You can get our books at our online company store, which is now run by TopatoCo. For other sources, as well as some of our licensed goods, please check out our Shopping Guide, where we have collected all that information for you.

IRL, Our books are very likely available at your local comic and/or book store. You can also get them at all the usual online places.

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What is Girl Genius?

So glad you asked. Girl Genius is an ongoing "gaslamp fantasy" story by Phil and Kaja Foglio. It started out in 2000 as a periodical comic book, which is collected into thirteen (and counting) larger volumes, and has now won three Hugo awards for Best Graphic Story. Girl Genius follows the career of Agatha Heterodyne--a hapless student at Transylvania Polygnostic University who discovers that she has more going for her than she thought.

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What age group is Girl Genius written for?

RATING: Please be aware that Girl Genius is recommended for an audience of teens and up. Why? Well, let's see... we have lots of running around in Victorian underwear, occasional innuendo, a certain amount of violence and the occasional "damn!" Will this deprive us of future happy meal toys? Probably. Are we having fun making our story our own way? Oh, goodness, yes! A lot of our readers still say they read GG to their kids, but now you can make an informed choice. Thank you.

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Okay, what's a "Gaslamp Fantasy?"

Influences include Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. Expect big, clanking Victorian-style tech, old-fashioned clothes, Frankenstein monsters and airships. Lots and lots of airships. Is it magic? Is it science? A little of both, I suppose--it's Mad Science. The term actually came about when Kaja mis-remembered something and accidentally came up with her own term. It works. We like it.

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What's with this "101 class" and "Advanced Class" stuff? Am I getting credit for this?

Okay, here's the story: Girl Genius used to be published as a quarterly comic book. Then we gave in to our envy of Web comics artists and took the book online. Still, we didn't want to leave the people who had been reading all along stranded in the middle of the story while we went back and made the earlier chapters a three times a week Web comic. We also didn't want to make the Web comic audience go out and buy a whole bunch of books to get into a story they'd never heard of...and we didn't want to dump several years worth of comic into one huge archive, we wanted to start from the beginning. What to do? We made it into two strips. But have no fear: The 101 class caught up with the Advanced Class in July 2007, and now the two threads have been merged into one archive. So although the two classes are no more, you may still come across mention of them on our site or elsewhere on the Web, hence this FAQ entry. Now you know!

Why classes? As we're told in the comics, the Girl Genius comics are written by Professors Foglio and Foglio of Transylvania Polygnostic University as textbooks for their "True Events in the Life of Agatha Heterodyne 101" class. So if you're reading this, we assume that you're a Spark, and a student at TPU. Or possibly a nefarious rival out to destroy us all. Whatever. We don't really care. Credit will only be given to those students still standing at the end of the quarter.

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How can I help spread the word about this fantastic series?

How nice of you! The best thing you can do if you like our work is tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell people you meet on the bus, tell anybody. It couldn't hurt! We also have some nice shirts with the Girl Genius logo available, that always helps get the conversation going.

Also, at this time, we have a lovely selection of link banners available for downloading. Actually, we appreciate a link with or without a banner.

Thank you to everyone who has asked how they can help.

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I want to make a fan site, but I don't want to step on your toes or otherwise offend you. What should I do?

When we started getting letters like this, we didn't know what to do either. We certainly don't want to discourage shrine sites and the like. So we asked our attorney what to do, and he said to post guidelines. Here they are!

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I want to send you something wonderful that isn't a story submission. Where should I send it?

Oooh! Kind letters and the like can be sent to Studio Foglio, LLC, 2400 NW 80th St. #129, Seattle, WA, 98117-4449. Keep in mind that this is just a mailing address, if you make the pilgrimage the nice people at the mailbox might sell you a postcard with a fish on it, but we aren't there.

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The Hopefully Unnecessary Glossary

The Spark--whatever it is that makes Mad Scientists what they are. A poorly understood concept that identifies and incorporates a batch of personality traits shared by those who have it. Also referred to as the Gift, the Touch, the Curse, the Madness, the Doom, &c. Also referred to as his or her Spark, in this case a personal quality. Also used as another term for a Mad Scientist--you would say that someone is a Spark if they have the Spark.

To Break Through--to reach the point where it is obvious from one's work or behavior that one has the Spark. Some say that the Spark does not exist in potential, and that Breaking Through is that point at which the Spark develops. This is a dangerous time for one of the Gifted, when their existence is known but they may not yet have built up the power or ability to defend themselves.

Clanks--robots, autonomous mechanical devices, usually, but not necessarily, somewhat anthropoid.

Constructs--usually organic creations, Frankenstein-type monsters, etc.

The Gifted--another polite term for the Mad Scientists

Madboys/Madgirls--a not so polite term for the Gifted, used by the general public.

Mimmoths--tiny verminous mammoths. Originally somebody's experiment, they escaped and quickly populated most of Europe. They fill the same niche as mice and tend to live alongside them. They get into machinery and push things around with their tusks, wreaking havoc.

The Other--a mysterious enemy who attacked without warning many years ago. Agatha's family, the Heterodynes, went off to find and stop it. They never came back. It is assumed that they DID stop it, since the threat went away soon after the Heterodynes left.

Revenants--also referred to as mummers, or various other things according to region. People and animals that the Other has taken over. They retain their own consciousness and are usually allowed to go about their daily business, but are under the complete control of the Other, should he choose to exercise it. Their life is in many ways a living hell, as they are always aware of a master force in their head. There is no known cure except death.

The Outlands / The Wastelands --the wild areas outside of the main cities. Even though these areas might lie within someone's domain as you see it on the map, they tend to be dangerous to traverse.

Slaver Wasps--the transport form for the controlling mechanics of the Other. Nasty things whose purpose is enslavement, but will kill if resisted. Extremely fast and dangerous, they usually appear in swarms. None have been seen for years.

Girl Genius is written by Professors Phil & Kaja Foglio of TPU, with drawings by Prof. P. Foglio. Volume One was inked by Brian Snoddy and colored by Cheyenne Wright. Volumes Two and Three were colored by Mark McNabb. Volume Four was colored by Laurie E. Smith. From Volume Five onward, our regular color artist has been Cheyenne Wright. Our email and social media assistant is Chris Sorensen.

Girl Genius is a registered trademark of Studio Foglio, LLC. Agatha Heterodyne, Transylvania Polygnostic and all Girl Genius art, characters, design elements and logos™ & ©2000-2022 Studio Foglio, LLC., All rights reserved. Airship Entertainment™ is an imprint of Studio Foglio LLC, and publishes Girl Genius Graphic Novels on a yearly basis. Look for them in your favorite bookstore!

AutoKeen Lite programmed by Darren Bleuel, as a service of Keenspot Comics. Special thanks to RB "Sparks" who took it apart and made it work.