Girl Genius

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Our Heroine.
"People keep giving me rings -- but I think a small Death Ray might be more practical."

In a World where the Industrial Revolution has turned into all-out war, Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly.

Girl Genius is a Web Comic that was originally a print series, and is authored by Phil and Kaja Foglio. It first began in November 2002, was still running as of August 2021, and has become one of the classics of the Steampunk genre, though the comic is called Gaslamp Fantasy by the creators.

The title character of the story is Miss Agatha Clay (Heterodyne), who begins as a young apprentice to a type of Mad Scientist known to the world as a "Spark". Her adventures span over 16 volumes so far. There are also novelizations of the comic's first two major arcs, called Agatha H and The Airship City and Agatha H and The Clockwork Princess respectively. A GURPS adaptation has been licensed, and after years of being stuck in Development Hell was finally released in early 2022.

Girl Genius was the winner of the Graphic Story Hugo Award for the first three years it was awarded (2009-2011). They took themselves out of the running for 2012 so that somebody else could win the award and show that it was a viable category.

Girl Genius can be found at the Studio Foglio website, accessible through this elegant and finely-crafted link. An archive of the comics that were online as of May 4, 2016 can be found at the Library of Congress - accessible through this elegant and finely-crafted link. Please note here: "We recommend Girl Genius for an audience of teens and up".

Look over the Girl Genius character sheet, or talk about the comic in our discussion thread for Girl Genius.

Girl Genius follows The Wiki Rule, of course; their wiki is on Wikia.


Girl Genius is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in Girl Genius include: