Book Review: Girl Genius (Vol 6) - Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite by Kaja and Phil Foglio

I've talked about Girl Genius before when I lamented the end of Freakangels, because it's an awesome webcomic published three times a week (here). Because I'm so far behind and our internet is often annoyingly slow, I was delighted to find that our library has certain volumes in brand new shiny hard copy. If you read Girl Genius online, I suggest getting your hands on a printed volume, they are so beautiful - the colours are more vibrant, lush, and everything is sharper. That's not to say that if you don't have access to hard copies, you shouldn't read the online version, because either way, the story and the graphics rock. As usual, there are spoilers behind the picture, so don't click on it if you haven't read Volume 5 or if you don't want to know the gist of Volume 6 (and it really is only the gist, it's only one paragraph and I don't think the spoilers for Volume 6 are too major).

Volume 6 continues where Volume 5 left off - with Agatha possessed by Lucrezia, her mother and the Other. What follows is three threads of story - Agatha/Lucrezia trying to escape/take over the castle; Lars, Krosp, the Jagers, Zeetha, and two plumbers navigating the city beneath the city (the sewers/labs/zoo beneath the city) searching for a way into the castle to save Agatha; and the drama aboard Castle Wulfenbach when Klaus and Gil find out that the remains that were presented to them as Agatha's are in fact, not her, and that she is likely still alive. These threads culminate in a huge battle, a cocky escape, and the return of a very important piece of jewelry! It's all go go go without a moment of rest for the whole book; and very exciting!

My only criticism of Girl Genius overall is that there is a LOT of backstory that we are learning along with Agatha and her friends. While, with characters as ignorant of the story as the readers, this would be okay, but Agatha is finding out what is true and what is false in the legendary stories of the Heterodyne Gang that she already knows, and filling in gaps of her own life. At times it feels like we are being asked to to bridge a gap between one fact and a part of the legend we don't know, or have only been introduced to once in passing. This may be my problem, as I do tend to avoid epic stories in written format (preferring them in television show format [Star Trek, for example]) because I get a bit lost, so I'd love to hear from anyone else reading Girl Genius!  If you're not reading it already, get to!  You have quite a bit to catch up on before we can talk about it together.

You can get the first omnibus of Girl Genius (Volumes 1-3) here, Volume 6 here, and the latest volume (Volume 10) here or here.  You can also buy all sorts of neat Girl Genius things here (can someone please get me the Heterodyne pin?  Kthanxbai)