Sunday Trade: Girl Genius

Girl Genius story by Phil & Kaja Folio, art by Phil Folio with assistance by Brian Snoddy, Mark McNabb & Laurie E. Smith

This pocket-sized black&white omnibus collects the issues that originally ran in normal print. Before the Foglio's realized that trying to sell another floppy on the racks was a sucker's bet and switched to giving it away for free. Which ended up giving them better financial stability...

For those who don't follow the webcomic, Girl Genius is set in a fictional past Europe. One where the main political powers are warring mad geniuses. Or Sparks. The poster child for the Steampunk genre movement at times. Or Gaslamp Fantasy as Kaja Foglio describes it...

The story follows a young student named Agatha Clay. Up until an attempted mugging causes her to lose a family locket, she's never managed to build anything that works. But without it, suddenly the vast and maddening world of the Spark opens up before her. Which leads to her having to deal with robots (or Clanks), talking cats, getting kidnapped by Europes premiere mad overlord and alien monstrosities aboard a city-sized dirigible. And something about a secret destiny and a romance inclined Mad Boy or two...