#floppy friday

[williamansley]

Agatha through other eyes: Rich Larson

The Agatha through other eyes meets Floppy Friday crossover extravaganza continues! Today's Agatha illustration is from issue six of the Girl Genius comic book, page 38. It is fan art from another comics artist, Rich Larson.

See the alt text for a transcription of the text in this image.

[askscagstuff]

a fabulous Floppy Friday to all who celebrate

[whaletailradio]

[williamansley]

Floppy Friday: Volume 2, Issue 6

Cover of issue six of the Girl Genius comic book. Story by Phil & Kaja Foglio; Pencils by Phil Foglio with colors by Mark McNabb. Lettering, Book Design & Cover Colors by Kaja Foglio. On this cover, the Girl Genius tagline has been expanded to Adventure, Romance, Mad Science, Tea.

This issue of the Girl Genius comic book was printed in May 2002 and includes pages 66 to 100 of volume 2 of the graphic novel series, completing the book. (In this issue of the comic book, the pages are numbered 3 to 37.) The Steam Engine Time™ logo has been replaced by a masthead that includes the new name of the Studio Foglio publishing arm, Airship Entertainment (although that's actually not quite what it says, see the description text).

See the rest below the cut.

Inside front cover: Cutouts of your TPU History Professors… …and others.

Prof. P. Foglio Transylvania Polygnostic University Dept. of Irrefutably True History Narrator #1

Prof. K. Foglio Transylvania Polygnostic University Dept. of Irrefutably True History Narrator #2

Inside back cover: It's true, we're almost out of airships and submersibles… for now, anyway. The last one wouldn't fit on the page, no matter how I turned it around. Argh. So the last one will be here next issue, and then I can make my mobile! Huzzah! Danger! Cut from the other side! Well, from the response of our friends and several readers, the goldfish seems to be the most popular character in the book. Sigh. Suspend it in a jar and you'll have a lovely low-maintenance pet.

THE OFFICIAL TPU STUDENT ID CARD: You can fill out the card, stick your photo on it and have it laminated. Whee! We'll be doing one of these every year. Student numbers are only valid for future promotions if assigned by the University. Instructions for official TPU registration are to be found on page 40.

Back cover:

The penultimate tiny submersible. Also a special cutout of the fish and this year's TPU student ID card. Whew. Carassius Auratus- life size-ish! Be sure to cut from this side.

The instructions from page 40, referred to on the inside back cover, are below:

TRANSYLVANIA POLYGNOSTIC UNIVERSITY STUDENT REGISTRATION-WHAT TO DO WITH THE ID CARD ON THE COVER The Student ID card on the back cover of this magazine is mostly for fun. But if you want to be on our mailing list and get an official student number, send your name, "major", address, and e-mail (optional) to TPU Registration c/o Studio Foglio 2400 NW 80th St #129 Seattle WA 98117-4449 USA or fill out the form that we're putting up at www.transylvaniapolygnostic.com

And we'll send you a student number and a report card. For those of you who already sent your info in and are waiting for your number, it'll be on its way soon. The school records department was on sabbatical for a while. Sorry about that. We don't share or sell our mailing lists, because we think that sort of thing is vile and we hate it when other people do it to us.

Additional content before the comic: Our story thus far. Additional content after the comic: Girl Genius fan art by professional comic book artist Rich Larsen, A Letter to Our Readers, The Girl Genius Secret Cypher Society

Sample page: A Letter to Our Readers

This page was posted at slightly higher resolution than the covers because of all of the text, but most of the text is also below:

A LETTER TO OUR READERS An Explanation, Update and Apology From Professors Foglio & Foglio To Our Loyal Transylvania Polygnostic University Students Hello, everyone. We are very sorry that we had to push back the release date of this issue. We had some problems late in 2001 that caused us to miss the shipping deadline for our major distributor, and so had to begin the solicitation process all over again. Sadly, we are a very small publishing house and have too few people doing too much work. In addition, the work that we are doing is something that we plan to keep in print forever, and it is important to us to do the best job that we can. So we were late this time, and we apologize profusely. The next issue is hot on the heels of this one, and then we will revert to our usual quarterly schedule. We are far enough ahead now that we think things should go more smoothly in the future.

Please note that we have changed the name of the publishing company to Airship Entertainment. Now seemed as good a time as any. It's easier to remember, spell, pronounce and find on the Web (airshipcomics.com).

Thank you all for your patience, we are so glad that you haven't given up on us. (You're reading this, aren't you?) Thanks especially to the honor students of the Girl Genius Yahoo Club, who threw a fantastic tea and croquet party last April. We're so glad you invited us. —Prof.s Phil & Kaja Foglio Dept. Irrefutably True History Transylvania Polygnostic University

AND NOW, A NOTE ABOUT OUR CARD GAME From TPU's own Professor Wright Attention all students and faculty— It has come to our attention that our card game Girl Genius: the Works (required materials for Prof. James Ernest's award-winning Game Theory 101 class—available at the student store) has been nominated for two awards by the Game Manufacturers Association and the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Designs. The categories are—

Best Traditional Card Game of 2001 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game 2001.

This pleases us. As we have often taught in our classes, the only thing more important than the recognition of your peers is seeing them crushed and wailing before you.

Public voting for the awards begins soon, with the winners to be announced at the July 2002 Origins Game Expo. Your new homework assignments are to spread the word and vote. Voting is open to all citizens so please take the time. We will make available a link on our "WEB SITE" (studiofoglio.com) that will allow you to access the Origins awards voting booths as soon as they are open. (Voting will be at www.originsawards.com)

Feel free to vote as your conscience dictates. Voting as your conscience dictates accounts for 90% of your grade. Do not allow our ability to build a Death Ray projector to bear any weight on your decision. Thank you. —Prof. Cheyenne Wright Dept. Transdimensional Harmonics Transylvania Polygnostic University

[williamansley]

Agatha through other eyes: Brian Snōddy

Welcome to a spectacular crossover event—nay, an extravaganza! Here is: Agatha through other eyes meets Floppy Friday! In other words, this is an "Agatha through other eyes" image from page 28 of issue one of the Girl Genius comic book, by Brian Snōddy, the inker on the first three issues of the comic book and, so, the first graphic novel.

Text transcribed below the cut.

We are very pleased to have artist Brian Snōddy as our inker for the first three issues to Girl Genius. Brian is usually very busy with his own work, and it is a true privilege to have him on board. (We only got him to do it by promising him lots of cool machinery and military uniforms.) You can see the work that is completely his own on the Legend of the Five Rings card and roleplaying games, Magic the Gathering cards and various Deadlands paraphernalia, as well as some of the new D&D editions. Don't miss his hilarious clueless zombies on Cheapass Games' award-winning series Give me the Brain, Lord of the Fries and The Great Brain Robbery. We asked Brian to do a Girl Genius illustration of his own for the first issue, it is included below for your viewing pleasure.

[williamansley]

Floppy Friday: Volume 1 addendum

One of the best pieces of advice that we were ever given was “make the stuff that you would want.” Well, what we want (along with world domination, of course) is neat little cutout paper toys to go with our new comic. So… may we present the first two of a series of low-budget Girl Genius action figures. (They have two actions—they stand up and they fall down.) Glue the little stands to the back and enjoy!

A NOTE ON THE NATURE OF THE TINY AGATHA & GIL CUTOUTS: Yeah, I know: The tiny figures of Agatha and Gil are back to back. It's the only way that I could make them fit. Sorry about that. I only included the small figures for decoration and my own amusement anyway. But if you must have both… I’ll include the small version of Gil in another issue when I have space. Deal?

I decided to include the inside front and back covers of volume 1 of the Girl Genius comic book so everyone could have the complete experience of seeing the Girl Genius comic cut-out "action figures" and toys. As you can see, the the airship ornaments are double sided, but the action figures are not.

I know the long passages of text in the images above are somewhat blurry (especially the second one; it seems to be a limitation of my scanner), so I included a transcription below each image for your reading pleasure.

I will include the inside covers in any future "Floppy Friday" posts I make. (I intend to keep going until I cover all thirteen comic books, but who knows what the future holds?)

[williamansley]

Agatha through other eyes: Pete Abrams

The latest installment of the Agatha through other eyes meets Floppy Friday crossover brings us to another name that will be familiar to many Girl Genius fans, Pete Abrams, author of Sluggy Freelance! Today's Agatha illustration is from issue ten of the Girl Genius comic book, page 32.

See the alt text for a transcription of the text in this image.

[williamansley]

Agatha through other eyes: John Kovalic

The Agatha through other eyes meets Floppy Friday crossover extravaganza continues to continue, with a name that will be familiar to many Girl Genius fans, John Kovalic! Today's Agatha illustration is from issue ten of the Girl Genius comic book, page 31.

See the alt text for a transcription of the text in this image.

John's strip Dork Tower shared space in Dragon magazine with Phil's What's New for years.

More amazing crossover action can be seen after the break!

The strip below is a crossover between What's New and Dork Tower that appeared in Dragon, although I haven't been able to identify the issue.

It even has a Girl Genius Easter egg! (See the background of panel 5.) I assume that each artist drew their own characters, but I don't have the full story for this comic. All the What's New strips were posted to their own section of the Girl Genius website once upon a time, but they have been missing in action for years, although some can still be retrieved using the Internet Archive.