Everyone has a story in them, whether they’re a writer or not. How they choose to draw that story out of them and share it can take many different forms. The husband and wife team, Kaja and Phil Foglio, share their story not by simply writing it down, but by combining Kaja’s ideas and Phil’s gorgeous art together to create something wonderful.
I’m always very wary of recommending certain things to friends. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a TV show or a brand of potato chips. What I’m afraid of is that if they try it and hate it, they will blame me. “Why would you think I would enjoy this?” is what I’m terrified of hearing. I have friends that are much braver than me who tell me I need to watch this or read that and are either very sure that whatever they’re recommending is awesome, don’t care whether I like it, or are content with the knowledge that they like it and that’s all that matters.
One thing that I will never be afraid of recommending to anyone is the Foglios’ amazingly gorgeous, well written piece of joy called Girl Genius. It’s the usual story of “put down but hardworking girl discovers that she’s actually a princess,” told using the beloved visual medium of comics. It’s an action/adventure/fantasy/romance/science fiction/comedy/drama. It’s got everything!
I have recommended it to, well, everyone, and I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t love it. (Except my silly husband, who always says, “meh,” and sticks to his story until I find him reading whatever I have recommended on his own, loving it and hoping I don’t see and call him out to retract his first impression.)
It’s the kind of story you can read over and over again (and I often do). A new page is up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I go through phases of reading the new content as soon as I can get my eyes on it, or leaving it for months only to come back to a wealth of new story. I’m always sad when I catch up, whether I’ve read two pages or fifty, and I always want more.
I was pretty excited when saw that in addition to the comic, a novel called Agatha H. and the Airship City was available on their website. I thought it must be about an adventure that the main character went on after the events of the comic. This wasn’t a strange idea, they shared another story of this kind in the comic, called Revenge of the Weasel Queen. I downloaded a free sample on my kindle, eager to see what kind of adventure it would be.
This was when I experienced my first disappointment ever with anything related to Girl Genius. It turned out that the novel was not a new or different story, but the same one as the main comic. I was determined not to be sad. I thought that I could read the story aloud to my daughters, or maybe my brothers, or anyone who didn’t necessarily have the time to enjoy the comic itself; at least they could still enjoy the story. I bought and downloaded the entire novel.
The best part about the novel is that it expands and adds to several different conversations and scenes. Things that wouldn’t have worked or would have thrown off the pacing in the comic were easily included in the novel. I got to read wonderful details about Agatha’s bedroom in Beetleburg, Gil’s breakthrough, and Zulenna’s secret love.
The most disappointing part about the novel is that it’s... well, it’s not very good. The thing it could have used the most is an editor. There are words in it that are used incorrectly (“then” instead of “than,” which drives me nuts), sentences that are weird (“Up until now, that had seemed like a perk, but now he realized...”), and changes that don’t seem like they are for the better (like leaving out all mention of Sleipnir’s intended, which will make it less surprising when she shows up in Mechanicsburg with Theo).
The thing I was most surprised about was the fact that I was disappointed. The experiences I had had with the Foglios’ work and the quality of their storytelling had me expecting something much better. I read the whole thing, even though it wasn’t as good as I thought it should have been, and waited for it to get better. It didn’t, but at least it had the foundation of the story I already loved to keep me from putting it down.
Prose isn’t the Foglios’ area. I am so glad they chose to tell their story through comics, because they are much better at it. I’m not going to let the novel effect my love for the comic. I will continue to read it, and probably, despite my disappointment, I will read any subsequent novels as well.
If you’ve got a story in you, the first thing you should do is find the right way to present it to the world. The second? Don’t mess with a good thing. Find what you’re good at and stick to it... at least until your fans love you and your work enough not to mind if you sort of bungle your next project.
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