In the mid-2010s, self-hosted webcomics became, for the first time, a viable way to build a business in comics. No one knew it better than Phil and Kaja Foglio, whose comic Girl Genius became an instant fan favorite around the web and the convention circuit, and the creators also have a reputation for being some of the nicest people in comics. They’ve fallen on some hard times and launched a GoFundMe to sustain themselves.
Girl Genius is set in an alternate-history Europe in a Steampunk setting filled with airships, bizarre inventions, and mad scientists known as "Sparks.” The story centers on Agatha Heterodyne, a young woman who discovers her suppressed Spark abilities and her lineage as the heir to the House of Heterodyne, who falls upon many different adventures.
Originally debuting in print form in 2001, it transitioned to a webcomic in 2005 and updates three times a week on the official site. The series has since expanded into collected volumes, novels, and games. It’s won three consecutive Hugo Awards from 2009-2011 and was nominated for an Eisner Award as well.
Phil and Kaja Foglio sat down with Fandom Pulse to talk about their situation and the comic.
Their GoFundMe can be supported here and has raised over $58,000 as of this writing.
Q: Girl Genius was one of the biggest standouts in terms of following and actual creativity during the webcomics boom in the 2010s. What was that like to watch your creation becoming a pop culture sensation in real time?
Phil: We were always aware that as “pop culture sensations” go, we were pretty small beans. However, the love we did get was very gratifying.
Kaja: You’re so nice! I think I missed the part where Girl Genius was a “sensation,” but I’m going to believe you because it feels amazing. I always feel like our work is being read by a very small, loyal group of people. Cool people, mind you! Librarians, and scientists, and college students, and other artists. I love that.
Q; Were you into Steampunk the whole way through the scene as well?
Phil: Oh, yes. It was nice to see that kind of positive energy, and the clothing is great.
Kaja: I miss the Steampunk conventions. They were so much fun. I know there are still some going on, but I’ve been swamped with work. I hope I get to go again sometime. The music was fantastic. It still is, of course, but you know…
Q: What was it like getting your property adapted by Steve Jackson Games into their various game settings?
Phil: Exciting. We always try to make the world of Girl Genius logical (for a given value of logical. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s mad science) and having to formally write stuff down made us think through some stuff that we’d kind of “hand-waved” away when we were starting.
Kaja: GURPS was the game of choice with my college friends, so it was a huge treat to have a real Girl Genius GURPS book.
Q: How much of a hand did you have in the overall process for games?
Phil; As much as we wanted– which varied. The card games were fun, I always enjoy taking the title of a card and giving it an interesting spin. The role-playing game project took over a decade. Originally, we were supposed to write it, and while we are many things, RPG writers and designers are not one of them. We certainly supplied world-building and character bio stuff, and they ran everything past us to keep it “on brand”. Once he understood that was all we were good for, he assigned it to other writers. When it finally came out? I was delighted. The fact that it’s as excellent as it is? Bonus!
Kaja: Yes, I was supposed to write it and I…failed. All respect to the folks who write games. It’s hard.
Q: How have you seen the market transition from regular webcomics over the years?
Phil: The biggest change was one of display platform. More and more of “the kids” don’t use desktop computers, so the preferred display format has shifted to phones. We started out as regular comic-book creators, so we were used to selling our stuff in comic shops and bookstores
Q: Did you ever feel inclined to join in on the Webtoon or Tapas trends?
Phil; Absolutely. Unfortunately, we have a huge problem. Webtoons rely on a display geared to phones: Simple panel, panel, panel stacked in a vertical format. If you’ve seen Girl Genius– or anything else I’ve ever done, you realize that I have no hesitation about busting out different page layouts that were never designed with phone displays in mind. We would have to disassemble each page, lay it out again, and reletter it. Who’s got the time for that?
Kaja: Well, supposedly, I do. At least, I’ve tried to find time for it, it’s an interesting challenge! But I’m busy, and I run out of time, and suddenly a year’s gone by without an update on our Webtoons page, and here we are. I’ll get to it? Maybe?
Q: Do you feel the need to “evolve with the market” for your content or do you pretty much do what you want creatively and hope it sticks?
Kaja: I’m not sure what evolving with the market means, and maybe that’s a problem. We have our hands full trying to finish the story we started telling years ago. Maybe properly getting on TikTok would be a good idea? Another thing to add to the pile of stuff I don’t have time for. We’re certainly doing a lot of talking about how we do business right now, trying to figure out where the problems are and what we can do better going forward.
Q; You’ve mentioned you’ve fallen on hard times recently. If you could tell our readers the story of what’s going on, it’d be appreciated.
Kaja: Our finances have been getting worse and worse, and for a while now we’ve been digging ourselves deeper and deeper in debt trying to fix things. When it all finally came to a head, Phil put up the GoFundMe out of desperation.
