ricketyclick

Wow. Oh, wow.

Biggest news since Heller:

Agatha Heterodyne is about to prove her claim to Castle Heterodyne, or die in the attempt.

Hm, that’s ambiguous in an interesting way.

Let me clarify: She’s not just proving that she has a claim on the Castle, no no no. That would be boring.

She is about to attempt to prove to the Castle Itself, which has fallen into disrepair and is more than a little insane, that she is Its Mistress. (It is Castle Heterodyne speaking in the unattached dialog balloons with the wavy borders.)

If you have not been following this “Gaslamp Fantasy”, this may not make sense to you.

Your loss, toots.

If you hurry, you can try to catch up.

Here’s a character summary.

Here’s The Story So Far.

Here’s the very first comic.

Unlike far too many web comics, which tend to bog down, and to promise great revelations, only to snatch them away at the last moment, the Foglios have kept up the pace. Girl Genius has been a long, meandering, tale, illuminating many dark corners and hidden passages, but the Foglios have not engaged in gratuitous teasing, just to string the story out, and I believe they will not tease us now. Something great is about to happen.

Girl Genius may be the best web comic out there. Sumptuous art, wonderful characters, sly wit, stupendous story, and it updates reliably, every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, at 11:00 pm CDT, without fail, something very few web comics can say.

I’ve been following this story, in thrice-weekly installments, for about five years now, it’s about to pay off, and I couldn’t be happier.

Wow.

[I've pointed at Girl Genius before. I solemnly vow, if this is not a tease, and the Foglios do indeed put Agatha to the test, I will buy the mug for Perfect Coffee in gratitude. I already own most of the paper editions of the comic, save the current volume 6, and yeah, I'll bring my collection up to date as well. Yes, I see it will cost me more than twenty bucks. Trust me, the Girl Genius books are worth it, if you like this kind of thing at all. They're gorgeous.

[The only other web comic I buy the books for is Megatokyo, because Fred Gallagher, the artist, refuses to run a tip jar.]

Self-tagged with the coffee cup meme, via Ambulance Driver, where I also left a comment on my favorite beverages.

My favorite coffee mug art, from Christopher Baldwin’s comic Bruno:

Yes, yes, there’s lots of other mugs out there from comic strips I like better, or with political slogans I favor, or with funnier jokes. But this one actually has to do with coffee, and I love Baldwin’s art.

Here it is next to the mug I actually use, which is exactly the right size:

update:

Ah, I’ve been looking for this, and finally found it: another favorite coffee cartoon. I dearly want this on a mug:

From Mark Stanley’s wonderful comic, Freefall.

Now, this is what coffee should be like:

[click for full size] [source][ad for Heterodyne Spark Roast]

I…despair of explaining the context of this image. Here’s the machine that made the coffee this young man just took a sip of. The lady with the wrench is a “spark”, a genius mad scientist in a world where magic is crucial to technology. I cannot urge you strongly enough to start here and read the whole bizarre story. The phrase “steam punk”, stretched to tatters, might evoke something of the flavor of the Foglio’s world.

OMG: this image is available on a mug — and on t-shirts, bbq aprons, mouse pads….