Double-page spreads in Girl Genius

Among the many visual wonders of Girl Genius are the elaborate double-page spreads drawn by Phil Foglio. These are notable not only for their artistic merits, which are many, but also because they often signal that a major plot development is taking place. Additionally, in the web comic version of Girl Genius, they are usually accompanied by an "elegant and finely crafted link" that allows you to see the whole double-page spread as a single image.

Another issue that makes double-page spreads of particular interest is that, due to the physical structure of printed books, and the fact that page one is, by convention, always a right-hand page, double-page spreads must start on an even-numbered (left hand) page and end on an odd-numbered (right hand) page. Since web comics do not have this constraint, double-page spreads can be inserted anywhere, regardless of page number. This means that when volumes of Girl Genius are printed, the Foglios must be careful to make sure that all of the double-page spreads in the book will fall on the proper printed pages. If they don't, additional pages will need to be added to the book, or a printing error will occur, and the two pages of the spread will appear on opposite sides of the same page. This happened with the first edition of volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite, but was corrected in the second edition. The pages added to the various volumes of Girl Genius after the volumes had been completely posted to the web site, but prior to printing them, to fix double-page spread pagination errors will be noted below, when they can be determined.

The page numbers given below are from the printed volumes. The text of the page numbers links to the corresponding page in the web comic. If the double-page spread was presented as a single web page entry, then then both page numbers will share a single link to it and there will be a link to the full image following the text description.

Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank
This volume has one double-page spread.


 * and : Mr. Tock raises the roof.

Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City
This volume has two double-page spreads.


 * and : Our first look at Castle Wulfenbach as a whole.


 * and : T'otheron, the Dragon King of Mars!!!

Girl Genius Volume 3: Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine
This volume has five double-page spreads. The final double-page spread closes the volume.


 * Agatha dances with Gil, to the music of his mechanical orchestra. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * Agatha's mechanical universe dream. (This double-page spread is oriented vertically, and is presented as a single image on the web site.)


 * and : Agatha meets her dingbots for the first time while awake. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * The Baron and his forces fight the slaver wasps on Castle Wulfenbach. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * Agatha and Krosp have escaped from Castle Wolfenbach in a small airship and fly over a mountain lake. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 4: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams
This volume has no double-page spreads.

Girl Genius Volume 5: Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess
This volume has one double-page spread that opens the volume.


 * The circus stops at the bridge to Passholdt. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite
This volume has three double-page spreads, the first of which opens the volume. In the first edition of the print version of this volume, the second double-page spread was misprinted so that the two halves of it were on opposite sides of the same page. The Foglios created two new pages, was inserted before the second spread, to fix it. The was inserted after the second double-page spread to keep the third one from suffering the same fate that originally befell the second.


 * Castle Wulfenbach prepares. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * Agatha's signal. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * Battle circus activate! Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle
This volume has two double-page spreads.


 * and : Mechanicsburg tourism. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * Big stompy war clank spread. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones
This volume has one double-page spread.


 * and : Agatha gets the job (passes Castle Heterodyne's test and walks over the "just-in-time" Castle-assembled bridge). Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm
This volume has one double-page spread.


 * The Great Movement Chamber. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse
This volume has no double-page spreads in the main story. However, it does have two double-page spreads in the extra art at the end.


 * Extra art pages 148-149: Woman riding mechanical bear past giant fallen clank in the snow.


 * Extra art pages 150-151: Giant squid attack!

Girl Genius Volume 11: Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell
This volume has three double-page spreads. The first nearly opens the volume and the third closes it. The first double-page spread is vertical and it is handled differently than the rest. On the web site, the two parts of the spread show different parts of the page, but it is not divided into the top and bottom pages. In the book, the first page of the comic, page 7, shows the entire double-page spread, compressed to a single page, with an additional speech balloon that is not found on the web site, whereas the first web page of this scene has a caption that is not found in the book.

Two new pages had to be added to adjust the pagination in this volume. One had to be added and one  the second double-page spread.


 * and : The library in Castle Heterodyne. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * and : Mechanicsburg under attack! Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * The Doom Bell rings. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.

Girl Genius Volume 12: Untitled and in progress
This volume has three double-page spreads so far. Since this volume has not been published yet, the page numbers are for the pages on the web site and have been marked with asterisks, as a reminder that they will change in the print version. For the first double-page spread, the Foglios were trickier than usual, and made the first of its pages look as if it wasn't part of a double-page spread by adding a black border to the right side of the page. (Usually, you can tell if a page is the first half of a double-page spread because it doesn't have a black border on the right, since the illustration continues onto the next page.)

The first two spreads in this volume start on odd-numbered pages, which means that the first page of the story in volume 12 will have to start on an even numbered page (as in volumes 5 and 6), making all of the odd-numbered web comic pages into even-numbered print pages and vice versa, or a new page will have to be added at the beginning, as was done with volume 11. The third spread starts on an even-numbered page, which means a page will have to be added between the second and third double-page spreads, or the third spread won't print correctly.

So far, no elegant and finely-crafted links that show the two separate pages of the second and third double-page spreads as single images have been posted. Hopefully, this omission will be corrected soon.


 * and : The Jägers come home. Follow this elegant and finely-crafted link.


 * and : Ram at the gates of Mechanicsburg.


 * and : The true situation of the Baron's troops.