This article is about a member of House Mongfish. For others in the lineage or other uses, see Mongfish (disambiguation).
As is the case with many members of The Old Guard, little that is concrete is known about the late Doctor Lucifer Mongfish, apart from his relationship to the current protagonist; in this case, he is Agatha's maternal grandfather. However, before Lucrezia Mongfish apparently converted to the cause of Good and married Bill Heterodyne, we are assured that there are many stories of The Heterodyne Boys having occasion to foil the Evil Dr. Mongfish's plans, and those of his daughter.
In the main comic, Dr. Mongfish is first presented in Theo DuMedd's apocryphal Heterodyne yarn, The Dragon From Mars, as a revenant slave to the Dragon. Once he is restored to normal, he doesn't show many evil tendencies as he works along with the Heterodyne boys to thwart the Dragon. His Good traits in the story are consistent with his description as having reformed after Bill married Lucrezia.
While in the Refuge of Storms, Agatha mentions ✣ that Dr. Mongfish was known for his use of Sparkhounds.
According to the old Girl Genius Complete List of Absolutely Everybody, Lucifer died in an attack — presumably the attack — on Castle Heterodyne. This information may have been retconned, however, as Lucifer does not appear at all on the comic's more recent cast lists, and Zola claims that he died years ago in a freak airship explosion. ✣
His known living descendants are Agatha Heterodyne, Theopholous DuMedd, and Zola A. T. V. Z. Malfeazium, one grandchild from each of his three daughters.
Possibly relevant outside information[]
The literal meaning of the word "fishmonger" is "a man who sells fish". However, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet says he recognizes Polonius — the prime minister and the father of Ophelia — as a fishmonger. (Ophelia has been Hamlet's sometime romantic interest and he is unhappy with the way Polonius is influencing her.) The usual (though not universal) interpretation of "fishmonger" in this case is as a euphemism for whoremonger.