Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell

Girl Genius #11

by Phil Foglio

Adventure, Romance, Mad Science! Heroes and villains fight for control of Mechanicsburg, as Agatha finally repairs the damaged machine that is Castle Heterodyne.

Genres: Steampunk, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

A popular science fiction fan artist in the 1970s, Phil Foglio began writing and drawing cartoons and comics professionally in the 1980s. His work includes Magic: The Gathering, Buck Godot, and the popular series of comics and novels, Girl Genius, co-written with his wife, Kaja Foglio.

Awards:
Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist (1977 and 1978)
Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story (2009, 2010, 2011)

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently gave Phil a Kaja a blurb for their comic, because I love it with a powerful love.

"Girl Genius is everything I want in a comic: It's clever without being pretentious, sexy without being smutty, dramatic without being overblown, funny without being foolish, and complex without being complicated. Over the last ten years, I don't think I've re-read any comic as often as I've read Girl Genius."

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast funny swashbuckling. If Agatha is to be the legitimate heir, somebody's gotta ring the bell. More good castle nonsense and fights between Gil and Tarvek, with Agatha out hero-ing everybody.

A weird interlude with the baron and the storyteller

But badly done were 2 women in a fight who fat shamed each other. Plus, women 18 and up aren't girls, so constantly calling them such is a drag. I know it's there in the title, but I'd love it if she fought back against that diminutive.

[Andrea]

Invasion. Fun until someone repairs the castle.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mechanicsburg is under siege, Baron Wulfenbach is presumed dead, and various political factions all try to take advantage of the chaos. Agatha Heterodyne is busy, trying to repair Castle Heterodyne and defend her town. Fortunately, she has Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek of Sturmhalten, along with a host of allies and minions at her side. Unfortunately, she’s also her her mother still inside her head and Agatha isn’t the only one Lucrezia Mongfish has been using as a host.

This volume continues the character development and constant action, including much swashbuckling on the parts of Agatha and Violetta against Zola. Lucrezia’s background and schemes develop further, while Tarvek has a melt down which is another one of my favorite moments in the series. Fed up with everyone messing up his beautiful plots with their schemes, he has a tirade equal to the one Gil had a few volumes back. Tarvek and Gil get some great interaction, while they prove that each of them is crazy enough to be the Lady Heterodyne’s consort.

For another fast moving plot, loaded with snappy dialogue and character development, all of which enrich this unique world further, this gets four stars.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you hide the hammer for a huge bell? By putting it somewhere both obvious and difficult to obtain, like a bar for Jagers.
What happens when you ring said huge bell? Ah, that would be telling, and it's a plot point in this escalating battle of many armies.
The new configuration for the "Muse of Protection" is wonderful, but I have to wonder what will go wrong, because of course something has to.

[Esme · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series, but these later volumes are a bit too action-packed. Sometimes we need a pause to let the readers and characters breathe, like the fourth act of a play where we get some funny banter or the characters have a cup of tea and regroup before the shit hits the fan in the climax. Volumes 9-13 are all climax, and it's exhausting. Still love the series, though.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Castle Heterodyne is under attack and has just gotten pretty much fixed. I wonder what will happen next? ;)

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish there was some collective version of the comic that I could rate as a whole, BUT NEVER FEAR, I SHALL MAKE DO WITH THIS.

I first checked out Girl Genius on the (then-halfway-dismissed) advice of my friend. I got somewhere up to the middle of Volume 2, where Gil and Agatha fall out of Castle Wulfenbach for the first time (yer, eventually we get used to our heroes falling out of castles), and then got distracted somehow and never went back. Then, just recently, someone asked me if I read Girl Genius, and I promised myself I would catch up, if only to be able to follow the nerdy comic-club talks.*

I blazed through a decade (yep, it started in 2002) of adventure, romance, and mad science in about four days, wondering how on earth I had thought my life complete before Girl Genius.**

It has everything. Mainly adventure, romance, and mad science - but let's venture into subcategories here: Hidden Powers. Terrible Ancestors. Princes. Barons. Smart machines. Cute machines. Megalomaniac machines. Political strife. Explosions. Sadistic pirates. Green-haired Amazonian warriors. CASTLES. Castles that float. Castles that talk. Castles that like to crush people. Circuses. Storytellers. MINIONS. Funny minions. Evil minions. Airships. Weapons, most of which go BOOM in a variety of exciting ways. Labs. Secret Labs. Super-duper-secret-evil-lair labs. Reasonable science, and then some very mad science. Automatons. HATS. Some heartwarming hilarious romance. All set in an alternate, steampunk gaslamp*** Europe, where everyone just wants to see the world BURN.

All of this is mainly the reason why relatives and friends are probably concerned when they see me cackling madly in front of my computer screen in a dark corner somewhere. Because Girl Genius, aside from being so action-driven that you need to step back now and then to get a breather, also walks the fine line between witty-hilarious and ridiculous-hilarious, and that makes it... well... doubly hilarious.

Discover it in its wonderful entirety here: girlgeniusonline.com. I hope the Foglias never stop creating. A part of me wonders if they have a plan for ever bringing this thing to a close (some of the more mysterious characters simply do pique my interest), but instinct tells me that they're just making it up as they go along...

Which, hey, is fine by me.

---------------------------------------

*That never actually came to pass. I am woefully unlearned in Marvel and DC.

**To give an example, similar euphoric emotions occurred when I discovered Avatar: The Last Airbender and Doctor Who.

***Seriously, what's the deal with this gaslamp vs. steampunk?

[Jackie B. - Death by Tsundoku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 11: In which Gil and Tarvek finally see each other for what they really are, Agatha repairs the Castle's defenses, the Jagers are obviously plotting something, and the Castle rings the Doom Bell acknowledging Agatha as a true Heterodyne and proper Spark Queen of Mechanicsburg!

(It was a really intense volume)

The pace of the Girl Genius stories has certainly picked up. When the story started, and Agatha was only just learning who she is, things move at a much slower pace. In fact, looking back at it, I'm shocked at how much slower the pacing was. But, I recall that I was not really into Girl Genius when I started reading it, also. Perhaps pacing had something to do with it?

We're moving at a break-neck speed as Agatha races against time to get the Castle up and running. The Empire that Wulfenbach has established is mutinously outside the Mechanicsburg walls, each country out for their own aims, knowing a Heterodyne might be announced and that the Baron is possibly dead. Agatha needs to repair the castle, however, not just to protect Mechanicsburg from the outside invaders, but also so it can protect her inside. Zola, the fake Heterodyne, is still out to get Agatha. With the castle unable to see everything that's going on within it, Agatha is constantly fighting, dodging, and Spark-ing against things from Zola, the Baron, and the Castle itself-- unable to always recognize the heir.

Our cast of characters has also grown to a size where I find I am not always able to recognize everyone on sight. Part of this is because the Foglios have some standard faces they provide. There isn't anything wrong with that-- It just means that I need to look at clothing exclusively or read a bit in order to figure out who a character is. In fact, the man who carries the hammer to the Doom Bell I didn't even recognize at all! I knew he wasn't from Mechanicsburg and he wasn't from the Baron's team-- turns out, he is Baron Oublenmach, one of the men behind setting up Zola as the false Heterodyne. And it's no wonder I don't remember him: He was introduced in Volume 7. This is Volume 11, and we haven't seen him in many pages.

A beautiful volume, it feels like we're finally coming to a major stopping point or turning point in this series. I know enough about the series to know that we have a first act and a second act-- I look forward to wrapping up Act 1. I can't wait to see how many of these loose ends resolve themselves.

[Karissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 11th book in the Girl Genius series. This was a great installment in the series but it wasn’t quite as funny and put together as previous books in the series have been. We jump around a lot between different characters.

Agatha is at the heart of the castle and is trying to reset it with the last dying fragment she has. Her friends are in a different part of the castle trying to transfer the consciousness of the construct who protected the Wulfenbach children into a new body. Zola is determined to kill Agatha once and for all. Meanwhile Mechanicsburg prepares for war.

I will be honest here, this wasn’t my favorite Girl Genius book. The story is a bit all over the place and, while a lot of minor things happen, I didn’t feel like there were any “Wow, OMG!” moments. Also there wasn’t as much silly humor in this book and I missed that.

I am still really enjoying all the mad science and steampunk elements to the story. The illustration is incredibly well done with bright colors, great detail, and it is easy to follow.

I continue to really enjoy this graphic novel. I am getting a bit worried though about how scattered the storyline is getting. Things are getting a bit hard to keep track of and I am starting to forget some of the characters names. The ‘story thus far’ section at the beginning of the book helps a lot. It was would be nice to also have a index of pictures/names/descriptions so I can remember who is who and where they came from.

Overall this was a very well done installment in the Girl Genius series. Agatha makes some good progress in getting Castle Heterodyne running again. There wasn’t as much humor in this book and the story was a bit more scattered. I have really been enjoying the steampunk elements and continue to enjoy the full color illustration.

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love this series but this particular volume was a bit all over the place, and I have reached maximum frustration with the never ending loose ends that beget even more loose ends. I feel like very little ever gets resolved (or accomplished!), and over time it's supremely frustrating.

Events tend to get drawn out over a long period of time, across multiple book volumes. (Or, if you've been reading it in real time on the site, across multiple years.) On the one hand that's a good thing, because the authors take time to build characters and atmosphere and layer in details, and the victories feel earned. I like that stuff. But I'm at the point where I've had enough and I want the story to move on. Like, get the castle fixed already! The ups and downs come really fast and it seems like there are more downs than ups. I feel like the authors take any chance they can to throw wrenches in the system and it exhausts me. Case in point this time: Tarvek's abduction. Also, I'm still really irritated that Zola escaped because now she's yet another open-ended threat.

It makes for immersive stories and characters with vast complex histories. Overall I like this. It's Good Reading and it rewards re-reading, but right here right now I feel it's too much, too relentless. I know that if you don't have a problem, you don't have a plot, but to quote The Incredibles, "I just want the world to stay saved!" for a little while!

[Psychophant · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many years I have followed Girl Genius Webcomic as one of my daily rituals. I have been following the Foglio's quirky humour and idiosyncratic drawings.

What I really like of the series is the depth of scope and worldbuilding, with many details becoming obvious much later than when they appear. As such the recently appeared novels are the perfect complement, as you can finally be inside the head of Agatha, overcoming one of the limitations of comic: wordcount. So instead of being sparse with words, they can let out freely.

The series takes place in an alternate Europa, one where some kind of magical technology, the Spark, has made it diverge wildly from our own. The series follows the adventures, with some sadness and romance but mostly with good humour, of Agatha, the Girl Genius, and a huge supporting cast. I would call it Steam Fantasy instead of Steampunk, but it is better than most stories with than label.

I supported the kickstarter campaign, so I got the first 12 books. I suspect they are only scratching the surface so far...

I will recycle the review for the others, because they are really part of a continuum, and all are at a high level. If you do not believe me, just try it, it is free: www.girlgeniusonline.com

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eleventh volume of Agatha Heterodyne's adventures see her racing against time to repair her castle while dodging the machinations of the imposter Zola and the remaining parts of the castle not under the control of the central mind. Meanwhile, armies gather outside Mechanicsburg waiting to strike.

There's one heck of a pace to this story. You really feel the pressure that Agatha is under, although the ongoing battle between Gil and Tarvek about who should be her suitor helps to lighten the mood as you get the feeling that despite their own agendas (of which they have many), they both desperately care for Agatha and do want to help her. This volume also has (just!) one Jager scene where things are set in motion and we get to see the fun, crazy monsters doing politics. One Jager scene is better than no Jager scene, but I'm looking forward to seeing them come back to the fore.

The pace is neck-breaking, the characters great fun to watch and the story as engaging as ever, especially the final double-spread page. No spoilers, but DOOOOOOOOOM :-D.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The storyline gets considerably grimmer in this volume as Mechanicsburg comes under siege. The reader is taken into various different scenarios. The castle, Wulfenbach’s airship, the home of the seneschal Vanamonde and the streets of Mechanisburg are all brought into play as the war against Mechanicsburg escalates. There is suspicion that this sudden revolt has been orchestrated and that can only mean trouble for Agatha.

However, ensconced within the castle, Agatha faces her own challenges. With the help of her allies, minions, trusty clanks and would-be boyfriends, she’s…still in deep trouble. But that’s nothing for a sparking Heterodyne. Agatha faces her tribulations with grace, charm, diplomacy and handy pocket tools. With glorious illustrations (including one awesome double-spread page), a great story that never fails to entertain and the droll dialogue that has been a part of this series from the very beginning, “Girl Genius” has lost none of its momentum, verve or spark.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Featuring their Hugo acceptance speech! And, as promised, A Gaslamp Fantasy with Adventure, Romance & Mad Science!

Featuring the emperor of cats, a romantic moment where a woman tells a man that she'll hate him forever (which makes him happy, but a minute later, he realizes a small hole in his plot), love triangles, the Baron telling a story teller a fairy tale he never heard before, a protective mechanical cat, a mad castle, and much more!

Hard to review. If you already know Girl Genius, you probably don't need my review, and if you don't -- with volume 11 the spoiler problem is acute.

Nevertheless the volume had to overflow somewhere, and I decided on a post. If you read the first 10, you will want to read this one, too.

[Anniken Haga · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREAD 2019

The problem with getting further and further into a series, is that you eventually run out of original stuff to say. That is starting to become a problem with GG here.
The art hasn't changed much - that said, it has become smoother and looks more finished - and I still like it - one have to really like a style to read 11 albums of a series AND plan to read the next 6 albums and however many follows.
The characters has grown into what they need to be, and I am really happy to say that while romance is a part of the story, it isn't the main plot and is taking a back seat compared to the rest of it.

About this album.
This is as far as I've reread before, so now I start in on parts that I don't remember as well. It will be fun.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot going on here and a lot of characters, and it's a lot easier to keep track of everything and everyone when reading in collected forum than it was doled out 3 pages a week online. Also, I have to admit this wraps up a story thread that dragged on and on In the books it's not too bad, but online, it felt like it took forever to deal with Castle Heterodyne. It's good to finally get some forward movement to the story.

Added for 2025 reread: 3rd volume in a row with the same back cover blurb.

[Ryland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just burned through the 2000-some page archive of this comic, I think I can conclusively say that this is one of the best graphic novel/comic book things that I have ever read, second only to The Sandman or Bone. The characters are interesting, the plot is engaging, and it has one of those stories that seem to want to be told. It is incredibly well drawn and colored, and I'm glad to see that some of my favorite characters returning to the limelight in recent volumes. And the addition of some that have to be the potential to be amazing *cough*Higgs*cough*.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm catching up. There are many things I love about this series - its fast and action packed and has nice art. And a female protagonist, which is something.
There are some things I find difficult - there is a fairly large slate of characters, and it can be hard to keep track of them. I prefer it when i read more of the books at one time. (This is why i've switched to the books from the on-line strip.) This isn't unique to Girl Genius.

Anyway, i do recommend the series - on line, published, whatever makes sense for you. Worth your while.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so the Castle Heterodyne was starting to feel like treading water, trying frantically to avoid sinking under the weight of all the plot twists being piled on. But in this volume, things are once more in motion. The storyline is moving forward. Things are starting to fall into place. The Doom Bell rings ... I've been a fan of Phil Foglio's for decades now, but this is some of his best, most exciting work. Clearly Kaja brings out the best in him. Looking forward to volume 12!

[Meran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girl Genius is a magical series. I hope they continue it for all my life.

A lot is answered in this book... And there's one big thing that happens at the very end, making me wish Girl Genius Vol 12 was published! I may have to go read it online... Though reading just one page a day of Girl Genius frustrates me ;)

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh yeah - I'm loving this series. Really fun and Agatha is a great role-model for younger girls or even older girls like me. Again as in the previous 10 issues the illustrations are really wonderful. The whole graphic novel/comic genre has really opened up for me since I found this series.

[SharlzG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read all 12 volumes over the space of a few days so can't separate one from the other for the sake of reviews, but can say that I'm not disappointed at having had this pointed out to me, only that it took so long for me to get on the bandwagon.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the things! Plus some great artwork in the back.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Agatha Heterodyne stories. They are just so....fun!

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this one three stars because while good it did tend to suffer from "lots and lots of characters" syndrome.

[Coyora Dokusho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read at least (2) times

Ahahahaha! It was so funny! *WHOMP* "Rejoice!" *WHOMP* rofl

[Rony Letona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the suspense on this one! :O