Continuity Errors in Girl Genius

When creating a story of great length or great complexity, it can be hard keeping track of all the details, and Girl Genius is both very lengthy and very complex. The telling of the tale has spanned well over ten years and 1500 pages by now and the cast of characters is well into its second hundred. Considering this and the grueling schedule of updates the Foglios have maintained since 2005, when they took the story online (a full page of full color every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for well over seven years), it is no wonder that inconsistencies occasionally make it into the pages of Girl Genius. An additional complication is that Phil Foglio has to co-ordinate his art work with Kaja Foglio, who does the layout and lettering (as well as being the co-author) and with the colorist for the comic. (This is currently Cheyenne Wright, but the color has been provided by Mark McNabb and Laurie E. Smith in the past, and the first volume was originally inked, in black and white, by Brian Snoddy.)

The motivation for this article is not so readers of Girl Genius can say, "Oh, we've caught Phil (or Kaja or Cheyenne) out in an error! Aren't we clever?" Rather, it merely acknowledges that these errors are of interest to fans of Girl Genius and provides a convenient place to list them. Also, since the underlying structure of something is often most clearly seen when it is broken, there is the possibility, however slight, that looking at these mistakes may give us an insight into the creative process behind Girl Genius.

Many of the continuity errors in Girl Genius will never be fixed because they really have no impact on the story and Phil Foglio is well known for not sweating the small stuff. But occasionally an error occurs that is big enough to be fixed.

Mistakes Big Enough to be Fixed

The Twin Granddaughters of Doctor Sun

One such error, which was fixed in an unusual way, happened when Kaja Foglio forgot that she had already given a name to the the granddaughter of Dr. Sun, Sun Mingmei, on the cast list. In one scene she is referred to as Sun Daiyu. After some consideration and a LiveJournal poll, it was decided to keep both names and change a single character into twin sisters. See the individual entries on the twins for more details.

Dimo's Extra Arm

A big error occurred in the last panel on page 161 of Volume XII (2012-11-14 (Wednesday) ✣ ), where Dimo's missing left arm is drawn, even though you can clearly see the stump of the missing limb in the first panel of the page. While this hasn't been fixed as of January 27, 2013, a note stating that it will be taken care of before the print edition goes to press has been placed on the page.

Regenerating Hand

The hand of Martellus von Blitzengaard went from mechanical ✣ to flesh ✣ , prompting a note from Professoressa Foglio at the top of the page ✣ :

Oh look. We messed up the hand. We'll get that fixed soon. Thanks, everyone who wrote to tell us about it!

The page has been fixed.

(A similar restoration of Dimo's arm to ✣ flesh ✣ has not yet been corrected; possibly suggesting that that depiction may truly be evidence of in-story healing.)

The Small Stuff

The Chef's Eyepatch

Chef Taki of Master Payne's Circus has a patch over his right eye, except for the panel where he is assigned ✣ the role of Klaus in the show's upcoming performance of The Race to the West Pole; his eye appears uncovered and undamaged.

The Baron's Stiches

On page 6 of volume IX (2009-01-28 (Wednesday) ✣ ) Baron Klaus Wulfenbach's stitches are not visible in panel 2, even though they are clearly visible in a similar scene in the second panel of the next page (2009-01-30 (Friday) ✣ ).

Gil's Magnificent Hat

The Da Boyz gave Gil a magnificent new hat to go with his magnificent new outfit . While he doesn't immediately appreciate it, it comes in handy ✣ later on. While the overall appearance of the hat stays the same, the details of the decorations and writing on the hat change from appearance to appearance.

When Gil first gets the hat, it has little golden wings ✣ on the sides and says,"GILGEMESH WULFENBACH: SCHMOTT GUY!" on the front. (Unsurprisingly, Jägermonsters aren't very good at spelling). At a later appearance ✣ , the wings are missing. Even later, when Gil is venturing out of Castle Heterodyne, the spelling of his name seems to have been corrected ✣ to "GILGAMESH." Later still, when Gil is trying to re-enter Castle Wulfenbach, he uses the hat as a form of ID ✣ . At this point, the golden wings have returned, his name has changed to "GILGEMESH WULFENBASH," and the scroll on either side of the name have disappeared. On the very next page ✣ , however, his name has reverted to "GILGEMESH WULFENBACH."

Higgs' Cap

During his big fight with Zola, the sailor cap Higgs always wears underwent an odd transformation or two. In the second panel of the Girl Genius page ✣ for Wednesday, October 27, 2010, the words ROZEN MAIDEN vanished from the tally. In the last panel of the same page, the Wulfenbach winged-castle badge jumped down from the peak of the cap to the tally.

Tarvek's Glasses

While Tarvek and Othar are descending (rapidly) in The Falling Machine, Mark II, Tarvek's glasses change from oval to rectangular ✣ (Boris-style) for one page of the comic.

Zeetha's Bandage

When Zeetha is run through by Zola, on page 119 of volume X (2010-10-15 (Friday) ✣ ), she acquires a nasty wound (panel 5). When see her again, on page 58 of volume XI (2011-03-09 (Wednesday) ✣ ), after she has been cleaned up and treated, there is no sign of a bandage, even though, when the bandage does show up, due to its size and location, it obviously should have been visible in this scene as well. The bandage is first seen on page 76 of volume XII (2012-04-30 (Monday) ✣ ), although it is not apparent two pages earlier the same volume (2012-04-25 (Wednesday) ✣ ), and it certainly should have been visible there too.

Franz's New Hat

On page 168 of Volume XII, Friday, November 30, 2012 ✣ , Franz shows up wearing a new hat. Presumably, this is the same hat he was about to take from the Red Dragon during their fight (although the Red Dragon wears it more like a face mask), just before they were interrupted by the giant chess piece clanks, on page 146, Wednesday, October 10, 2012 ✣ . However, the Red Dragon's head gear has black horns (or the horns may be growing from his head); in any case, the horns come with the hat, but change in color from black to gold. Otherwise, Franz's new hat looks identical to the one the Red Dragon was wearing. However, the little wing- or ear-like projections near the red lenses on the hat vanish on the next page (p. 169, Monday, December 3, 2012 ✣ ), although Franz may have just snapped them off to make it easier to strap the hat to his head, to keep it in place while flying, since they don't reappear in subsequent pages.

Agatha's Apron

Agatha is seen wearing an apron right up until panel 5, page 126 of volume 11, after it had clearly been shown in the first panel. The apron reappears on page 141, and disappears on page 154, although she could have simply taken it off as she exited the castle. On page 11 of volume 12, she is wearing the apron again, but not on page 12. On page 71 she is wearing it, on page 72 she isn't (although there's a chance that she was using it to wipe off her hands in the first panel.)

Mucosapedalian Guard-Slime Wings

When it first appears, the Mucosapedalian Guard Slime has what seems to be the base of a tiny (in comparison to its total size) wing attached to its back. However, when the creature turns around to leave, its back can be clearly seen and no wings are visible.