I have been reading this web comic for over a decade. I would own every hard cover version if postage was not prohibitive. It has plenty to recommend it; Genius girls, Machiavellian baddies, voluptuous goddesses, beautiful art work, steam punk, cities with personalities, sea monsters, dragons, trains, libraries, robots, parasites, deadly challenges, and Jaegers.
I cannot get enough of the crazy, loyal, Jaeger's.
When I want to spend some pure 'me time' indulgence, this is my choice. ( )

Three volumes in one. Pity it was the only omnibus volume. ( )

Girl Genius is one of my favourite comic series, and this omnibus release of the first three volumes is absolutely gorgeous. It's a bit smaller (dimensions-wise) than the individual volumes released by Studio Foglio, but I prefer the hardcover format overall. It is sturdier, and you can open it fully without breaking the spine.

I really hope Tor continues releasing the series in these omnibus editions. I will cheerfully go out and buy them all. ( )

Summary: Agatha is a student at the university, but when the Baron comes for a surprise inspection, everything starts going haywire. The lab explodes, a machine she was tinkering with in the shed suddenly comes to life, and her parents disappear -- and she's about to discover secrets about herself and her family that she never suspected.

Review: A friend and fellow comics fan recommended this to me, and we usually have pretty similar tastes, but this one was an exception. I really didn't care for this one at all. I'm pretty sure this is the first volume (it is called "Agatha Awakens", after all), but it felt like it dropped me right in the middle of an unfamiliar universe with a LOT going on, and didn't even bother with introducing the characters other than Agatha (and maybe the Baron's son, but certainly not any of the numerous other secondary or peripheral characters) or doing any worldbuilding or anything. I've seen the "in media res" style of worldbuilding done effectively, but this was not it. (At least not for me.) I don't think the artwork helped much - it was bright and colorful but there was a lot going on, and something about the style of figure drawing made it really difficult for me to keep the dozens of characters straight. Story and writing-wise, it was interesting enough, and there were some funny parts and some germs of good ideas, but I had such a hard time figuring out what the heck was going on at any one point that a few good jokes weren't enough to salvage it. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Clearly there are people out there that love it, but it didn't work for me, so if you're looking for steampunk-y graphic novels, I'd recommend something like Daisy Kutter: The Last Train instead. ( )

I've heard wonderful things about this web comic series for years. It's pure steampunk: airships galore, crazy inventions, monstrosities of science, mad scientists and more.

I struggled at the start of the book because many new elements of world-building were thrown my way and things weren't explained quickly. It was really at the 2/3 point that I really got into it and found myself cheering for Agatha and the rest of the cast. ( )