MICHAEL: One of the things I admire about your work, and I try to emulate in my writing, is the fact that every single side character seems to have a huge backstory. MICHAEL: But you’re not going to tell me that. MICHAEL: Do you know who Agatha is going to end up with? KAJA: Klaus Wulfenbach was supposed to die in the very first segment of the story and then Gil was going to be the big evil bad guy for the rest of the thing, and there was going to be that tension where they’re kind of attractive to each other but he’s the villain and she’s the hero - that did not work out the way it was going to go. MICHAEL: Do you have anything you planned that didn’t go as expected? It’s how you choose to write and present that material, rather than the actual events that are happening in the story. We did the “second season” kind of thing because we were getting so far into it we thought, “Let’s give ourselves the writing challenge of building a safe point where if someone is looking at this huge vast thing and saying ‘I do not have time for that’ there’s a place they can jump in.” It doesn’t really affect what happens to the characters it affects the way we tell the readers what is happening to the characters. I change ideas a lot as far as packaging goes. KAJA: That’s almost a packaging consideration. Are you seeing a “part three” or is it too soon to say? MICHAEL: You had a stopping point a while ago where the characters went into the future, and that’s like “part two” and even the books are designed a little bit different now. KAJA: Or they all walk off into the bright future. PHIL: With every story, there comes a point where you’re like, “Okay, the characters go to bed and that’s it. I am a great fan of everyone floating dead in space … PHIL: Well, does anything really have an ending? Does the world explode? No. ![]() MICHAEL: How long will it be until you get to that? PHIL: Which may be an error on our part. KAJA: Oh we do, we do … We don’t have it all nicely written out. MICHAEL: I certainly get that impression because there are things that we see that don’t really make a lot of sense and then, five years later, we go “Oh, that’s why they said that!” - so you’ve got to have some major planning going on. MICHAEL: So do you have a huge bible where you know where events are going and what’s going to happen? We started working on it in 1993 and we didn’t start publishing it until 2001. I think your stuff is so well written! I have the impression that you had Girl Genius planned out long before you even started episode one. I want to discuss writing since that’s the theme of my blog. PHIL: We just like to think of this as “strike one.” MICHAEL: I’m so sorry! I’ve only read it…please forgive me. KAJA: It’s pronounced “ka-ya.” It’s one of those names … MICHAEL: So I’m here with Phil and Kaja Foglio… It was a fun experience with lots of laughs! ![]() So it was a wonderful treat when they both agreed to be interviewed at a recent convention. ![]() This steampunk-inspired strip has won multiple Hugo awards, and deservedly so. He and his wife Kaja started Girl Genius about 15 years ago, and I anxiously await each tri-weekly installment (and then, of course, buy all the collections when they become available). I’ve been a fan of Phil Foglio’s since I first read “Fun with Phil and Dixie” in the back of Dragon magazine way back when, and have followed his career closely ever since, which included seeing him perform with his comedy troupe the Zanti Misfits, buying a piece of his original artwork at a convention in the late 80s, reading his novel ILLEGAL ALIENS, and buying all the various comics he produced over the years and getting him to sign as many as possible at conventions. 25 Hard Truths About Writing and Publishing.
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