Today I'd like to talk a little about Phil Foglio.
For those who don't know who Phil Foglio is, he is a comic artist who has been active from the 80's on. He has done a number of different projects for a variety of venues, and has launched his own studio to further explore his own endeavors. Phil Foglio is a man with a plan, and 3 Hugo awards.
Phil Foglio got started in 1978, when he won a Hugo award for best fan artist. He won it again in 1979. Ever since then, he has been keeping himself busy with his art, and his story telling.
His earliest works can be found in the now defunct Dragon Magazine, THE magazine for gamers of its day. He ran a monthly comic strip for the magazine starting in 1980 called "What's New with Phil and Dixie". This strip explored a variety of gaming and gamer topics, in humorous ways. The running gag of the original run was that Phil and Dixie were always trying to convince the magazine executives to let them talk about sex and D&D. Usually, they would be interrupted or forced to change the topic. The final issue for the original run of What's New brought about the appropriate end to the gag. (One of my online aliases, CptGreedle, aka Captain Greedle, was originally a concept of Phil Foglio, which ran in a single frame of the What's New strip.)
The strip was later relaunched in The Duelist, where it ran for the majority of the magazine's life. This time, the comic, as well as the magazine, focused more on the Magic the Gathering trading card game. Phil had the honor of drawing the art for several Magic the Gathering cards, including some of the "unbroken" sets.
(I owned a few Phil Foglio cards myself, back when I still played Magic the Gathering, and a few collectors made a point to collect specific artists, something I could never achieve.)
He has worked with a wide variety of artists and writers, for fantasy and sci-fi themes alike. He illustrated the MythAdventures series, which eventually led to assignments for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and First Comics. He did a variety of titles, including Plastic Man, and Dynamo Joe.
Eventually, Phil created his long-running character Buck Godot, which was both written and drawn entirely by Phil Foglio.
In the 1990's, Phil married his wife, Kaja. They worked together on several Magic the Gathering cards, resurrected What's New, and launched new series. They even worked on an erotic series called XXXenophile.
Later, they formed Studio Foglio, which is now the main studio for their work, including their latest, and arguably greatest, series, Girl Genius.
Girl Genius is a "retro-fantasy", or steampunk inspired comic. The original idea to use steampunk was apparently Kaja's. She noticed that a lot of Phil's sketches were very steampunk-ish, and had a certain neo-victorian retro-sci-fi-fantasy look to them. This led in part to the development of Girl Genius. Initially, it was made and released like all his other comics, as published periodicals. However, in 2005, they decided to stop publishing periodical-style comics, and released Girl Genius online as a free webcomic. The comic is in full color (with the exception of the beginning of the comic, which is said to be in the process of being colored for a new print, I have not confirmed this however), and it is updated 3 days a week.
Phil has said that going online was one of the greatest move he made, increasing his readership and sales. The entire comic is available online for free, on their website, GirlGenius.net, but it is also available in print form through the site. Phil frequents science fiction, fantasy, comic, and steampunk conventions, and has a schedule of appearances listed on his website as well.
His site now sports several of his comics and shorts. The main headline comics are Girl Genius, What's New with Phil and Dixie, MythAdventures, and Buck Godot.
Phil has worked on several games, comics, magazines, and more in the past. He has covered a variety of topics, and is technically adept. His latest works are not only well drawn and well written, but are also award-winning and inspirational. He started from the ground up, with what he had, and writing about what he loved and enjoyed. His own style has been emulated by others, and he is achieved great success in his own right.
With any luck, I hope to have more about Phil Foglio next week. Please look forward to it!
