Girl Genius

That would make sense.

I wonder what the odds are that a psuedo-Spark tried to face down Klaus early on.

I kind of wonder if it stemmed from people impersonating Bill and Barry.

It seems like Klaus usually tries to make reasonable policies. But he's put himself in a position where there aren't a lot of practical checks on his being arbitrary in individual instances, and I could see him flying off the handle about that one.

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I do like Wolkerstorfer... :D

Bottom row, first panel on the left.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! How can they torture us like that with a throwaway line like that! Although apparently Munich at least exists in this verse.

Now, can Mr. Magnet Mecha keep his mind on the job long enough to make a difference?

(Spark, new awesome gizmo, and, well, he's spacy.)

He's got a Spark-herder on the job.

Who is, herself, a Spark. That's when you know you've got problems.

edited 27th Feb '15 11:27:57 AM by rikalous

Candi — Hey, at least it's keeping Tarvek relevant. Sorta. I mean, I'll take what I can get at this point... ;)

Ok, I gotta share the pain. I can't help but hear Wolkenstorfer in Bert Lahr's voice... You know, The Cowardly Lion.

Yeah but at least, by Spark standards anyway, Agatha is mostly sane.

x4 I'm pretty sure all major cities are present in this universe. Except Oslo and that's apparently Trygvassen's fault.

Wolkerstorfer is riding up to the big damn heroes but also as one of the ditzy sparks of the setting.

Possibly the ditziest yet!

Remember that a lot of Sparky devices are not only dangerous, but can drive non-Sparks mad-in-a-nonproductive-way when they work on/with them for a time. Now, you have a con artist with a Sparky device ke can't actually use, and threatening a bunch of hapless villagers with - results are death and destruction, not unlike Gil's cover-story father with the sausage machine.

If they don't have a machine and are running a pure con, they are disrupting the economy and peace of the Empire, and those Sparks need minions yannow. (Same as the people outside Der Kestle's gates, remember?)

If you're wasting the Baron's time and resources (and scant patience) deliberately, congratulations, you've made it to the top of your class! You got the Baron personally annoyed with you. Those Sparks still need minions, 'cause they wear out fast.

Spark logic: moar danger means moar data.

Haha Madrugada...! For a moment, I thought you meant Snagglepuss.

Heavens to Murgatroyd! It's a military thing. A battle, even.

Well, Snagglepuss's vocal inflections and tone were largely based on Bert Lahr's so....

I was just reading that! Too funny.

I have to say I like Wolkerstorfer. The man doesn't hold grudges, and doesn't let irrelevant matters like ongoing battles spoil the fun of science. He may not be the most focused spark around, but he probably is a happy one.

I wonder whether the Foglios wanted to say something with his name. Wolke means cloud and torf is turf or peat. If he were named wolkendörfler (dorf is village ), I would have said he is a cloudcuckoolander, living in a castle in the air, but wolkerstorfer is a bit removed from this reading.

"Turf" still has the colloquial meaning of "territory", so his name could still be loosely translated as "cloudcuckoolander". Though seeing "cloud" and "turf" together also brings to mind the expressions "Feet on the ground" and "Head in the clouds".

Wolkerstorfer is entertaining, but I still kind of hold a grudge because the last time we saw him, he was killing that monk in the bug armor who'd stayed behind to defend.

Somehow I don't really feel the same way about the bears, even though I guess technically it wasn't Wolkerstorfer's idea any more than theirs, and he probably felt about as obligated to obey Tweedle as they did (at least when he remembered the plan).

edited 27th Feb '15 8:38:28 PM by Schefflera

I only saw him asking whether the outfit was magnetic. But you are of course right, I am somewhat callous when it comes to mooks and redshirts in fiction, and tend to overlook their suffering next to the glory of battle circusses, movable city buildings, zappy sticks, lightning cannons and magnet-weaponizing mecha-suits.

edited 27th Feb '15 11:59:58 PM by blauregen

It varies, for me. For example, I care more about the monks than most of the people we've seen Tweedle kill, but I was sad about the Sparkhounds being killed and fed to the ice wyrm.

My son shared Friday's page to Facebook.

...quoting Mecha-Magnet's "How dangerous, I'll learn something!" line in the last panel.

Apparently he thinks that's one of the best quotes he's ever heard.

Sometimes I wonder about that kid.

I think it's one of the best lines I've ever heard. Not GK Chesterton, but close. "Once he likes his empty belly better than your empty head/Earth and heaven are dumb before him. He is stronger than the dead."

Candi, he sounds like a perfectly normal little boy to me!