Through the help of a tipster, we learn what Studio Foglio is up to. Apparently, in an update sent to the Girl Genius Yahoo group, Phil and Kaja Foglio let fans know that the recent decision by WizKids to close its new publishing department would not affect plans to continue the comic series. WizKids had been planning to publish the series, which has inspired a card game using the Xxxenophile game mechanic. The rights to publish the series have been returned to Studio Foglio, and the next issue (#11) will release in April, to the cheers of all assembled. The full update from the Girl Genius group is below.
Message sent to Girl Genius Yahoo group:
From: studiofoglio
Date: Tue Dec 2, 2003 11:09 pm
Subject: Girl Genius release schedule
Finally, a news update!
You may have heard that WizKids has shut down its recently
announced publishing department, and fired a number of
people. This is very sad, especially since some of those people
are friends of ours.
You may also have been wondering how this would affect their
recently announced intention to publish the Girl Genius comics.
So have we.
But now, we know. Hooray!
WizKids has been perfectly lovely about the whole thing, and has
given us back the publishing rights. Girl Genius issue Eleven
will be released in April of 2004, from Airship Entertainment.. We
will then continue with a quarterly schedule.
The delay in production caused by all of this running around and
screaming is annoying, but at least we are ahead with the
comics now– Issue eleven is ready and twelve is half done. It
has to wait until April, because that is the soonest that we can
get it out by soliciting through Diamond Comics. They have a
long lead time.
We are having to take on a lot more outside work in order to pay
for this, but we will get it out there. We won’t be able to do much
advertising, since all of the money is going to go to printing the
books. We are currently exploring various guerrilla marketing
techniques–we will probably be a bit more active on the local
convention scene for a while. We will keep you all up-to-date as
far as our release schedule goes. Please tell your local shops
to order Girl Genius!
We are still discussing what to do about subscriptions, now that
we can offer them again. We should have more information
soon. When we do, we will let everyone know on our Web site
and via the mighty Studio Foglio e-mailing list.
Thank you all for your patience. It has been a hectic year, but
now, hopefully, we can get back to the business of making
stories.
–Phil, Kaja and the Airship Comics Crew
Studio Foglio, LLC