Phil Foglio grew up in New York. He attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where he earned a BFA in cartooning (1978). Foglio was an enthusiastic science fiction fan artist. Nominated for Best Fan Artist Hugo Awards in 1976, 1977 and 1978, winning the Award in 1977 and 1978. He was also nominated the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo along with Robert Asprin for the slide show The Capture. Foglio’s first professionally published art was for “Taking the Fifth” in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, (1978).
Foglio came to most gamers’ attention in 1980, when he began the comic strip “What’s New with Phil & Dixie” for Dragon. The series’ ran until issue #84 (April, 1984). Each month covered a different angle of role-playing, poking fun at the world of tabletop RPG characters and games.
In the 1980s, Foglio created a comedy/science fiction/detective comics series Buck Godot, collected in two volumes: Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire (Donning, 1986) and Buck Godot: PSmIth (Walsworth, 1987).
In 1989 he published the adult comic XXXenophile, which ran for eleven issues, regarded by many as the “most literary adult comic ever”, and the only adult comic to ever be nominated for an Eisner Award. He also created the first adult-themed CCG, XXXenophile (Slag-Blah, 1996), based on the comic book series of the same name.
In 1989 he co–wrote the comedic science fiction novel Illegal Aliens with Nick Pollotta.
In 1990 Foglio moved to Seattle, Washington, and in 1991 was hired by Garfield Games (Wizards of the Coast) to illustrate and design characters for the board game Robo-Rally.
He married Kaja Foglio in1993, and they founded Studio Foglio in 1995. Foglio produced card art for Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering collector card game.
During the 1990s -2000s, Foglio provided numerous illustrations for computer games, board games and card games for publishers such as Cheap-Ass Games and Steve Jackson Games. His most recent game project (as of this writing) is Girl Genius GURPS.
In 2001 Phil & Kaja released the first issue of Girl Genius as a quarterly comic book series. In 2005, they were the first publisher to take an existing commercial comics property and put it online for free. Within a year of becoming a free webcomic, sales had tripled, and their readership had climbed over 100,000. As Phil has put it, “Giving our stuff away for free was the best business decision we ever made.”
Foglio was a professional artist Hugo nominee in 2008, and in 2009.
He, Kaja, and colorist Cheyenne Wright, won the first Graphic Story Hugo Award for Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones. They won the category again in 2010 for Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm, and 2011 for Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse. At this point, they announced that they would take a one-year hiatus from the category.
Night Shade Books is publishing an ongoing prose novel version of the Girl Genius saga, of which, at this time four are in print. In 2021 he released a solo novel, The Night Sheriff.
The Foglios continue to live in Seattle and have two children. They enjoy travel, video games and old books.
If you could have any magical power, but the catch was that you had to perform a ridiculous dance every time you used it, what power would you choose and what would your dance look like?
– My power would be whenever I enter a contest– ANY contest– I win. As for my dance, I’ve always been impressed by the spare elegance of the old ‘Teaberry Shuffle’, which was a stupid little thing made up for a brand of gum. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk11Acjofu8)
If you were to write a love story between a human and an alien, what challenges would they face?
–You’d be dealing with the meshing of completely different systems regarding chemical attraction, behavioral, and visual cues, and basic biological imperatives. I imagine you’d have to rely more on a “meeting of the minds” type of thing. Actually, I’ve written a number of these for my X-rated comic series ‘XXXenophile’. (Which can be found in digital form here: https://www.orgymania.net/). If you’re looking for doomed, poignant type love stories- these ain’t them.
If you could alter any one single natural law, what would it be and how would you change it?
–Easy! The Square-Cube law. This is the dictatorial rule that says we cannot have giant ants or robots the size of skyscrapers because they would collapse under their own weight. Screw that. Giant robots for everybody!
If you had to choose between being a time traveler or a space explorer, which would you pick and why?
– Space Explorer! Time travel itself is nothing but excessive navel-gazing. If you want something truly fresh and different, you have to look outside the system.
If you had to choose between having the ability to speak with animals or plants, which would you choose and why?
–Animals. Look, I get it. Fish can recognize themselves in mirrors. Otters use tools. Armadillos know trigonometry. Animals are smart. I’m still going to eat them, but if I get stupid and they wind up eating me– that’s fair. Plants? The last thing I want to know is that the lettuce in my garden is busy crafting a philosophy that will unite all life in its hatred for blue-cheese dressing. Every now and then all I want is a guilt-free meal, and I refuse to eat nothing but cupcakes.
Currently, Kaja and I are continuing to put our Hugo Award-winning webcomic: Girl Genius, up every Monday/Wednesday/Friday– For free– at (https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php.)
There are also collections for sale from our store, either in old-style dead tree, (https://topatoco.com/collections/girl-genius), or digital (https://www.drivethrucomics.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=395) or at the usual places.
I’m still doing work for Steve Jackson Games and Wizards of the Coast, so tell them I sent you.
Our newest thing is a video game! Girl Genius: Adventures in Castle Heterodyne, which you can pre-order here: (https://girl-genius.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders) Here’s a preview: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSRddBKfEiQ&t=2s)
Want to follow me online? Great!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoglioPhil
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/girlgeniusadventures/
Website: https://www.girlgeniusonline.
