Tom Siddell's Gunnerkrigg Court

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Gunnerkrigg Court is a Web Comic by Tom Siddell about a sprawling, crumbling private school in the U.K. Mainly following the lives of two students there (Antimony and her friend Katerina,) Siddell mixes in elements of science and technology with mythology and the supernatural. In fact an underlying theme of the series is science and technology vs. the "magical" aspects of life.

Throw in a robot missing an arm, shadow men, dragons, demons, a missing father, a ghost, a mysterious woman in white, a girl whose eyes only appear when she's wet, a gym teacher who moonlights as a knight, a kid who turns into a bird because he doesn't pay attention to his parents when he's playing video games, thee Coyote, mix in psychopomps (guys that escort dead dudes in the afterlife,) and even a minotaur as a class project and you get Gunnerkrigg Court.

It's so good, it needs it's own topic.

First Gunnerkrigg Court Page

Current Gunnerkrigg Court Page.

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Ok, first the usual platitudes. This comic is awesome. When I first got hipped to it, I stayed up until 3am in the morning (as opposed to 3am in the evening, I guess,) to read it the entire way through. Seriously, read through the first chapter or two (it'll take you like 5 minutes) and tell me I'm wrong.

Sidell's artwork gets better an better with each chapter, but the storylines are strong right out of the gate. I kept going to the next page wanting to find out what happened next until the very last page when there was a resounding "NO!"

Simply because I had to wait two days for the next update. I didn't want to wait.

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Al Schroeder interviews Tom Siddell for Comix Talk.

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Ok question time...

What's the deal with Zimmy's eyes? Do they only appear when she's wet? Or when she "cools down?"

In Chapter 11, "Dobranoc, Gamma," When the first few rain drops hit Zimmy's head in panel six and seven it sizzles. Then on the next Page there's steam rising up off of Zimmy in most of the panels before and including when we see her eyes. So is it the fact that she's wet, or that she's cooled down that we see her eyes?

[waytanblee]

I think it's because she's half fire demon. (my avitar is zimmy BTW.) Zimmy is definetaly the enigma of the story. She has alot of interesting facets, but I wont reveal them so you'll have the chance to read and discover for yourself!

One thing I noticed about the comic is how precise the wording is. It really does have a lot of literary merit. Very crisp.

[Qray]

I hadn't considered Zimmy to be any different than the rest of the students at the school with skills that are "extra normal" as Jones puts it. It could be quite possible that Zimmy in fact isn't all she appears. The fairie kids aren't and the red-headed fairie says that some of the boys at the school were a bunch of different stuff. One guy was even a fish. Still, we saw Zimmy and Gamma before they came to the school and they were as they are now. Then there's the matter of the static in Zimmy's head and how without Gamma's help things Zimmy imagines becomes real.

Siddell has said that all the mysteries in the story will be explained. That he doesn't plan on leaving any open ended plotlines, so that's comforting, but that doesn't help me in wanting to know NOW.

[waytanblee]

Sometimes he surprises me with the outcomes of the mysteries, such as how the faries wanted to be killed, although that was resolved almost immediately. I'll be interested to see what happens with the white woman with the sword. (I haven't finished it yet.) I am glad that he is going to write a few more books but i can't believe how long i''m going to have to wait!

(Oh, BTW, those cracks in the wall behind Zimmy's head aren't cracks, they're bits of hair )

spell check's broken again.

[Bmat]

I just started reading this yesterday and I am hooked. There's something about the drawings that together with the text offer considerable information. I find the mood of the comic, so far, as being similar to that of the Unfortunate Events series.

[waytanblee]

I got that hogwartsy series-of-unfortunate-event-sy feeling too.

[Qray]

I'm not feeling the whole Hogwartsy thing, but I do get a similar Unfortunate Events vibe.

Speaking of the dialog, I'm impressed with how Siddell uses different dialects found in the U.K. for different characters at the school.

LOL...even subtle dialog, like the way guys say hello and goodbye (Read Tom's comments under the update) adds to the comic.

[waytanblee]

Yeah, I guess it's only the school/magic thing that reminds me of it. Just finished it. I wonder what the factory is all about, and Zimmy's thing with it.

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I'm curious if the powerplant/experiment is part of the school, or belongs to someone else. Being outside the wall and all.

Regardless, I'm thinking we're about to learn a lot more about Zimmy. We already know about the static in her head, but I think we may find out what the static actually is.

In regards to the powerplant/experiment, Zimmy says "that...fing out der. it's screwin' with my head. finally found it." The whole "finally found it," may lend weight to the fact that it's causing the static in her head, but she had static in her head before she came to the school. So I'm thinking that the power plant is just making her static worse.

Looking at Gamma's eyes, it seems that trying to stay awake for such long periods of time are taking their toll on her. Either that or Gamma has decided to start wearing eye makeup since we last saw her.

The new update goes up tomorrow, hopefully we find out a lot more then.