Gunnerkrigg Court

Gunnerkrigg Court is a science-fantasy webcomic created by Tom Siddell and launched in April 2005. It is updated online three days a week, and seven volumes of the still continuing comic have been published in print format by Archaia Studios Press and Titan Books (in the United Kingdom and Ireland). The comic has been critically acclaimed and has won numerous Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards, as well as receiving positive reviews for its artwork and storytelling.
The comic tells the story of Antimony Carver, a young girl who has just started attending a school at a strange and mysterious place called Gunnerkrigg Court, and the events that unfold around her as she becomes embroiled in political intrigues between Gunnerkrigg Court and the inhabitants of the Gillitie Wood, a forest outside the school. The comic's style and themes include elements from science, fantasy creatures, mythology from a variety of traditions, and alchemical symbols and theories; the literary style is heavily influenced by mystery fiction and manga.
Production.
"Gunnerkrigg Court" was first posted online on 4 April 2005, and was originally updated two days per week. The comic began updating three days per week on 25 December 2006. The end of the seventh chapter in May 2006 marked the end of the "first book," which Siddell published through Lulu.com in 2007; that book is no longer in print. In August 2008, Tom Siddell explained that the comic had a standard "comic book format" which was useful when he had sufficient pages to print a hard copy. The first fourteen chapters of the webcomic were printed as the first Archaia Studios Press edition of 296 pages bound in a hardcover collection titled "Orientation".
In 2012 he announced that he had quit his regular job to work on the comic full-time. In addition to books and merchandising the comic is supported through crowdfunding by Patreon since July 2014.
Format.
The "Gunnerkrigg Court" webcomic is told in a series of episodic chapters such that each, while forming part of the overall storyline, also functions individually as a stand-alone story arc. The themes and topics of the chapters vary widely: as one reviewer describes, "You are also not subjected to 400-plus pages of intricate plot movement. While there is an overall story arc, there are also lighter chapters that focus on unusual classes ... or small moments that build the main characters." Each chapter begins with a title page and ends with one or more "bonus pages," which are not integral to the main storyline but often offer ancillary details about the world of "Gunnerkrigg Court" or about minor characters. The chapters have varied in length from four pages to more than eighty. Each page is drawn in traditional (A4; 210 × 297 mm) page format and divided arbitrarily into frames. At the bottom of the most recent page is a link to a comments thread for that page, in which readers may comment on and discuss that day's comic.
Influences.
Siddell has stated that he enjoyed reading "Alfred Hitchcock & The Three Investigators" as a child, and that it has heavily influenced the literary style of his comic. His artistic style is influenced by many artists, among which he cites as his favorites Jamie Hewlett, Yukito Kishiro, and Mike Mignola, as well as the manga "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" and "Dragon Ball".
One notable feature of the comic is the blending of mythological elements from many different cultural traditions, especially from the British Isles and Native American mythology. Siddell attributes this style to his experience as a child: "I moved about a lot when I was younger and had the opportunity to grow up hearing stories from different parts of the world and I've always been fascinated by them." In addition to mythology, Siddell makes heavy use of alchemical themes; for example, the main character is named Antimony, after a toxic chemical element, and many pages feature artistic depictions of alchemical symbols. The symbol for antimony appears frequently in "Gunnerkrigg Court": the character Antimony wears a necklace shaped like that symbol, the character Reynardine has the symbol imprinted on his wolf body, and the symbol is used to mark the end of a chapter.
The artwork of "Gunnerkrigg Court" has been described as "stylized," with simple character designs. At least one reviewer, on the other hand, has noticed that the backgrounds, in contrast to the characters, are often very elaborate. The comic has also been described as having a "rich" look in spite of its limited color palette, and Siddell himself has stated that he first developed the idea for the comic using only a limited number of colors. The pieces of artwork that Siddell has posted at the end of each printed book, entitled "Treatise" and "Second Treatise," demonstrate many such of Siddell's artistic and storytelling motifs: they integrate alchemical symbols, mythological figures, nature, and technology.
Synopsis.
Setting.
"Gunnerkrigg Court" is set in a boarding school in a country that resembles the United Kingdom, identifiable from the grey skies and mandatory uniforms. The comic contains other clues about the setting, such as the house system that is described at the end of the first chapter. This system is similar to that used by many UK schools, including the one the author attended; Siddell has even stated that the school in which "Gunnerkrigg Court" takes place is modeled after his own secondary school.
Gunnerkrigg Court, the fictional place around which the story revolves, is a mysterious and vast establishment that many characters suspect hides much more than just a school. The school appears to actively recruit many talented or extraordinary students. As the story progresses, it is soon revealed that the school is inhabited by a wide variety of both supernatural creatures – many of which become characters involved in the story's plot – and ultra-modern technology. One character explains that "the Court was founded on a union between technological and etheric design." Another describes it as "man's endeavor to become god."
The court is built on the edge of a wide chasm, on the other side of which lies the Gillitie Wood, which is inhabited by "etheric" or magical creatures. At the time when the main story takes place, the two sides exist in a kind of truce, with the Court as the realm of science and technology and the Wood the realm of nature and the etheric. The denizens of the Gillitie Wood do not allow technology in the Wood, and the rules of the Court forbid students from leaving school grounds.
Plot.
The story of "Gunnerkrigg Court" involves several different ongoing plot arcs. The main story is that of the protagonist, Antimony “Annie” Carver, and her deepening involvement in the intrigues between Gunnerkrigg Court and the Gillitie Wood, the forest outside Gunnerkrigg Court; she is accompanied throughout the storyline by her friend and classmate Katerina “Kat” Donlan and her companion Reynardine, a demon living within her stuffed animal. As the story progresses, Antimony and her companions also slowly learn more about their surroundings, the relationship between Gunnerkrigg Court and the Gillitie Wood, and the beings they encounter.
The story begins when Antimony builds a robot to transport a mysterious shadow into Gillitie Wood, the forest outside Gunnerkrigg Court. Several chapters later in the comic, and apparently several months later in the story's timeline, the robot reappears on the bridge outside Gunnerkrigg Court; being controlled by a malevolent creature from Gillitie Wood, it pushes Antimony off the bridge when she goes out to it. Antimony spends a night at the banks of the river below the bridge, and encounters a ghost, before she is rescued by Kat and taken back to the school. Her brief time outside Gunnerkrigg Court, though, sets off a dispute between Gunnerkrigg Court and the Gillitie Wood. Not long after Antimony's return, the Court is visited by Coyote, a god from the Gillitie Wood, and General Ysengrin, the being who caused the robot to attack Antimony at the bridge. They express anger over the robot's visit to the forest, and over the damage Antimony caused when she left the Court.
During the time that the robot is gone, Antimony meets a creature called Reynardine, who tries to take over her body but, by accident, instead becomes trapped in the body of a stuffed animal she carries; and becomes subject to her command. Because of her relationship with Reynardine and the events with Coyote and Ysengrin, Antimony is nominated to begin training to become a medium, one of the individuals who moderate disputes between the Wood and the Court and communicates with etheric beings, a position last occupied by her mother, and she learns to use her innate etheric abilities, including fire manipulation and astral projection. From Coyote, Antimony she learns that in the past Coyote had granted some of his powers to Renard (called later Reynardine) and Ysengrin. He had given Ysengrin "power over the trees" and given Reynardine the power to take bodies, but bodies that Reynardine took always died after he left them and Ysengrin was hardly strong enough to stand without the help of Coyote's tree armor. Reynardine had been in love with Antimony's mother, Surma, and had used his power to steal a young man's body and woo Surma; the man died, however, and Reynardine was imprisoned in Gunnerkrigg Court until the events surrounding his first meeting with Antimony. She also learns that her mother was a psychopomp and the descendant of a fire spirit. It is suggested that the powers Antimony has are passed from mother to daughter, at the cost of the mother's life.
Antimony ends the medium training, but the position as medium from the court is offered to other of the trainees, Smitty. Instead, Coyote offers Antimony to replace Ysengrin as the medium from the forest to the court, and she starts regular training under the guidance of Ysengrin, who she learns is in a constant state of anger towards the court but is partially brainwashed and kept in check by Coyote.
Gradually, Antimony and Kat discover the events that led to the creation of the ghost, which is the remnant of a woman named Jeanne, a formidable swordswoman who was amongst the founders of the court. After the original fallout between the court and the forest, she kept a romance with a forest elf, spurning the attentions of Diego, another of the founders of the court and a technological genius. Enraged, Diego plotted to include Jeanne in a system to protect the court, for which he created an arrow that killed her lover and trapped her soul into a ghost, tying it to the river separating the court and the forest. Jeanne's ghost has resisted attempts from the psychopomps to collect her soul, and kills all who attempt to cross the river without the bridge.
Antimony's father Anthony suddenly returns to the court as a professor. He finds out that Antimony has been copying Kat's homework in most of her classes, and punishes her by making her repeat a school year. Antimony later finds out that the court is displeased by her closeness with the forest creatures and brought him back in an attempt to control her. Trying to control her rage at these events, she severs the link to her emotions and fire powers.
After a long period regaining her powers and getting back in touch with her personality, Antimony enlists the help of several of her friends to recover Diego's arrow and free the souls of Jeanne and her lover. They manage to do it, but in the process Smitty is mortally wounded by Jeanne. Antimony strikes a deal with the psychopomps in which they spare Smitty's life in exchange for her commitment to become a psychopomp in the future.
Coyote, aware that the river can now be crossed freely, cedes his strength to Ysengrin, who is suddenly overwhelmed by rage and devours Coyote, fusing with him to become a single creature that names itself Loup. Loup attacks the court using seeds dropped in Ysengrin's first visit to the court and destroys several of its protections before being eventually rejected. Antimony visits the forest to confer with him, and Loup tasks her with recovering two parts of Coyote's power that had been sent to the court previously in the disguise of presents. (There exists a third, but Loup is significantly unaware of its presence.) When Antimony returns to the court, she finds out that several months have passed by and a perfect copy of her is occupying her place. Both versions of Antimony are convinced to be the real one, until they confer with a supernatural entity that explains that Loup created a parallel timeline and extracted a copy of Antimony from there. However, when asked to point which one of them is the original, it states that neither of them is.
Antimony and her friends manage to recover one of Coyote's parts. However, they need the help of the forest elves to recover the next, and in a fit of spite, Loup forces all the elves onto the court. When they recover the next part, court officials step in and confiscate it from them.
In addition to this plotline, the story includes several additional plot arcs interspersed with the main story. One concerns two girls from the Court, Zimmy and Gamma, who communicate with one another telepathically. Zimmy sees hallucinations of monsters which her etheric abilities turn into reality, which she relies on Gamma to dispel. In one chapter, Antimony and another student, Jack, also become trapped briefly in Zimmy's hallucinatory world, and escape after they "find" Gamma there, who has a calming effect on Zimmy. Another storyline revolves around Kat's attempts to repair Antimony's robot (which had been temporarily taken control of when it pushed her off the bridge), during which time they discover a set of highly complex robots created by Diego. Kat studies the robots and advances in her technological knowledge, eventually being able to replicate Diego's work and advancing it, culminating with the creation of organic bodies for robots that make them capable of sensation. A faction of robots starts a religion centered in Kat, convinced that she is an angel with the gift of giving robots life. It is hinted that this belief is actually altering Kat's nature through the ether, transforming her into a supernatural creature.
Reception.
In addition to being officially recognized at the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards, "Gunnerkrigg Court" has been critically acclaimed in a number of online reviews, and has a large readership and an active forum. Author Tom Siddell has been interviewed about his work numerous times, mostly by non-mainstream online magazines such as ComixTalk. Kevin Powers of the Comics Bulletin and Graphic Smash listed "Gunnerkrigg Court" as one of the series he "respect[s]," and ComixTalk (then called Comixpedia) listed Siddell as one of the twenty-five "People of Webcomics" in 2006.
The comic has received praise for its artwork and use of color, dark mood, slowly revealed mysteries, and pacing. Al Schroeder of ComixTalk has called "Gunnerkrigg Court"'s setting "marvelous" and "unique," and said the comic is "delightfully fun" in spite of its moody backdrop. Along with the evolution in art style since the start of the comic, many reviewers have praised the age progression of the protagonists and their maturation with the plot, likening it to that of Harry Potter.
Some reviewers, on the other hand, have criticized its, at times, dark and sad tone as potentially being frightening for younger audiences, also noting that there can be "lots [of information] to take in at times."
In 2006, science fiction author Neil Gaiman praised "Gunnerkrigg Court" in his blog, which brought the comic to the attention of many more readers.
Awards.
"Gunnerkrigg Court" has been nominated for and has won a number of Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, shown in the table below. When the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards were discontinued in 2008 and replaced by The Webcomic List Awards (run by The Webcomic List Community) in 2009, it won several of those as well. It was also nominated in 2006 for a Clickie award in the "International Clickie" category at Stripdagen Haarlem, a webcomics festival in the Netherlands. "Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation" won a 2008 gold Book of the Year Award from "ForeWord magazine" in their graphic novel category. "Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation" won a 2009 Cybils Award in the graphic novel category. "Gunnerkrigg Court" was nominated for the 2014 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work.