 COMICS |  | WEBCOMICS OF THE WEEK – 8/18/08 | This week, take a look at Gunnerkrigg Court and Scary Go Round.
And hey! We got original art inside too! | | | By Steve Sunu and Kate Napolitano | | Posted 8/20/2008 | |  | |  [EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome back to Webcomics of the Week, where each week we strive to bring you the best comics on the web for your reading and procrastinating pleasure. Check back every week for a new recommendation to pique your eyes and your interest.]
Gunnerkrigg Court
By Tom Siddell
Updates: Monday - Wednesday - Friday | |  Potter vs. Voldemort.
Hulk vs. Abomination.
Batman vs. Joker.
Can you taste the throwdown?
And now, Tom Siddell adds to the pile-on with Antimony vs…vs….
Poop.
Okay. It's my pleasure today to introduce you to Gunnerkrigg Court, Tom Siddell's rich, clever amalgam of science, myth and magic. But it's hard. We've got a clear cut hero—Antimony "Annie" Carver, teen student at the title school—but no spark-spitting, snake-speaking, smile-slicing villain to terrorize her.
However, we think that's the beauty of it.
Now please don't mistake us for thrill-haters—we cheered "Hot Damn!" the first time we saw Batman jackknife Joker's truck like everyone else.
It's just, between explosions, it's nice to have a place to go that gives a different perspective on heroism.
In Annie's world, everyone is capable of choice—good or bad. This is partly what makes Annie's life difficult: she is a medium-in-training at Gunnerkrigg Court, meant eventually to serve as a diplomat between the Industrialized school and surrounding green-minded Forest dwellers. Already in her brief time as new student to the school, she's encountered sentient robots, ghosts, shadow-creatures and plenty of other fantastic folks—and that's not even counting those she's met as part of her training. It's not easy trying to bridge the gap between talking coyotes and jaded headmasters, but it's Annie's work, it seems, on and off the clock.
What else makes Annie's life difficult? Well, as the story unfolds, we learn that Annie's mother is dead, and her father—though quite infamous around Gunnerkrigg—has disappeared and effectively abandoned her.
But not to worry! Annie always gets by with a little help from her friends. Her best friend, Kat, is a science whiz with a special interest in robotics; and if you can count him as a friend (a mystery which remains to be seen) Annie also keeps guard over a snarky demon, Reynardine, who is currently living in the body of her favorite stuffed puppy.
Together with Kat and Reynardine, Annie explores the school and all its mysteries—including the discovery that her mother, Surma, used to have the same Medium job that Annie herself will have. And did you know that—
Wait. Wait. We can't reveal ALL the details, now can we? But that's another beauty of Gunnerkrigg: author Tom Siddell masterfully, subtly, pulls you in to this vast interconnected web of secrets that only nets you in tighter the more you find out. Characters' histories, found objects, ancient symbols, and daily battles all add up to promise Annie a whole school year of intrigue to unravel.
Another thing about Gunnerkrigg: unlike epics like Harry Potter, Annie was always aware of the magic in her world. She grew up with a sixth sense: the ability to see "psychopomps"—that is, spirit guides from just about every religious faith you could think of—that come to lead their believers "into the aether" at death. They are among some of her fondest friends, in fact—a fact which Kat alternately finds fascinating and traumatizing—but never impossible. This is the truly refreshing thing about Siddell's comic: Annie's world is a place where it's given that anything—truly anything—can happen. There is no big change, no big magic that takes her world from mundane to magical. She lives in an atmosphere of mystery, chance, fantasy, possibility—and no matter how dark it seems—always with the potential of hope.
Wizard got a chance to sit down with Tom Siddell to talk about his inspiration for Gunnerkrigg and what it's like to have a webcomic. Check out his answers: even he himself was surprised, it seems, at how a little awesome art can go a long way.
WIZARD: Your main characters, Annie and Kat, are female—are you finding it easy as a guy to write not one, but two female perspectives?
SIDDELL: I don't find it hard to write for Annie and Kat, but then I wasn't setting out to write good female characters, I just wanted to write good characters. If I were to list Annie's personality traits, for example, I wouldn't list "is a girl" as one of them since I don't really see gender as defining of a personality. Maybe this is the wrong way to go about it, and I certainly take into account the main characters are female, but I never intended the comic to be about BEING female. Looking back over books and comics I've liked best in the past, I think I tend to prefer female protagonists. Well written ones, anyway. I feel there is a subtlety to a good female character that you just don't get with super-dudes straight up punching suckers in the face. I'm also not a big fan of the "MEN!" (followed by eye-rolling) style of female character.
There are undoubtedly a lot of mysteries in Gunnerkrigg Court. Do you have an overarching plan of how they're all going to work out, or do you write as you go?
SIDDELL: I don't introduce a mystery into the comic without already having planned the explanation, so it's safe to say all questions will be answered as the story unfolds. Unfortunately, because of the pace of the comic (three pages a week) some answers will take a lot longer to come than others. I try to make sure that every single page has at least one element of plot development and interest so I don't end up with pages upon pages of filler that should be stripped away. Sometimes I will think of something new I want to add that wasn't in the original plan, but I'll always make sure it falls in line with everything else. All the better if it ties things together more efficiently.
How does it feel to see your comic out there on the big ol' Internet for everyone to see?
SIDDELL: I feel like I am watching a close friend get beat up and I am powerless to stop it. That is probably a little unfair, because a lot of people have been very nice about my comic, it's just that on the Internet negative opinions tend to be shouted a lot louder than positive ones. I suppose it's natural to want to pick apart and criticize movies, books, TV shows and things like that, but that never usually gets back to the creator. In my case, or in the case of any webcomic creator, it's very easy for a riled reader to send an email, or post in a message board, or just vent their blinding anger and disgust directly at the creator and then get indignant when their "criticism" isn't met with thanks. Basically sometimes it can be tough. I've had some very nasty emails and at times I've wanted to pack it all in, but at those times I have to remember that the first person I'm making the comic for is myself. If I let the Internet get me down, then the Internet wins, and I can't let that happen, because if the Internet wins, we are all doomed.
That, uh, shouldn't put people off however. Doing an on-line comic is super neat!
What kind of responses have you gotten from fans? Any interesting stories?
SIDDELL: Contrary to how it might seem in my reply to the previous question, I've had a very good response from readers. A lot of people seem to enjoy discussing it in the comments section or the forums, and I sometimes get emails from people personally thanking me for making a comic they enjoy. I've even been lucky enough to have some people donate money to help support the comic. With that money I've been able to buy equipment to help me make production of the comic even better.
My favorite story so far popped up in my forum. A member there is an English teacher for a class of Grade 2 children in Thailand. He wrote about how he sometimes hooks a computer up to a projector and reads through my comic with the class. That was cool enough, to hear that they enjoyed it and were interested in the story, but it got even better when he had them write Valentine's letters to the characters in the comic. He scanned them and uploaded them to the forum and they are all really great. Some of them think Reynardine is handsome, but one boy didn't like him and wants to fight him. One boy called Winsbury a monkey. The thread is still there at this link.
I also drew a thank you picture in reply.
Did you originally conceive Gunnerkrigg Court as a web comic?
SIDDELL: Pretty much, yes. At least, because I'm not already established in "proper" comics, I didn't have many other options if I wanted people to read my comic, so on-line was the way to go. Webcomics are becoming much more popular nowadays. There are many people who have been able to make their comic into their sole source of income and essentially spend their days doing what they love. Personally, I have a full time job and work on the comic in my spare time. Being able to put it on-line makes it feel like I'm not wasting my time creating something that no-one will ever see. I have a schedule I need to stick to or risk falling behind, and I need to keep on my toes to make the story interesting while conveying everything I want in just three pages a week. Without the comic, I'm not sure what I would be doing instead. Videogames? Dedicating my life to forever working in an office? Having friends and a fulfilling social life?
Did any characters develop in a direction you didn't expect?
SIDDELL: Not really. Not yet at least. I've thought a lot about each of my characters and how I want them to grow and change over time. Right now the comic is still in fairly early stages and characters will continue to develop as the story goes on, just like in real life. I didn't want to choose a few personality stereotypes that I would have to always write and draw for the life of the comic because I think that would be pretty uninteresting for me and the reader. There are no outright evil characters, for example, just situations in which a character might act in a way perceived to be evil.
Again, the relatively slow pace of the comic is a disadvantage as people will have to wait to see characters grow and change over time. Readers looking for a quick laugh or gag every day might be disappointed, but I hope readers who put the time in to taking in the story will enjoy seeing the characters grow as much as I do.
You clearly draw a lot of your fantasy characters directly from all different world myth. Why?
SIDDELL: I've always loved myths and legends. 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. When I came to write the comic I knew I wanted to include myths, but I didn't want to focus on one particular area. One thing I like most about mythology is that the stories and characters are very malleable. I'm of the opinion that mythology shouldn't be set in stone just because it's written down somewhere. Some of the best myths probably started out as campfire stories retold over and over again, shaped to become more dramatic and fantastic and I think it would be a shame if that were to stop once a story is recorded and catalogued. That's why the trickster Coyote is hiding out in a forest in England in my comic. He's the same Coyote from legend, but I'm not going to confine him solely to those stories.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: before we get to the last two questions, we asked Tom if he'd answer them like he does on his Web site's Bio page—everything in drawing. So, without further adieu, here's a little original art from Tom Siddell just for us!]
How much of Gunnerkrigg is straight from life experience for you?
Who is your favorite Gunnerkrigg character(s) and why? Any characters you dislike?
Check out Gunnerkrigg Court here. | |
Click here for more Webcomic of the Week with Scary Go Round! | | | | | | |
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