''Gunnerkrigg Court'' is a

science-fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scienti ...

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

created by Tom Siddell and launched in April 2005. It is updated online three days a week, and eight volumes of the still continuing comic have been published in print format by Archaia Studios Press and

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of Titan Entertainment Group, which was established in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and co ...

(in the United Kingdom and Ireland). The comic has been critically acclaimed and has won numerous

Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) were annual awards in which established webcartoonists nominated and selected outstanding webcomics. The awards were held between 2001 and 2008, were mentioned in a ''The New York Times'' column on webcom ...

, 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 Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

creatures,

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

from a variety of traditions, and

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

symbols and theories; the literary style is heavily influenced by

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

and

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

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,"See the author's comment o
Chapter 7, Page 23
in which he identifies that chapter at the end of the first book
Bonus Page 7
, the last page in that chapter, was posted on 22 May 2006. which Siddell published through

Lulu.com Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. Lu ...

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 Siddell 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 Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

via

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...

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 A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...

.
"Each of the chapters individually is sort of a self-contained thing, so if you were to just read one of them it wouldn't be like you had no idea what was going on." 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 one page to more than eighty. Each page is drawn in traditional ( A4; 210 × 297 mm) page format
Siddell: "All my pages are made in traditional page format form the start..." (p. 15). and divided arbitrarily into frames.See, for example
Chapter 19, Page 14
an
Chapter 6, Page 5
for examples of different styles. 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 Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is an English comic book creator, illustrator, music video director, and songwriter. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin and co-creator of the virtual band Gorilla ...

Yukito Kishiro is a Japanese manga artist born in Tokyo in 1967 and raised in Chiba. As a teenager he was influenced by the mecha anime ''Armored Trooper Votoms'' and ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', in particular the designs of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, as well as the w ...

, and

Mike Mignola Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...

, as well as the

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind may refer to * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (manga), ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (manga), a manga series by Hayao Miyazaki * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film), ''Nausicaä of the Valle ...

'' and ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

''. One notable feature of the comic is the blending of mythological elements from many different cultural traditions, especially from the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

and Native American mythology.The comic contains characters such as the Black Dog and the

Mallt-y-Nos Mallt-y-Nos ''(Matilda of the Night)'', also known as the Night Mallt, is a crone in Welsh mythology who rides with Arawn and the hounds (Cŵn Annwn) of the Wild Hunt, chasing sorrowful, lost souls to Annwn Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (in Middle W ...

of Welsh mythology, for example, as well as

Muut Muut was the personification and messenger of death in the culture of the Native American Cahuilla people of southern California and northern Mexico, and was usually depicted as an owl or as the unseen hooting of owls. He was one of the most act ...

(from

Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

(a legend shared by many Native American cultures). There are also characters based on Old French folklore, such as

Reynard Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, as ...

and Ysengrin. 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

themes; for example, the main character is named

Antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

, after a toxic

chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...

,
Woodruff: "Please note that there is an element named the same as the lead character Antimony. It is metal deathly toxic (like arsenic) and one of its poisoning symptoms is depression. The alchemical symbol for Antimony looks like an upside down version of the symbol for female, as well. There is more, but I'm pretty convinced that the name of the main character was no accident". (p. 12). and many pages feature artistic depictions of

alchemical symbol Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this pag ...

s.See, for example
Chapter 5, Page 12
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,
"I love his use of color, too, in particular, because he never has more than like ten colors on the average page, but it looks really really rich." and Siddell himself has stated that he first developed the idea for the comic using only a limited number of colors.
Siddell: "I did another sketch right after that of the same girl and, wanting to color it but only having a very limited selection of marker pens, put her in an ugly school uniform with some crazy makeup." The pieces of artwork that Siddell has posted at the end of each printed book, entitled "Treatise"(s), 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 somewhere in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

or a country that resembles it. The titular institution functions as a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, but also occupies a vast area, some of it seemingly uninhabited, some used as industrial or research facilities, and some occupied by students and staff. The Annan Waters separate the Court from Gillitie Wood, which is inhabited by "etheric" or magical creatures.
Jones: "There was a great division which saw the Court and the Wood separated. Nature on one side. Technology on the other."
Coyote: "With my mighty paw I scored the earth and so the court and the forest were divided!" Chief among them are

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

and Ysengrin, along with populations of forest animals, elves, fairies, and others. At the time the story begins, both sides enforce a kind of truce and strict separation between the Court and Forest,
Reynardine: "The people of the forest will be wanting answers! They detest all forms of technology. Why do you think there is such a divide between the Court and that damned place?!"
Antimony: "As I was forbidden from setting foot off school grounds, I could not walk Shadow 2 to the Gillitie Wood myself. There was only one sensible resolution to this problem. I must construct a robotic walking device which will provide you with transit across the bridge!" although there is an established tradition of some forest creatures transferring into human bodies to attend the Court, and a few Court denizens – notably an ambassador called the

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

– are allowed to enter the Forest. Many characters suspect that the Court is much more than just a school.Se
Chapter 8, Page 27
(Antimony: "This isn't just a school, is it?") an
Chapter 19, Page 8
of ''Gunnerkrigg Court''. The school appears to actively recruit many talented or extraordinary students.The characters Zimmy and Gamma, for example, were approached before the opening of the main story by mysterious men who offered to take them to the school. See Siddell, Tom
Chapter 11, Page 11
''Gunnerkrigg Court''. 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.
Tramountanas: "This place of higher learning has robots that run around alongside body-snatching demons, forest gods, and the odd mythical creature." 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

house system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to o ...

described at the end of the first chapter is similar to that used by many UK schools, including the one the author attended;
Siddell: "I used to be in Queslett North, the same class Carver is in, and the other House names at the Court are the same as they were in my old school" (p. 6). Siddell has even stated that the school in which ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' takes place is modeled after his own secondary school.
Siddell: "The school side of the Court is very much based on my Secondary school, right down to the names of the houses and various other aspects" (p. 11).

Plot

The main story of ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' revolves around Antimony “Annie” Carver, a student at the Court. Annie's parents, Surma and Anthony Carver, were also students there decades earlier, and Surma became the Court's medium to the Forest. Surma died after a long illness and Anthony disappeared, leaving Annie in the Court's care. Early in the comic, Annie befriends several supernatural beings, including a sentient shadow, a robot, and a ghost named Mort. Though initially not well liked by most of her fellow students, she becomes best friends with Katerina “Kat” Donlan, a classmate and robotics prodigy, and eventually also befriends older students Parley and Smitty. Annie 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. She gradually learns from various characters the history of the Forest and its connection to her own family. In the past, Coyote had granted some of his powers to Reynardine and Ysengrin:

Antimony: "Why were you looking for Renard in the first place? Why bring him here?"
Coyote: "I sought to make him into a powerful being such as myself!" he had given Ysengrin "power over the trees" and Reynardine the power to take bodies. Reynardine had been in love with Surma
Coyote: "I wouldn't be surprised if he cared very deeply about you, ntimony You see, Renard fell desperately in love with 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 the Court until Annie encountered him.
Coyote: " eynardinesoon runs away! He steals the body of a young man and disappears into the Court, looking to woo the fiery Surma. We heard he was captured, tricked! ... and I did not see him again until last summer." Surma was a

psychopomp Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are supernatural creatures, spirits, entities, angels, demons or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afte ...

and the descendant of a fire spirit: she had an etheric power over fire, which is passed from mother to daughter at the cost of the mother's life. Because of her relationship with Reynardine, Coyote, and Ysengrin, Annie is nominated to receive training as a medium, developing her etheric abilities including fire manipulation and astral projection. In the end, the position is given to Smitty instead, but Coyote designates her as the Forest's medium to the Court. She begins training under Ysengrin, who she learns is in a constant state of anger towards the Court but is partially brainwashed and kept in check by Coyote. Meanwhile, Anthony suddenly returns to the Court as a professor, and behaves coldly toward his daughter, moving her to a separate residence and making her repeat a school year. Annie later learns 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. Annie and Kat investigate a powerful presence that guards the Annan Waters between the Court and the Forest. It turns out to be the ghost of a woman named Jeanne, one of the founders of the Court. Another founder named Diego created an arrow that killed Jeanne's lover and trapped her soul in the river, where she resisted attempts from the psychopomps to collect her soul and kills all who attempt to cross the river without the bridge. Annie, Kat, and several friends mount an expedition to recover the arrow and free the souls of Jeanne and her lover; they succeed, but Smitty is mortally wounded by Jeanne. Annie 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. As preparation, Annie and Kat help Mort finally pass into the ether. Coyote, aware that the river can now be crossed freely, cedes his strength to Ysengrin, who is suddenly overwhelmed by rage and devours Coyote, becoming a creature named Loup. Loup destroys the Annan Waters, creates a duplicate version of Annie, and attacks the Court, which temporarily fends him off while preparing evacuation plans. Annie meets with Loup several times, while the Court attempts to capture him; Coyote appears several times during these encounters and suggests that all of Loup's actions were part of his plan, and that he will eventually return after Loup is killed by Annie. In addition to Annie's central story, 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 Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

. Zimmy sees

hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...

s of monsters that her etheric abilities turn into reality, which she relies on Gamma to dispel.
Zimmy: "Yer gonna have ta take Gamma's place.... Gettin' ridda these guys." Kat has her own storylines, including her romance with a fellow student named Paz, and experiments in robotics inspired by natural bodies and the highly complex robots created by Diego. Kat is eventually able to create full organic bodies for robots that make them capable of sensation, and a faction of robots seemingly starts a religion centered on the belief that she is an angel with the gift of giving robots life.

Main characters

Reception

In addition to being officially recognized at the

, ''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 Comics Bulletin was a daily website covering the American comic-book industry. History Silver Bullet Comicbooks The site was founded in January 2000 as Silver Bullet Comicbooks by its New Zealand-based publisher/editor Jason Brice. During this ...

and Graphic Smash listed ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' as one of the series he "respect " 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

f information F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

to take in at times." In 2006, science fiction author

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

praised ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' in his blog,
Gaiman: "I got to read what's out there so far of Gunnerkrigg Court, a really enjoyable webcomic.... Lots of different flavours in there – it's a semi-gothic funny-sweet school story with mysteries and robots and so forth.... Nice stuff." 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 ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. ''Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation'' won a 2008 gold Book of the Year Award from ''

ForeWord magazine A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the ...

'' in their graphic novel category. ''Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation'' won a 2009 Cybils Award in the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

category. ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' was nominated for the 2014

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

for Best Online Comics Work.

Books

* ** * * * * *

Side comics

* * * *

Notes

Explanatory footnotes

References

Story notes

External links

*
Gunnerkrigg Court
'
''Gunnerkrigg Court'' official forum
{{Good article 2000s webcomics 2010s webcomics 2005 webcomic debuts Archaia Studios Press titles Boom! Studios titles British webcomics Coming-of-age webcomics Science fantasy webcomics Comics about animals Comics about foxes Comics about women School webcomics LGBT-related webcomics Long-form webcomics Titan Books titles Web Cartoonists' Choice Award winners Webcomics in print