The Successor: Cityface

Tom Siddel's comic is amazing in the end.  Through Gunnerkrigg Court he has created a world that is both familiar and fantastic, characters that are relatable and inscrutable. and a story that is both tragic and humorous all at the same time.  There aren't many comics that can do all of those things.  Bet you can't guess 3 of them.

I think, though, the thing that really keeps this whole thing rolling is how Tom relates to his readers.  Most of his initial comments come in little blurbs at the bottom of the pages.  These are quick, often silly comments like "This guy!" or something equally goofy.  Though when things get serious, those comments vanish very quickly, a quiet sign that the reader should be paying attention to what's going on.

He does videos where he reads through earlier chapters of the comic and makes his own comments.  I haven't watched them yet, not because I don't want to, but because the comic is good enough on it's own to not need it, but it's something I've NEVER seen another comic artist do.

I believe he probably reads his own forums regularly, though I doubt he says much.  He's very much aware of how people respond to his comic, as I mentioned back here.  Ultimately this led to Chapter 55 and, well, my brief response.

Which leads to the fact that he really has a good sense of humor, and knows when to pull back and be silly.  Whether it's his own "about" page, or his vacation filler strips featuring this post's title character, Cityface, he knows when to have fun and be very, very silly.  And his readers love it.

Ultimately, Tom Siddel is probably one of the best story tellers in comics today.  He combines excellent, ever evolving art (which he isn't afraid to admit to, BTW), imagery, character, seriousness and silliness all into a single package and creates a story that likely will only grow stronger with time.

If there is any comic I would recommend with no information (and I try not to), it would be Gunnerkrigg Court.  It has a little of everything and deserves to be the new king of the list.

Next time it's the return of the Quasi-Awards.  Until then kiddies.

The Successor: The Bridge

Between the Forest and the Court is a chasm with a river at the bottom, the Annan Waters.  Across this chasm is a bridge.  It's alarmed by the Court, so if any one crosses without permission, they'll know.  There are lights along it to keep the glass eyed men from crossing back.  There is no railings.

Along the waters is Jeanne, imprisoned to be a guard of the waters, another layer of defense of the Court, established long ago and in the most cruel way possible.  Her love, a resident of the Forest, was killed in the waters to trap her spirit there, a spirit of rage.

Gunnerkrigg Court is not about that bridge, but the actual bridge, in the form of Antimony Carver.  She's the main character, of course, but more than that, she is the link that draws it all together.

She was born outside of the Court, in the World.  She has been guided and basically trained to be a Psychocomp.  She's a student of the Court, a daughter of it in many ways.  And she's part Fire Spirit, a creature of magic and the Forest.

Through her we see the story of Gunnerkrigg Court, all the intrigues and mysteries.  Annie touches each area, and sometimes more than she expected.  Of course we get glimpses through others eyes, especially Kat who is as much a main character as Annie is really.  In the end, though, the comic is about Annie, her friends and their collective adventures.

Which isn't to say she's a perfect bridge.  She's very much a child still, a teenager at best, still learning and growing.  She makes some big mistakes, misinterprets what's she's being told, and even lies when she has no reason too.  Her biggest failure is cheating at school, using Kat's friendship to do so.  That ended when she got caught by her own father.

It's through her we experience the comic, and it's the lynch pin that holds the whole thing together.  It's clear that she will move the Court into it's next phase of being, though how and why are still in the future.  That said, every reader is following her, watching, and worrying over every little thing.

I can't say it enough, after all Gunnerkrigg Court is about Antimony in the end, but without the world to bring together, she's nothing.

Next time, Cityface.  Go ahead, guess what it's about.  Until then kiddies.

The Successor: The Court

The titular location of the story is Gunnerkrigg Court itself.  Much of the story takes place within it, or near it, and much of the plot is due to the odd things that happen on the Court's grounds.

In many ways, the Court is as much a character in it's own right as it is a place.  It's imposing, massive and oddly empty place.  Soulless would be a great description, an almost lifeless place.

It isn't dead, per say.  There are no free animals and plants that have been noticed, but there are a lot of robots, a LOT of them.  They perform so many tasks that humans are almost unnecessary for the bulk of the tasks at hand.

There are people in the Court, of course, mostly students (a couple thousand at best) and their teachers.  There are others, but they are few and far between, or if they are many, they are unseen.  This makes the Court feel very sterile indeed, so when life forms appear, they are usually magnificent and unexpected.

The Court is order to the Forest's chaos, and the result is that despite the lack of adults or guards, the Court is generally safe enough for the students to wander around unsupervised.  This may actually be intentional as well, as the students often go off to do experiments and the like because, well, there's not much else to do.

The real embodiment of this is in Kat, who is both an exceptional mechanical genius but possibly some kind of robotic angel (however that works).  When not taking classes or going on adventures, she busies herself building, designing and modifying various bits of technology, from an anti-gravity device to bio-robotics.  The Court does little to reign her in, though how much is because they don't know is unclear.  The results have been rather spectacular honestly.

And here in is another difference from the Forest:  how fast and strong one is doesn't matter within the Court.  Well, not matter is relative, but it does mean it's not necessary for survival.  Being intelligent or having a special power will make one a big shot within the Court, maybe, if the Court's leaders view it as important.  Characters like Zimmy and Gamma are allowed to run free for some nebulous reason, for example, when danger is all the two of them actually represent.

This results in many of the students of the Court coming FROM the Forest.  They're converted to human forms and do odd computational tasks within the walls.  The only prize for them is a name, which is just kind of thrown to them.  The Court doesn't seem to much care what they do, as long as they do what they want, beyond that. . .

Beyond that what the Court wants is nebulous at best.  Hints are given that what it's up to is no good, but there's nothing solid there.  Any action the Court takes, in the past or present, seems to be about defending itself from the outside, rather than something more sinister.  Nothing good comes from this, of course, but it does make one question whether it SHOULD do these things.  In the end, the story of the comic is about peeling back some of these mysteries and seeing what the Court actually is and what it wants.

The only way to do this, though, is to bring all these elements together, and that is through a Bridge.  Until next time.

The Successor: The Forest

The comic of Gunnerkrigg Court has many opposites that play against each other, and no where is this more present than the contrasts between the Gillitie Wood and Gunnerkrigg Court itself.

The Forest is a place of magic, myth, full of overt danger and wondrous beauty.  It serves to sharply contrast the Court, but we'll get to that later, but also to serve as the home for the magical in a world that seems empty of them.

Make no mistake that it is a forest, full of the things a forest has, from trees to animals, all living in a way that nature seems to have designated.  Survival of the fittest is the word of the day, and being fast or strong means the resident lives to see another day.  Simple, yes?

This means the Forest is overtly dangerous.  A visitor, when they're allowed, is not safe, no matter how strong and bold.  The Court typically has one representative that is sent into the Forest, and one guard for just this reason.

To anyone on the outside, the Forest is chaotic, with the only rule being Darwin in action.  This is made worse by the presence of magical and mythological creatures next to the variety of animals and plants.  Fairies play in the woods, the Shadow People hide among the shadows of the trees, and then there are the tricksters.

Renard (or is it Reynardine, it's a bit unclear), Ysengrin and Coyote are the real stars of the Forest and represent it's interests and powers.  They are tricksters each, but also wise in their own, sometimes odd, ways.  Renard is the most civilized, as it were, more than capable of interacting with the humans of the Court in a way that is more mischievous than anything else, yet is likable and fatherly when it is necessary.  Ysengrin may be going mad, but his representation of power, animal and aggressive, is at once frightening and fair.  And Coyote, well, he's the most philosophical of the three, but also the most maddening one to deal with.

They are not the Forest in and of themselves, but they show that it is more than just eat or be eaten.  There are layers there, and a world that is no less complex than any other.  It is alive, developing, and growing everyday.

Chaos and survival, passion and mischief, power and philosophy, the Forest is more than just "that other place" or the world of magic.  It lives and breathes, and interacts with the humans of the Court when it could just as easily not, allowing the dynamic and conflict of the comic to exist at all.

Next time, the other side of the Forest's coin.  Until then kiddies.

The Successor: The Ether

Despite Gunnerkrigg Court taking place in our world, it makes pains to add a layer that is at once mysterious and frightening:  The Ether, the place that is above and beyond everything.

For all it's talk about gods and mythology, the Siddell seems to take pains not to alienate anyone from enjoyment.  There is no Christain God, for example, and the only deities that show up are, well, not really all that powerful, comparatively.  Their power stems from the Ether, and it is something that can only be kind of understood.

The Court does have a school for it, the etheric sciences, where there is an attempt to quantify and study it much as physics and chemistry do to there respective fields.  It's effective enough that Donald and Anja use it rather extensively, and almost easily in some cases.

Even then, though, the Ether remains almost unexplained.  Almost because there are entities that have some information, the Psychopomps.  They are the escorts of the dead, and it's through them we get some hint as to what the Ether really is and what it's for.  In their words, the keeps the world spinning, though I doubt it means that literally.

In any case, it binds everything together.  Every living being must, at some point, die and all of them have a Psychopomps that guide them to the Ether itself, even insects.  It is everywhere and just under what is visible.  It powers magic, IS magic, but it can also be farmed and produced.  Through it many of the characters can interact with the world in a new way, or view it in a different way, and be view through it as what they really are.

It's where the dead go, but it's also used by the dead.  The Realm of the Dead uses it to create the "creepshow" that is the source of ghosts, spooks and scary stories in the world.  At the same time, it seems the world uses it to give life to the myths of the world, including the seemingly powerful Coyote.

In a sense, the Ether unites the living and the dead, the magical and the scientific, and the image with the self.  It's not a Heaven or Hell, a God or anything like that, it simply is, and thus a kind of power source and where everything comes together, in the end.

The Ether and The World form a pair of opposites, but neither is opposed to the other, more like they flow into and through each other.  Complementary without being contradictory, and open enough to allow both to exist without problems.  Which is not to say everything in Gunnerkrigg Court does so.

Next time, The Forest.  Until then kiddies.

The Successor: The World

When I say "The World" with regard to Gunnerkrigg Court, I'm not talking about the setting, the environment, the various characters or anything like that.  For one, that topic ALONE would eat about 6 weeks worth of posts, and I'm only giving it one.  Kind of.  The World, here, though, refers to something I think many fans kind of forget about Gunnerkrigg Court:

It takes place in our world.

The Court and the Forest aren't on some magical island seperate from the everything, it is IN our world.  It's often overlooked because of all the supernatural elements going on, but our world is just beyond the borders, to the point that it's visited frequently.

Kat and Paz make frequent trips outside, often on vacation.  Heck, Tony and Surma left the Court outright at one point.  The Court is not a prison in the strictest of senses, travel is easy between it and the world.  It's even visible from space, as a satellite Tony and Donald put up as kids is still in Earth orbit.

Culture crosses through as well.  Kat is a well known geek, with interests ranging from comics to anime.  Language indicates the real outside, from Spanish to Polish, English accents and the odd reference to real places in the world.

History, that appears as well, through the lens of Mort and the fact that the ghost died, as a child, during the Blitz in World War II.  And then there's Jones, the Stone who has seen all of world history, from the formation of the crust, to dinosaurs and beyond.

In fact, she also notes that the science and theories of the world we have today mostly apply to it.  Science functions as it is supposed to, but with the added bits of the "etheric sciences," which is magic by other means.  Despite the mythological creatures like Coyote running around, the world doesn't have a different origin or reality compared to what we see.  Even Coyote notes it, claiming that he "doesn't exist" because of it.

On a whole, Gunnerkrigg Court is one of the prime examples of the Urban Fantasy, which I talked about way back when.  It is one of many, of course, I have quite a list there, but despite this, Gunnerkrigg Court is alone in saying that everything we know IS real, there isn't a lie hidden there.  The Court, however invisible it is, IS there though, and the things that it deals with are real things just under the surface of our world.

I suspect that this is part of the greater appeal of the comic as it puts the magic back in the world without subtracting out the things we know.  Instead of being wrong, our knowledge, history and science are simply not complete, which is a completely different thing and one we can hope to eventually join up with.

Next time on the Successor, The Ether.  Until then kiddies.

The Successor: Introduction

Schlock Mercenary and Sluggy Freelance actually share a lot of similarities.  Mostly in structure, but even some of the humor, especially early on.  In a sense, The Standard and Best Overall compare the two against each other, highlighting where they matched, and where they didn't, without actually saying it directly.

So in pairing comics up, that means Errant Story, The Classic, should have something to compare it to as well, and it does.  For a long time Errant Story was the king of my comic list, and I suppose the only comic I can really compare it to is the comic that is closest to being it's Successor:  Gunnerkrigg Court.

This shouldn't be a surprise, both because I hinted at it way back here, and also, well, I always speak very highly of it.  It is a very well done comic, and it manages hit just the right notes all along.  The fans are passionate, but when they go too far, Tom Siddell takes the piss out of them.

The comic has grown so much since it first came out.  Both artwise and storywise, and is probably the best example of webcomics as art and literature.  It's a mystery and an adventure.  It taps into history and myth, science and magic, and childhood and adulthood at the same time.  It's about growing up and growing into, finding oneself, and dealing with parents and their expectations.

It covers such a wide breath of topics and ideas that it would be difficult to discuss it as I did the other long series.  While it's episodic, with each chapter able usually able to stand on it's own, it's also a long running epic.  There's continuous evolution of characters and plot, never really sitting in place for all that long.  There are hidden meanings and obtuse connections throughout, and each character has their own arcs and ideas, stories and myths.  There's no easy way to break it up.  And after doing Errant Story, well, I don't think that style will work either.

So instead I'll break it up by something a little more general, yet oddly specific.  Yes, there will be spoilers, yes it will go into fan and personal theories and yes, it will probably take me far longer than I expect.  This method, however, will hopefully describe why I and so many others love Gunnerkrigg Court and why it is the current top dog of the webcomics, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Next time, part one of The Successor:  The World.  Until then kiddies.