Written and Illustrated by Thomas Siddell, who was kind enough to give me the go-ahead for posting this.
Published by Titan Books
We’ve all been their, the first day at a new school. Some of us might have even been in the exact situation of the protagonist, Antimony Carver, coming in to a new school after a few years, when people already know each other, friends a groups have been established and you have to figure out who to befriend and who to avoid by yourself as you try to fit in. However, I somehow doubt that any of our schools are quite like Gunnerkrigg Court, the mysterious complex of buildings that exists between ‘normal’ human civilization and Gillitie woods a place of myth and magic.
The book is a graphic novel based upon the web-comic of the same name, which has been running since 2005 and is ongoing, with three books published to date of which this was the first. Each book covers the events of one school term, Orientation covering Antimony’s arrival at the court and her meetings with her classmates, from the routine bully William to the downright unusual Zimmy. The classes are only the tip of the iceberg, however. Actually, they only appear in chapter two. In chapter one, Antimony acquires an extra Shadow, an entity of some kind. Upon confronting it, she discovers that it wishes to return home, to the other side of the waters. As Antimony can’t go herself due to ‘the rules’ she does what any right-thinking young girl would do. Build a robot to take the shadow home!
This snippet introduces the reader well to the combination of science and magic that form the core themes of the tale, as well as demonstrating the writers markedly tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, the robot coming from a room labelled ‘robot parts’, amongst a row of rooms labelled, pens, pencils and other mundane paraphernalia we’d expect. There’s also a distinct tease here about the convenience with which regular hero’s “fortunately” find mysterious items which help them, an idea which crops up later in the series.
I must confess, this my first attempt at reviewing a graphic novel, so please forgive me for focusing a little on the story, which is a fascinating mixture of European and Native American mythology and lore, with appearances of several mythological figures (including my two personal favourites, kudos to whoever figures out which two) contrasting beautifully with the scientific, rational nature of the schools appearance.
This separation is reinforced by the difference in graphical styles used for the two, with the forest being a living area against the grey bulk of the school. Another nice touch is the use of different graphical styles for certain characters from the forest, so a character of Native American mythology descent would tell a section of the story illustrated in the style of their homeland. There’s also a chapter which is a pure spoof on classic adventure comics, which is again done in their style and provides a quirky side-trip from main plot.
Whilst the first few chapters can be a little confusing, the beauty and depth of this story rapidly draws you in and the story rewards you for it, with what looked like throw-away or stand-alone elements from earlier coming back later (in this book or others in the series) as major plot elements, binding the story together in a complex, fascinating whole brought to life by a lively illustration style.
I can strongly recommend the Gunnerkrigg Court series to anyone who wants to read a glorious British piece of originality in the Graphic Novel area.
Regards to all,
Kerl
P.S. For those who wish to “Try before they buy”, the web-comic can be found here: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=1
If you liked the sound of this, consider:
Poul Andersons “Operation Chaos” and “Operation Luna”, presenting a world not dissimilar to ours but where magic is the driving force, so instead of car’s, brooms line the streets. As with Gunnerkrigg Court, the books draw upon global mythology to produce a beautiful story along with an excellent mirror to the real world.
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