Gunnerkrigg Court - "Traveller" "(Viaxeiro)"

April 21, 2016 7:05 AM

Gunnerkrigg Court, Tom Siddell's webcomic about a mysterious school (apparently) for children with unusual abilities, has progressed and expanded considerably since we first saw it here nearly nine years ago - both in-universe and out. It's now up to fifty-seven chapters and counting, and the many new and different characters and plotlines can make it a bit daunting to jump into cold. Fortunately, Siddell has also published collected books of the series as well as two stand-alone side comics. The second of these, "Traveller", was just put up on the website last week. It's a quick read at 40 black and white pages, and about the only thing you need to know going in is that the girl can communicate with animals.
posted by yhbc (20 comments total)

I'd be interested to see what people thought about it, because while I love Siddell's work I found Traveller really unsettling. What are we to make of what happens at the beach? I don't want to be spoilery here but I was kind of like "what the hell?"
posted by Wretch729 at 7:18 AM on April 21, 2016

He decided to go out on a high, I guess. He was having an adventure with mobility and independence that would be denied him the rest of his life, and he knew it.
posted by vanar sena at 7:34 AM on April 21, 2016

a bit daunting to jump into cold

I actually gave up with it because I was finding it sort of depressing
posted by Segundus at 7:39 AM on April 21, 2016

Isn't it supposed to be a parallel to the girl's own life?
posted by GuyZero at 7:50 AM on April 21, 2016

I still read this comic but I've "given up on it" in that I have accepted that I have no really coherent idea of what's happening vs what happened previously and won't anymore. I had the same issue with Girl Genius (and that one I don't read anymore). There's something about reading a comic online vs. in a book that... I dunno. With a book I feel like my brain gets flipping back and ahead to refresh myself, whereas online I just have to do it linearly and it takes forever. Plus the drip feed of pages.

I think one day I will read nothing but Oglaf.
posted by selfnoise at 7:53 AM on April 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

And I should say I'm aware Gunnerkrigg is available as a print book, but then I run into two different standards of print graphic novel vs webcomic... and while I think Gunnerkrigg is an excellent webcomic, I'm not convinced it would hold up against the latest from Image or whatever.
posted by selfnoise at 7:55 AM on April 21, 2016

a good reminder to get back into reading this series. I typically wait until a book is, or several books are, finished because I don't think they work well at one-page-per-week. (Speaking of long running comics, i just noticed that Questionable Content is at 3200 comics)
posted by rebent at 8:11 AM on April 21, 2016

The Oglaf reference is amusing, because although I do still make a point of reading Gunnerkrigg Court every time it updates, it CAN be frustrating (and occasionally unsettling) for all the reasons stated - and yet, I only remember to catch up on Oglaf whenever it is mentioned here on MetaFilter.
posted by yhbc at 8:54 AM on April 21, 2016

Things got real in the run of Chapters 51-56, when Annie had to deal with the return of her abusive father. It's worth reading the whole thing from the beginning just so you can be properly punched in the gut by the whole sequence. Reading it in real time was an ordeal, I had to go Tom's table at a con and beg him to tell me that he had a path out of the darkness.

That said, he did cover difficult subject matter with great insight and sensitivity.
posted by whuppy at 8:54 AM on April 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Eh - I quit when Antimony's father showed up. I didn't want to stick with the dark, just in case the change was permanent.
posted by YAMWAK at 10:16 AM on April 21, 2016

My favorite Gunnerkrigg character is City Face the pigeon.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 12:11 PM on April 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Maybe a 'dead puppies' warning next time? :(
posted by The otter lady at 2:12 PM on April 21, 2016

Hey, I put up the tags.
posted by yhbc at 2:43 PM on April 21, 2016

I still read this comic but I've "given up on it" in that I have accepted that I have no really coherent idea of what's happening vs what happened previously and won't anymore.

That's sort of where I'm at, except I want to emphasize that I don't really mind. For me, Gunnerkrigg Court is more about the atmosphere than the journey - like, I don't feel I'm missing out due to the lack of an overarching plot most of the time. I just like all these bizarre side stories.

My favorite bit is "The Stone," which is worth checking out as a standalone piece.
posted by mordax at 4:43 PM on April 21, 2016

In case anybody hasn't heard about it, Siddell also does chapter commentaries on YT. He's up to 31 (Fire Spike).
posted by automatic cabinet at 2:50 AM on April 22, 2016

I really liked the Traveller. The pup went out on his own terms. He had a great few days, found friendship, and made his own decision. Yes it was sad, but it was a story worth telling.
posted by trif at 7:12 AM on April 22, 2016

YAMWAK, I recommend you give it another try. There's some tough sledding, sure, but Annie's not without stalwart friends and allies, and the way they come through for her when she's at her lowest provides some emotionally rewarding reading. Especially Donny Donlan, a grownup who showed tremendous respect and recognition of her as her own person back in Chapter 37, "Microsat 5" and follows through on it here.
posted by whuppy at 10:57 AM on April 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ugh, I read this is the other day. Thanks for the cry, Tom!

I haven't found Gunnerkrigg Court to be any more or less depressing than the other webcomics I've read or have been reading. But the ones I follow tend to be more long-form, story based--Unsounded, Stand Still, Stay Silent, Nimona, Freakangels--and they get more depressing, I guess. The world of GC is definitely more unique and engrossing than most of the comics I've read.

I'll agree it does better when read in large chunks as it often refers back to prior chapters. But I think it's an awful lot better than Girl Genius. I've never felt like time was endless in GC, whereas in GG I'll leave the comic, come back, and think "Jesus Christ, they're still in that damn castle?!"
posted by Anonymous at 3:51 PM on April 23, 2016

Nope. There's a lot of "I'd rather be dead than have restricted mobility and independence" in fiction. Too much, I might say. How about some "I have mobility problems and this is how I live with that" stories? Or "my loved one has mobility problems and this is how I support them" stories?

Therefore, I'm choosing not to interpret it in such a way as that the puppy chose to die. He just had lots of fun swimming and didn't know that it was a dangerous thing to do. Cuz he's a puppy! He doesn't know what's what!
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 11:35 AM on April 26, 2016

I was completely captivated by Gunnerkrigg Court; I don't have enough experience with contemporary comics to pretend to be able to put it in context, but it feels like a great work in and of itself to me.

I read the extant parts of it in about four sittings even though I wanted to make it last as long as possible, and it does seem coherent to me -- in fact, he's set up a bunch of things that I don't want to happen, and that I'll be pretty upset with if they do happen, but of course he has to follow his inspiration.

I want to see graphic novels as a different way of grasping the world than is available to strictly text novels, maybe even something that hearkens back to preverbal thinking in our history (which we recapitulate developmentally in all the dreaming we do as babies before we begin to speak at all, perhaps), and I feel like I was able to at least touch that in those hours long sessions with Gunnerkrigg Court that passed in a matter of blinks.
posted by jamjam at 12:30 PM on May 12, 2016