Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation [Hardcover]

Thomas Siddell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2009 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

Antimony Carver is a precocious and preternaturally self-possessed young girl starting her first year of school at gloomy Gunnerkrigg Court, a very British boarding school that has robots running around along side body-snatching demons, forest gods, and the odd mythical creature. The opening volume in the series follows Antimony through her orientation year: the people she meets, the strange things that happen, and the things she causes to happen as she and her new friend, Kat, unravel the mysteries of the Court and deal with the everyday adventures of growing up. Tom Siddell's popular and award-winning webcomic (www.gunnerkrigg.com) is here collected in print for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This first on-paper collection of a comic that's won several Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards reads like a British boarding school version of Lost, in which each semiexplanation of one mystery leads to a new, larger one. The titular school looks more like a vast modern factory, while across the adjacent, forbidding Annan Waters is Gillitie Wood, home of fairies, gods, ghosts and sentient shadows. In her first school year, Antinomy Carver discovers that the two realms aren't absolutely separate; her little stuffed doggie, for example, soon houses a grouchy but rather protective demon, while the robot she builds out of spare parts lying around the school crosses the Water and comes back with a living wooden arm. Grownups are of little help to the young protagonists, but Antinomy faces difficulties with courage and self-possessed good manners. She and her friend Kat respond appropriately to each fresh bit of weirdness, sometimes taking part in sci-fi space adventures, sometimes coping with the loss of a friend who's changing into a bird. Siddell's stylized manga-like art suggests energy struggling against determined restraint. The result is uncanny, perplexing and oddly compelling. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The first 14 chapters of Siddell’s popular webcomic are collected here in an alluring hardcover. The premise, best described as science-fantasy, involves a young girl named Antimony plopped into a strange boarding-school/industrial-complex, which, like the reader, she knows nothing about. Discrete chapters (some of which fast-forward the general story arc while others flit off on whimsical digressions) all feature varying levels of jaw-dropping peculiarity, devilish bursts of humor, and sublime creativity that lurk at the ends of the school’s myriad corridors. The darkly hued artwork is deceptively simplistic and displays a flair for the crucial details of setting and atmosphere; Siddell’s knack for setting enigmatic scenes that take pages to become clear lifts the experience from merely intriguing to simply spellbinding. Yes, there are dull echoes of most boarding-school fantasy (including that Potter one), plumbing the depths of abandonment, burgeoning friendship, and ultimate belonging, and dedicated readers can follow along online for free; but Siddell’s one-man show of weirdly inventive one-upmanship is too good to pass up. That it’s both appropriate and appealing for a wide age range, boys and girls, seals the deal. Oh, and Neil Gaiman’s a huge fan. There’s no reason to think his massive audience wouldn’t also be. Grades 6-12. --Ian Chipman

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Archaia Entertainment; 1 edition (January 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932386343
• ISBN-13: 978-1932386349
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome., April 26, 2008

By 

K. Crevasse "Actually, This Is Her Daughter I... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation (Hardcover)

Gunnerkrigg court is, in a word, AWESOME. It is hilarious. At times, it seems to be parody-esque. At others, it seems to be very serious. The main character, Antimony (Annie), is a clever, reserved girl who has just become a student at the truly spectacular Gunnerkrigg court. It is a tale of all the truly bizarre things she encounters there--shadow creatures, robots, minotaurs, ghosts, dragon-slaying teachers, visual reality rooms... The art is original and gorgeous, and I can't wait for the second book to be finished-- I want to know what happens next in Annie's life!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, accomplished web artist that transitions to print well, January 12, 2009

By 

Katherine Smith "eater of books" (attending university, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation (Hardcover)

Why yes, this is a web comic artist that has printed his collected strips into a printed format. However, it is very much worth owning this volume. The art starts out odd and a bit rough but the story never falters. The setting is dark and very fantastic. The protagonist starts out a bit too cold if you ask me but the reasons for this are well explained and worth overlooking at the beginning just so one can find out what is going on at this strange boarding school.

Robots, forest gods, a trickster god, an extraordinarily complicated love story that involves dead parents instead of preteen girls leading to a complicated history, unexplained technology, a dragon, ghosts, possession, death, and friendship are common in this world. This really has something for everyone who wants more than bubblegum in their reading. Please read it. You won't be disappointed.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for pre-adolecent girls, January 24, 2009

By 

Knute Snortum "AntiEntropy" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation (Hardcover)

This graphic novel has the all-round appeal of the Harry Potter series -- not to name-drop. Drawn with a quirky style that comes alive as the book progress, this series of clever stories quickly pulls you in and takes you to a world of a taciturn pre-teen alone in a English boarding school. Still waters run deep, you soon find with Antimony, as she has the knack for knowing foreign languages or beings able to throw a bully to the ground, but all with a quiet stillness that hides deep wounds. Only her close friend Kat can make her break a smile.

Together Kat and Annie (as Kat calls her) explore the strange things that are happening around them. This is not an ordinary English school, they soon find out.

This is a perfect father / daughter book, except that dad may wind up stealing it to read himself!