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[Enzo]

Love this comic. I'm about 2 chapters behind since I've found I enjoy reading it more in spurts than page-by-page. It's probably about time I caught up again in a GC binge night.

I like most of the characters, but the ensemble darkhorses in my eyes are Parley and Smit. I just like 'em. They're funneh. Which is not to say Coyote/Mort/The Faeries/Boxbot/Etc aren't awesome too. No, wait, not Boxbot. He's terrible.

[Acanthus117]

Parley/Smit are close runners up in my list of favorite characters.

[Godwin]

I never really read the book. See I never really read it on the internet either, but through a complex series of events the book came into my possession. I did flip through it though.

Thing is, I really, really don't like the art design. I tried reading it, but I got bored a few comics in, and seeing as how I have a bunch of other stuff to be reading(like Warren Ellis's "Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island", which is the most awesomest stuff ever made by the way), I sort of forgot about it.

I suppose I've just been molded into a visual whore who needs inspired artwork to get through anything, but the way I see it my time is better spent reading something like this

http://theawesomer.com/photos/2009/09/092209_v_4.jpg

. . .than this

http://winfieldya.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/gunnerkriggcourt1.jpg


I don't know. Maybe I'm just an elitist or something. Or maybe I just can't stand art without some grit. I dunno.

And yes, I have looked through the more recent stuff. I will admit it has improved, but it still bugs me. But part of that is probably that I just really hate "silly" expressions, like, when a character is talking and is relatively serious, and then the camera zooms out like a yard and suddenly they have no nose. I guess I prefer things with more tonal consistency, and while I'll admit that might be hard in a weekly release thing where you let the comic out piecemeal, but I still think it's important to keep in mind. But that's just me.

Look, I probably shouldn't take this so serious or look at it so closely, it's just that as an artist myself, and working in an art environment, I'm noticing a decline in people who care about the craft, or about tying their art into the story in general. And maybe that gets in the way of me enjoying this sort of thing for what it is, but I think the importance of good visual design in a comic shouldn't be forgotten.

Say, what do you people think the importance of artwork in a comic is? Do you think it's a priority, or should it take a back seat to the story? Or do you think it just depends?

[Acanthus117]

I like the artwork because... It defines the comic from others. When I see a piece of Tom Siddell's art, I can instantly say "Oh, that's Tom's stuff! cool!" unlike most Marvel/DC comics which look all the same to me. Art isn't as important to me as story; if you can show emotions with simplified faces better than with a really complex one, good! I like the stylized way that Siddell makes his art.

Also, the art really evolved from the first comic. Tom said that he'd want to redraw the whole thing if he could.

[Akigagak]

Also, comparing a cover to actual pages in the book is a bit off.

And look at the Cyote stuff if you want Art in Gunnerkrigg.

[Godwin]

I like the artwork because... It defines the comic from others. When I see a piece of Tom Siddell's art, I can instantly say "Oh, that's Tom's stuff! cool!" unlike most Marvel/DC comics which look all the same to me. Art isn't as important to me as story; if you can show emotions with simplified faces better than with a really complex one, good! I like the stylized way that Siddell makes his art.

Also, the art really evolved from the first comic. Tom said that he'd want to redraw the whole thing if he could.

Well yeah. There are a lot of samey artists. But there are also a lot of good ones too, and there are more studios than Marvel.

Hell, you can find anything between Alex Ross and Mike Mignola. I dare anyone to find someone more devoted to good design than Mignola. Cause he's a badass.

With the addition of Greg Broadmore to the Dark Horse badass crew I'd say comics have plenty of unique styles to choose from.


I've been looking over the stuff and it seems to all have all the things that bug me. And maybe they aren't great reasons, but hey. There's room for Giger and Lucky Star, right? I'm not sure if that's a good thing though. But whatever.

Though maybe I missed something. Maybe you saw something I didn't. Have the link, if that's the case?

[sonerohi]

Coyote at what I believe is his finest, http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=488

[Godwin]

Coyote at what I believe is his finest, http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=488

Pretty cool. It's like a mix of Celtic and African art.

But I have to ask the same question I asked when watching Princess and the Frog, why give us these artistic blue balls by coming up with something really interesting and then only using it a couple times?

Hey, you've got a cool thing going on! Use it! I want to see that, not this weird, lop sided, anime type thing. I mean think about it, you could do a lot with that kind of style in a comic. And nobody would even be able to tell you to tone it down because you're just making a webcomic on the internet without any annoying editors.

Seriously, I don't get this. The whole point of comics is that you can get away with stuff you can't with movies and crap. This sort of thing shouldn't apply to one character, when I ask if he's done something interesting, the answer should be, "Oh yeah! He does all this sorts of stuff. It's all colorful and weird and it messes with perspective.", not "Oh yeah, there's like this one guy. And he's cool. Yeah. So go try and find the bits with this one guy."



Seriously, artist people, if you have an idea, wring as much as you can out of that sumbitch. That's what art's for.

[RedKing]

Well, sometimes you want one character to be stylistically different as a way of emphasizing their difference from the other characters. Coyote is essentially a god. Everyone else in the comic is, as far as I know, *not* a god. Having his artwork be so much more florid helps reinforce that.


I tried to use something similar (although in a different direction) with a series of stories set in medieval Japan and centered around a character who was a fox spirit. To distinguish her character from the mundane characters and suggest a sort of immateriality, I wanted her drawn in sumi-e style, as just a series of brushstrokes suggesting the outlines of a fox.

(Now if I had any artistic ability, it would have been great....)

[Godwin]

Well, sometimes you want one character to be stylistically different as a way of emphasizing their difference from the other characters. Coyote is essentially a god. Everyone else in the comic is, as far as I know, *not* a god. Having his artwork be so much more florid helps reinforce that.


I tried to use something similar (although in a different direction) with a series of stories set in medieval Japan and centered around a character who was a fox spirit. To distinguish her character from the mundane characters and suggest a sort of immateriality, I wanted her drawn in sumi-e style, as just a series of brushstrokes suggesting the outlines of a fox.

(Now if I had any artistic ability, it would have been great....)

Yeah, but then that only works if he's the main character. Because if he's not every one besides him appears boring. That's how emphasis works.

Imagine if in Alien they got off of the ship, walked around on the planet, and saw Giger's derelict ship, but then decided to make a left turn and went into a boring pyramid and the derelict ship was never seen again.

[ToonyMan]

I've been slowly reading through this, one day I'll read through the whole thing to present.

I've got the basic gist of it though.

[Acanthus117]

But of course Tom'll use the weird psychedelic shit. It only really appears when COYOTE is around, which doesn't happen all the time. You can't expect tom to go "DURR HURR ILL MAEK RANDOM HALLUCINATION SCENE TO SHOW COYOTE EFFECT", he's just trying to emphasize the difference between the Court and the Wood. Namely, the fact they have a frigging god on the other side.

[Eduren]

Now that I've read the whole thing, I'll have to follow it in agonizing real-time. ARRGGGGGGHH!!

Also, clipped my new avatar from GC.

[Acanthus117]

Now that I've read the whole thing, I'll have to follow it in agonizing real-time. ARRGGGGGGHH!!

Also, clipped my new avatar from GC.

Yay! I like Robot!

I should get one too... Hmm... I want Muut as my avatar, or something else.

[Eduren]

Since I cant get GC out of my head, what is everybodys favorite chapter?

Mine is "The Fangs of Summertime"