Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 6: Dissolve

Gunnerkrigg Court #6

by Thomas Siddell

Contains chapters 50-59 of the webcomic.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Webcomic, Young Adult, Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2016

About the author

Very little is known of Tom, as he doesn't speak about himself much. He is English, resides in Birmingham, recently was employed as an animator at a video game company but in 2012 decided to leave to work on Gunnerkrigg Court full time.

There is also conjecture that he likes Cadbury Extra Thick Chocolate Cakes, but no suitable references were provided.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long-absent character shows up and throws everything into chaos!

Puppy Renard shows up and I'm all lfdvhZKUhrfgazbytjhtefsdsdFJCHsedlku!!!!!!

Coyote shows up and he is not having it!

Parley shows up, and girl is RIPPED!

The friends finally show up to free Jeanne, and the plan faceplants right into a CLIFFHANGER!!!!!?????!!!!!!!

I'm showing up for the next volume ASAP!!!

[Sol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Gunnerkrigg volume.



The introduction of Annie's father, Anthony "Tony" Carver is a bombshell. He's so terrible, he's worthy of a spot in the pantheon of anime dads with Gendo, Ging and Hohenheim. After a decade of waiting in the real world and three years in-comic of leaving Annie hanging, he simply appears without fanfare and emotionally destroys Annie on every level. It's shocking and disturbing. It's almost worse than being abandoned in the first place.



He isn't, however, painted as a one-dimensional villain. "Annie and the Fire" gives Annie and the audience a view at another side of Tony, explaining what he was doing for the past three years and his feelings about Annie. It does a great deal to humanize him, but I don't see it gaining him much sympathy. He isn't always a cruel neglectful asshole, just 100% of the time he's around Annie.



On the other hand, Kat's anger at Tony, Annie's friends coming together to support her, and Annie learn to accept her negative feelings, was heartwarming, and gave us one of the funniest chapters, "Get it Together".



Snuffle's visit to the Court to see her Jackalope friend in "A Big Day!" provides some lighter fare. The Court/Forest exchange program is one of those really slow boiling subplots whose purpose still isn't obvious. The Court uses the exchange students as computational slave labour in exchange for giving them names and clothes (even though some of them already had names like the Jackalope?) But these visits seem to be a case of real, if small scale, reconciliation. As seen from the Court's plan to banish Annie after graduation, however, it's clear that the leaders of the Court don't necessarily mirror the positions of their subjects. And Coyote is certainly no innocent. Coyote is integral to the process, extracting their souls personally, and having taught the ritual that transfers their souls to their new bodies. What does he get out of letting the Court have some of his subjects?



This volume also sees Siddell at his most visually creative, from the child-like drawings after Annie's humiliation in "The Tree"



to the portion of "Meetings and Re-Meetings" told from the perspective of Coyote



to the watercolour effect of the borderless panels of "Jeanne".



This volume also features the only two page spread in the comic so far in "New Data". Robot's cult leader persona gets even more disturbing as he preaches to the other robots about pain being the key to understanding their masters. His burial of the artificial limb and role in masterminding "The Torn Sea" were creepy enough, but now he's just getting weird. Considering none of his friends know about this side of him, I'm hoping there's some serious emotional repercussions when Kat and Annie find out. Considering Arthur (the robot in the shadow men) witnessed the sermon, maybe he'll be the catalyst?



And finally, the long awaited exorcism of Jeanne! What a cliffhanger!

-Anja and Donald don't allow Kat into the Forest
-Coyote cannot create souls/minds from nothing
-Coyote implies that the Court has something to do with the hollow fairies - "the Court wants what it wants"
-Coyote keeps the bodies of those animals that go to the Court - possibly eats them
-Parley can't teleport long distances, but Smith thinks "maybe there's a way around that"
-Now in year ten, Annie is 15
-Tony didn't tell any of his friends he'd returned
-Tony working on the Omega device
-Surma didn't want Annie born in the court
-"I thought I could escape the Court's eye"
-Annie was going to be banished upon graduation
-At least some Forest students will eat burgers
-Forest students have savant abilities
-Coyote made Annie promise to get Renard back
-Arthur was present at the sermon about pain
-Shadow men were unaware of Shadow being in the Court
-Fairies can't see the threads
-Jeanne cut the threads linking her and Smith
-Kat made a mini-arrow

[Teodora Lipciuc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things start to get very very rough for Annie, and when everything she loves is taken from her, she must learn to grow and be strong.
I LOVE HER OKAY LEMME GIVE HER A HUG AND A BLANKET AND SOME COOKIES??? why are you so mean to my girl mr author man

[Kevin Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The saga of Gunnerkrigg Court continue to broaden and deepen. This volume has fewer light-hearted stories, and much more seriousness. Antimony's father returns (from where? to what purpose?), which bodes many unpleasant changes. A priceless item is destroyed. The final (?) fight against Jeanne at the Annam Waters is begun. Coyote does Coyote things.

Events unfurl, and the Court and the Forest will never be the same again.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the art-work in this volume is among the best in the series (e.g. Coyote's reaction to Annie being kept from the forest; the robot's experience of having a humanoid arm; etc.), but the story-telling is rather uneven, and the tone shifts from superficial to serious in ever wider arcs.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading this webcomic for the past 7-8 years and I will never get tired of it. The concepts, the characters and their stories, the world building, the plot twists and the reveals... it just keeps getting better and better. What seemed at first to be just another story focused around the magical school trope has developed into a mature comic, touching upon topics such as human nature, the origin of myths, man vs nature and man vs the spiritual/supernatural world. Annie may seem autistic at times but I thoroughly enjoy reading about her and her adventures at the Court. In fact, writing this review gave me a bit of nostalgia so I'm going to start re-reading it again, for like the hundredth time.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that I didn't expect the return of Antimony's father to go quite like that...or that I would so instantly dislike the jerk even more, after his abandoning of his daughter for such a long time at the school.
That said, once again the subplots were delightful, and I plan to read the next volume very quickly, because the story about Jeanne has got me hooked. The weird "border patrol" examining forest residents entering the grounds seemed odd, but fit with the other things that the leaders of the Court had set up in the past. Kat's development of robotics is fascinating to watch. It's interesting that making something more human initially makes it weaker, but with greater chance for development, but it makes sense in this context.

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it's not quite as stellar as the last volume, this collection definitely moves the plot forward in a lot of ways. While it ends on quite the cliffhanger, everything before that fleshes out the world more, giving even more detail for characters, both major and minor. The fairies in particular get a lot of attention and strong stories here, but the relationships among the students also get some nice attention, with robot and shadow having a very sweet story. Art is pretty much the same quality as the last volume (which is good), with a special shout out for Coyote's issue.
All told, this is another strong piece in an impressive series.

[Lissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason I have it noted that I started reading this 19.6.2016, but I have never read this before in my life. This is absolutely new content to me. It's likely I simply mistranslated the webcomic status to page number/physical volume.

Regardless, this was an excellent volume. There is *so much* happening too, like... W.O.W...

Also: while I hate the trauma Annie’s going through that is represented in part through her haircut, the short hair is absolutely an amazing look on her. Especially w the fire tips? Oh boy…

[S. Wigget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought volumes 2 & 6 at a bookstore sale--the comic book store was preparing to move into a new location & wanted to get rid of books from series in which they didn't have the entire series. I meant to eventually buy the missing books, but now that my library is over 5,000 books, I'm more interested in weeding out books.

I enjoy the art... variety of characters.... but...
WTAF is with the fatphobic Fae folk?!?

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent installment in this very enjoyable series. Annie's father returns after a long absence, only to turn her life upside-down. More is revealed regarding the relationships of background characters, plus more of the inner workings of the court. And as always, I love Siddell's illustration style.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to come back to this series, but just because it got lost in the shuffle. I still think it is a fantastic series with lovable characters. It just gets bogged down occasionally because it has too many characters and can be a bit over complicated. But I am going to work on catching up on it now.

[Barry Haworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume Annie's father returns to the city unexpectedly after a long absence, we see what happens when forest animals and fairies join the court, and Parley and friends think they are finally ready to confront the ghost of Jeanne.

[Shimin Mushsharat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the webcomic and oh my god I need more of these! So so good!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ stars

[Wetdryvac Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This just keeps getting better.

[Jesse Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still spectacular after all these years.

[Meg Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can feel I'm getting close to five stars on this one... have a feeling the next volume will be it!

[Xenon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know, and I was not feeling this at all.

[David Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oof, the first few chapters of this volume are like a punch directly in the gut. So many feelings. As usual, the art is top notch too. I love this comic soooo muuuuch.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I catch you Tony!!! WHEN I CATCH YOU!!!

Annie is going through it in this one and the plot is starting to unfurl.

[Nighteye · Rating 3 out of 5]

its okey, it's intresting to follow such a long story, but it's not my style anymore I guess, I've changed and not the comic.

[Raj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume six of Gunnerkrigg Court collects chapters 50 to 59 of the eponymous webcomic. This starts with Coyote showing Annie more of what she needs to do as the forest medium, taking the soul of one of the animals into the Court to be decanted into a new body. After that, we get into something more serious, as Annie's dad returns to the Court. When I read this first time round, in the comic, it made me really angry, the way that Tony behaved and the control he exerted over his daughter. That anger returned as I re-read it, but having it condensed, especially with the following few chapters, as Tony unburdens himself to Donny Donlan, makes it flow better and it's easier to follow the story. This arc is followed by more with Robot as he gains his first biological component, and he continues to gather a cult of Kat around himself (although his burgeoning romance with Shadow is oh so adorable) and then we have more between Annie and Reynard and the guilt that Annie still feels over letting him go without putting up a fight. The relationship between Reynard and Annie is one of the most interesting and complex in the whole story (and that's saying something). They obviously care about each other very much but there is still tension between them, despite Reynard's forgiveness of Annie. We end the book with Annie and the gang finally starting on the plan to free Jeanne and what feels like the conclusion of something that's been with us from the earliest days of the story.

I don't think that I've got a lot to add to this other than I still adore this series and love the way that both the art and the storytelling have developed over the years. It's the comic I look forward to most in my RSS feeds every week and it's the one that I most consistently buy the hardcopy volumes as they're released.

This is a another great step in Annie's story and that of Gunnerkrigg Court itself and I look forward to much more of it!

[Miramira Endevall · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, this hasn't been released in book format yet. I'm marking it read to denote that I've gotten as far as currently possible in the webcomic. :-)

[Richard Legault · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much, but it ended in the middle of a chapter. I can't wait for volume 7!

[mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

i lied in my review of #5 this is actually the best gc book. like the annie's-dad arc mixing with the jeanne arc UGH so good

[Brenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Robot and Shadow together! So cute!

[Jasmine Rose]

Basically, all the relationships in this entire series are adorable. Seriously, Paz and Kat; William and Janet; Robot and Shadow (these two are probably the best)