Gunnerkrigg Court Vol. 7 Review
Gunnerkrigg Court Vol. 7 is the latest in the series created, written, and illustrated by Thomas Siddell (you can check out his site right here) and the amazing team of writers at BOOM! Studios. Before reading this comic, I would highly recommend reading the other comics first, or at least the 6th volume of this in order to understand what is going on and to have a better understanding of the characters and their backstory. I had not read any of the other comics in this series, but after reading the first few chapters, I decided to go back and read some of the others. After doing a bit of research, I found this story to be visually very fun, the characters showed a lot of growth, and the stories overall were very exciting and a lot of them had a great amount of humor. The friendships were very relatable and I found myself connecting with the characters almost instantly. The writing draws the reader in and takes them on a magical adventure. It took me on am emotional roller coaster that I didn’t want to get off.
A lot of comics have very one dimensional side characters that don’t add much to the overall storyark, but in Gunnerkrigg Court Vol. 7, writer Siddell and editor Sophie Phillips-Roberts created a story in which the side characters are a crucial part of the story. The characters around Annine are what allow her to grow. WIthin the comic there are several mini stories that either relate to overall story of our protagonists, or short humorous tales of the side characters. Actually my favorite part of the comic was Chapter 62: And Then Coyote Said… because it was so fun and unexpected to hear a story from a beast that disguised himself as a dead goose. A lot of the time in comics like this, the overall story is drained by too much plot or too many side stories, but having short fun stories like that help balance out the drama and make reading it more enjoyable. The writing is spontaneous and fun with plenty of unexpected twists that make it very easy to get attached to the characters.
The illustrations in this were absolutely outstanding, but I would have to say the cover art for each chapter was my favorite. Each one was in a completely different style and hyped up the reader for what was about to come. Siddell alongside designers Scott Newman and Chelsea Roberts (you can check our her site here) made for an unbeatable team that brought the comic to life. Some of the art was similar to that of graphic novel, some were simple, and some had an outstanding amount of detail.
Overall this comic would receive a 4 on writing, a 4 on art, a 4 on the cover, and 4 on uniqueness for a total score of 12. I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting an exciting comic full of fun, but I would definitely suggest to catch up on the previous volumes before reading this one.
