Gunnerkrigg Court: would you still "oh, robot" me if i was a worm

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Gunnerkrigg Court: would you still "oh, robot" me if i was a worm

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McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Mr.Radar posted:

He's actually gotten a lot more enthusiastic about it since he started. For a while, mostly before he went to SDCC, the tone of his answers was really discouraged and depressive. Once someone asked him something along the lines of where he would be today without GC and he responded that he would probably be dead.

Tea-san is a fantastic writer and artist, but the absolute worst at talking about his comic. Not that I would want him to stop, because I love learning more about the world he has crafted, but he's just so goddamn :smith:

about it.

I remember one point maybe about a year ago or a little more when there were some hiccoughs getting Volume 2 published that he started claiming it was never going to come out and for people to cancel their orders. It got so bad that finally several people, myself included, had to yell at him to stop being so loving defeatist. And now look, Volume 2 is out, so what did he have to be so worried about?

And now looking at his Formspring, someone asked a question about if he'd ever want to do an animated version of the comic, and he said yes but it'll never happen. Will it never happen because he thinks no production company would want to work with him?

Tea-san, you write and draw an amazing comic that tons of people love and has won several prestigious awards and has attracted the praise of some big names like Neil Gaiman. Take some pride in your work, man. And cheer the gently caress up.

McGravin fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Sep 25, 2010

# ¿ Sep 25, 2010 14:47

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# ¿ Apr 16, 2024 13:06

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Calaveron posted:

I think that most of the time, when an author claims his work is terrible and horrible and embarassing, it's guaranteed he's only fishing for compliments.
Having seen some of Tom's old comics and scribbles, I do believe that he's one of the exceptions to the rule and dude does honestly believe his work is not up to snuff.

Well I've never seen Tom whine about the quality of his art or writing, just about ancillary stuff like getting his books published and so on.

Sulevis posted:

On the other hand, it's quite possible Tom isn't entirely serious when he says things you guys interpret as proof of his deep, incurable depression.

I'd be happy to believe that if he weren't so persistent and consistent with it. His forum posts and wordier Formspring answers aren't just occasionally depressing in a joshing manner; they're pretty much never not depressing.

At best, he manages to go from :smith:

# ¿ Sep 25, 2010 16:52

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Fecha posted:

But that shows that it doesn't hurt. And the cut never shows up until she's traveling through the ether, so clearly it's related to her powers.

The cut is magical and shows up whenever magic is going on. I think it just has to be ether-related, not necessarily specifically Annie's powers.

I thought everyone knew this already.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2010 21:22

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Wanderer posted:

No, it's actually a proven cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect. Competence breeds self-awareness.

If I'm reading that Wikipedia article correctly, you're getting that completely, totally backwards.

This says that an unskilled person makes mistakes and because of their lack of technical competence, fails to realize them and so claims superiority.

What we have here is a skilled person making no mistakes (or certainly very few), and despite a wealth of technical competence, imagines mistakes where there are none and so claims inferiority.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2010 01:57

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Well that's what I get for skimming. :downs:

But it is true that the entirety of the rest of the article talks primarily about unskilled people suffering from illusory superiority. I only see illusory inferiority mentioned once or twice. The original study only deals with illusory superiority.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2010 03:22

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

A student posted:

Do you think Mr. Siddell reads this thread?

He reads the main webcomics thread, so it would make sense that he reads this one too.

Brannock posted:

I hate to be "that guy" but saying that Gunnerkrigg is mistake-free or is a masterpiece would be kind of insulting if I were Tom Siddell. It's very good, yes, but it has a lot of room to improve, and I'm sure he sees tons more areas to improve than I do.

I'm not trying to say it's perfect and Tea-san is infallible. I'm sure he sees plenty of areas that he wants to improve. But personally, I can't think of a single thing I would like to see changed about the comic.

I would consider it in the top tier of webcomics, quality-wise, along with Tales of Overside, Abominable Charles Christopher, and a few others.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2010 04:16

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Nicolae Carpathia posted:

less unjustified anti-Boxbot bias.

Go to hell. :mad:

# ¿ Sep 26, 2010 04:47

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Mr. Heliotrope posted:

I still can't see it :/ I checked earlier pages but didn't see it either.

You can very faintly see a pink outline. In the oval that ChibiSoma outlined, look at about 11 o'clock and you can see the upper left lobe of the heart.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2010 15:32

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Ka0, you might want to thumbnail or link some of those. Your post is huge. And if we wanted to reread the entire chapter, we can do that quite easily on gunnerkrigg.com.

ChairMaster posted:

I have a better idea you guys.

How about Smitty brings order to the situation by throwing the stone and hitting a bird. And Parley arrived because she was watching a romantic movie and is in love with Smitty.

Seriously here, he's not god. He just has the power to make everything boring.

Oh, I know another power! People in this thread have the magical ability to blow everything out of proportion and make mountains out of molehills.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2010 17:28

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Brannock posted:

Spring Break Smitty should totally be a guest week theme.

He'd make the perfect party.

Can you imagine having Smitty as a housemate? You could throw a huge, tear-the-house-down kegger every night of the week, and no matter how rowdy it got there wouldn't be so much as a cup left out on the coffee table the next morning.

On a more serious note, I was thinking about Smitty's powers. He puts things into order, but it's not his idea of "order". It seems like it's more the universe's idea of order, perhaps, and Smitty has no real control over it. The blinker stone and the bird is a good example of this; Smitty had no intentions of hitting the bird with the stone.

Have we seen Smitty's room yet? I imagine he has friends over to hang out and they get the idea that he's some kind of insane neat-freak because there isn't so much as a speck of dust out of place. And try as he might, he can't dissuade them of the idea because he couldn't even hang a poster on the wall slightly askew, even if he wanted to. Kind of sad.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2010 17:06

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Psych posted:

But after a party the expected state is a messy house. Which could mean that through Smitty's ill-defined powers of organization even the mildest of parties would end with a smoldering crater.

I think we're treading dangerously close to a philosophical and semantic argument about "order", "chaos", and "expected state", and I regret bringing it up.

Yes, the expected state of almost any situation, especially one with randomosity involved, is chaos. But Smitty doesn't find the expected state, he finds order.

If you toss a deck of cards over your shoulder, you'd expect them to land in a random pile. If you throw a gemstone in the direction of a chasm, you'd expect it not to hit a bird in mid-flight. These are obviously not the case for Smitty.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2010 18:43

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Nicolae Carpathia posted:

Not when the world is full of people who want to keep the Boxbot down. You know who you are. People who want to pretend they've never been a Boxbot, everyone calling them terrible...

^^^^^
Boxbot alt account found.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2010 04:42

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Bobulus posted:

I think it was Pete Abrams who first had seperate 'talk about what's going on' and 'speculate about what's going on' forums for Sluggy Freelance, for just that reason.

Seemed a bit silly, even at the time.

Yeah, I mean how could spoilers ruin Sluggy Freelance when the comic is already garbage? Zing!

# ¿ Oct 9, 2010 14:29

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

What about the hands?

# ¿ Oct 10, 2010 15:13

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Ka0 posted:

C'mon you guys this isn't dresden kodak. Quit overthinking things. _{because dresden kodak is an indesipherable mess}

"Indecipherable". And Dresden Kodak really isn't all that terrible.

However, there's something about either Gunnerkrigg Court or the fans of GC that lends itself to over-analysis, it appears.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2010 22:46

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

bigfatspacko_uk posted:

I love it when I find things I hadn't noticed on the first look-through

_{_{_{_{_{look at the moon}}}}}

The other side says "CHA".

# ¿ Oct 20, 2010 17:41

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

YggiDee posted:

Wait, what if Surma's really Coyote in disguise?

edit: not all the time, just right now

What if all the time, though? What if Coyote is Annie's mom?

# ¿ Oct 29, 2010 17:25

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Fecha posted:

This works horribly with my dumb-theory-I-don't-really-believe that Reynardine is Annie's real dad.

But what if Reynardine is also really Coyote who is really Annie's mom? And what if Annie is really Coyote? Augh!

Edit: And where does Boxbot play into all of this? Is Jones just Boxbot in disguise?

Pester posted:

I can't even tell when people are kidding in this thread anymore...

For the record, I am kidding.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2010 20:58

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

It was also stated that it would be "more than" two years, so there's no telling when precisely he'll show up.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2010 16:49

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Boxman posted:

Has this Chekov's Gun been fired yet? Feels like it provides a more-or-less auto out for any hairy situation.

I don't think it's an auto-out. Building off what Dodgeball said, I'm sure Eglamore, Jones, et al, would do what they could to rescue Annie from any bad situation, but it wouldn't be an easy pass back to safety. And like Geekner said, it'll probably take a lot for Annie to want to use it now.

Speaking of Jones, though, I was thinking about how little we know of her background. Was she around when Surma was at the Court? Does she know anything of the current situation, or is it a conspiracy of sorts between the Donlans and Eglamore (and who else?)?

# ¿ Dec 3, 2010 18:26

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

It might have been in a previous conversation about Coyote in this thread that someone brought up this story about Richard Feynman. It's a perfect example of what we're talking about.

quote:

My masterpiece of mischief happened at the fraternity. One morning I woke up very early, about five o'clock, and couldn't go back to sleep, so I went downstairs from the sleeping rooms and discovered some signs hanging on strings which said things like "DOOR! DOOR! WHO STOLE THE DOOR?" I saw that someone had taken a door off its hinges, and in its place they hung a sign that said, "PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR!"--the sign that used to be on the door that was missing.

[...]

Now this room, it so happened, had two doors, the way it was built, so I got an idea: I took the other door off its hinges, carried it downstairs, and hid it in the basement behind the oil tank. Then I quietly went back upstairs and went to bed.

Later in the morning I made believe I woke up and came downstairs a little late. The other guys were milling around, and Pete and his friends were all upset: The doors to their room were missing, and they had to study, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was coming down the stairs and they said, "Feynman! Did you take the doors?"

"Oh, yeah!" I said. "I took the door. You can see the scratches on my knuckles here, that I got when my hands scraped against the wall as I was carrying it down into the basement."

They weren't satisfied with my answer; in fact, they didn't believe me.

The guys who took the first door had left so many clues--the handwriting on the signs, for instance--that they were soon found out. My idea was that when it was found out who stole the first door, everybody would think they also stole the other door. It worked perfectly: The guys who took the first door were pummeled and tortured and worked on by everybody, until finally, with much pain and difficulty, they convinced their tormentors that they had only taken one door, unbelievable as it might be.

I listened to all this, and I was happy.

The other door stayed missing for a whole week, and it became more and more important to the guys who were trying to study in that room that the other door be found.
Finally, in order to solve the problem, the president of the fraternity says at the dinner table, "We have to solve this problem of the other door. I haven't been able to solve the problem myself, so I would like suggestions from the rest of you as to how to straighten this out, because Pete and the others are trying to study."

Somebody makes a suggestion, then someone else.

After a little while, I get up and make a suggestion. "All right," I say in a sarcastic voice, "whoever you are who stole the door, we know you're wonderful. You're so clever! We can't figure out who you are, so you must be some sort of super-genius. You don't have to tell us who you are; all we want to know is where the door is. So if you will leave a note somewhere, telling us where the door is, we will honor you and admit forever that you are a super-marvel, that you are so smart that you could take the other door without our being able to figure out who you are. But for God's sake, just leave the note somewhere, and we will be forever grateful to you for it."

The next guy makes his suggestion: "I have another idea," he says. "I think that you, as president, should ask each man on his word of honor towards the fraternity to say whether he took the door or not."

The president says, "That's a very good idea. On the fraternity word of honor!" So he goes around the table, and asks each guy, one by one: "Jack, did you take the door?"

"No, sir, I did not take the door."

[...]

"Feynman, did you take the door?"

"Yeah, I took the door."

"Cut it out, Feynman; this is serious! Sam! Did you take the door . . ." --it went all the way around. Everyone was shocked. There must be some real rat in the fraternity who didn't respect the fraternity word of honor!

That night I left a note with a little picture of the oil tank and the door next to it, and the next day they found the door and put it back.

Sometime later I finally admitted to taking the other door, and I was accused by everybody of lying. They couldn't remember what I had said. All they could remember was their conclusion after the president of the fraternity had gone around the table and asked everybody, that nobody admitted taking the door. The idea they remembered, but not the words.

People often think I'm a faker, but I'm usually honest, in a certain way--in such a way that often nobody believes me!

(Emphasis mine.)

# ¿ Dec 5, 2010 18:52

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

I'm pretty sure this is blinkerstone fire, but if not, maybe Annie is a member of the Prodigy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw

(And the inspiration for one of the best Venture Bros. references to date.)

Brannock posted:

Stages of grief:

~~Denial~~
Fire
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

Better.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2010 23:58

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2010 00:45

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Come to think of it, have we ever seen what Jones' etherial presence looks like? We've seen plenty of others, and it has often revealed some important information about their true nature.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2010 17:33

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Dodgeball posted:

Wandering Eye could just be a nickname. She could have been a spy for the forest at some point, or it could mean something else entirely.

That's a Walking Eye, though. And after it was used as H.E.L.P.eR.'s new body. And trying to kill Hitler.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2010 05:31

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

I'm sure I would like formspring if there didn't seem to be one hundred inane questions that could easily be answered by comprehending the comic for every good question that actually illuminates something. Like Tea-san said, four thousand questions about whether Antimony's hair color is vital to the plot.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2010 23:14

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Rei_ posted:

I assume she's their Ace in the Hole for dealing with the forest. I mean they had Eglamore, and he was closer, but they sent Jones instead.

I'm not sure I would interpret it quite like that. I don't think Jones is anyone's ace in the hole. Remember that while she lives and works at the Court, she has said before that she's not really on either side of the conflict. I doubt the leadership of the Court could send Jones to retrieve Annie if she didn't already think it was a good idea.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2010 16:53

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

We've seen that Eglamore is a pretty jumpy and runny kind of fighter. I would assume that Jones is more dexterous but Eglamore is more agile.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2010 09:07

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Tom is a webcomic golem, a body composed of webcomics and given life.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2010 18:14

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Do we know for certain that Surma is Annie's biological mother? Have we seen any evidence in the comic, or has this question been asked on formspring?

# ¿ Jan 1, 2011 00:05

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Sulevis posted:

Surma looks so much like Annie that this is a very, very foolish question to ask, imo

Because nothing magical ever happens in this comic. Right.

idonotlikepeas posted:

Tom has confirmed in numerous places that Surma was her biological mother and Anthony was her biological father and they had her in the usual way.

Thank you.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2011 00:33

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Brannock posted:

I'm surprised that, given the fact that Surma didn't kill her mother by being born, no one is considering that Anthony is the culprit here.

Do we know that Surma's mother didn't die?

# ¿ Jan 5, 2011 06:02

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

The 19th Person posted:

Well, that fit of anger did lead to her trying to murder Elgamore.

I don't think she was trying to harm Eglamore. More likely she was just trying to stop him from following her.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2011 04:03

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Bremen posted:

She didn't blast him with it, she laid it in his path so he couldn't follow her. It's not like he was going to kill himself by intentionally running into a fire. If she'd actually wanted to hurt him she would have hit him with it directly.

I think we can all agree that the page in question is not 100% clear on what is going on, and so events are slightly open to interpretation. Some of us believe Antimony was blasting Eglamore with fire, while others of us (myself and evidently you, Bremen, included) believe she was placing a wall of fire across the bridge.

Until a more clear explanation is forthcoming either in a future page or from Tom, let's just agree that it was all firey.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2011 05:01

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Mickey Eye posted:

Poor Kat. She was really looking forward to the summer. Annie really isn't being a good friend here.

As important as their friendship is, I don't think it's the first thing on Annie's mind right now.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2011 18:58

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Staggy posted:

My wild speculation is that this is Coyote freezing her, because she's boring or upsetting Annie.

I think if just Jones was frozen, then just Jones would have lost her color. It looks more like everything is frozen except for Annie.

I agree that it might be someone new. I don't think this is Coyote.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2011 13:12

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

ShineDog posted:

I'm sure it's probably been discussed, but as lovely as this comic looks, I really think he over uses blank faces in the middle distance.

I don't think that's been discussed at all. Can you give an example of what you're talking about? I'm curious.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2011 13:43

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

A hair-brained theory on the tooth:

Perhaps the bridge is more than just a metaphorical barrier between the wood and the court. Maybe it's some kind of magical barrier that Coyote can't cross to enter the court without being invited with a blinker-stone signal. But maybe because a part of him is already on the other side of the barrier, the rest of him can come and go as he pleases.

That's probably not what's going on, but it's a thought I had.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2011 23:14

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

Pester posted:

Does anyone know how the least-drivelike donation drive ever is going?

Maybe Tom should do like Evan Dahm does for Tales of Overside: have bonus stories ready to go, but not release them until he's received a certain amount in donations. "A bonus chapter is already written, drawn, and uploaded. I just need $400 before I can launch it." Given how rabid some Gunnerkrigg fans are, I imagine it would be easy to gather the funds.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2011 01:42

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# ¿ Apr 16, 2024 13:06

McGravin: Aug 25, 2004; Tantum via caeli per ferro incendioque est.

idonotlikepeas posted:

For those who are curious:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegithalos_caudatus

I wonder what SuperCyan is, though. (A bluebird?)

http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Saiyan

Edit: Oh, you mean all the commenters are birds? I'm thinking SuperCyan is a fairy with blue hair.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2011 18:38

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Gunnerkrigg Court: would you still "oh, robot" me if i was a worm

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