There are two moments in comics that many cartoonists strive for and hope to achieve. The first is when their characters come to life, truly coming into their own and gently take the story from the cartoonist’s hands and writing the story themselves. The second are those strips which draw the reader in and leaves them enthralled at the emotion and sincerity of the moment. These moments can be almost impossible to bring about; often they are moments of intense vulnerability for the characters involved… and at times seem inspired by the cartoonists’ muses opening their cartoonists’ eyes to see precisely what needs to be drawn, and how to bring it about. Tom Siddell’s Gunnerkrigg Court has just had one of these sincere heartwarming moments… and the ironic thing is, it isn’t the protagonist whose heart is open for all to view. Instead, it is two tertiary characters, Zimmy and Gamma, for whom we’re given this glimpse into the characters’ soul.

Zimmy and Gamma first appeared in Gunnerkrigg Court back in December of 2005, though it would be a year later before we learned more of Zimmy and Gamma’s story. And that story is one of the more fascinating and surreal aspects to a comic that thrives on surrealism; Zimmy is a cursed with the uncontrolled ability to alter reality. More precisely, from the glimpses we’ve seen, it seems that Zimmy brings other aspects of reality to her; some glimpses of other-realities that were brought to her include the dragon-like creature that Reynardine was possessing when we first met him and the cut that Antimony received on her face when an entity on the banks of the Annan Waters attacked her in her dreams. Gamma, on the other hand, seems to help keep Zimmy grounded in our world and prevents these alternative realities from “leaking out.”

A deeper glimpse into the realities of these characters can be found with the characters’ names. Gamma is obvious, being the third letter of the greek alphabet. What’s more, the mathematical aspect of Gamma, the gamma function, is an extension of the factorial function to real and complex numbers. Considering Gamma brings reality back into focus for Zimmy, it is entirely likely that Siddell had this in mind when he chose Gamma’s name (and her basic character concept). Zimmy’s real name is Zeta (which she hates, thus the nickname), which is the sixth letter in the greek alphabet, and mathematically the Riemann zeta function is a function of great significance in number theory because of its relation to the distribution of prime numbers, along with having applications in probability theory. In short, Zimmy brings probabilities into existence, while Gamma restores reality in her proximity.

As we’ve only had three storylines with Zimmy and Gamma, we’ve not had much of a chance to see their relationship. This recent storyline has emphasized elements hinted at earlier; Zimmy loves Gamma. Though love seems almost inadequate as a word. Zimmy’s feelings for Gamma are so intense she said she’d kill the world and then herself, if Gamma asked her to. And considering the body language between these two young teens, this ain’t the love of siblings or along that ilk. The expression on Zimmy’s face as she finds Gamma, sleeping in her sanctuary on a bed of stuffed animals (glowing with a purity that the transformed world in Zimmy’s head lacks)… even with Zimmy’s eyes blackened by whatever curse she suffers from, you can tell the pain she’s in, and her self-doubts and fears… and need.

The pile of stuffed toys is pure win as well. There are several shout-outs, including the marshmallow kitty from Girly and Roy from Archewood, as well as several others that seem familiar but that I can’t place off the top of my head. Even more amusing is the wall of figurines circling Gamma’s stuffed animal bed, protecting her from the outside world. In a way, these figurines are protecting not only Gamma, but her bed as well. They are dark, shadowed, silhouettes, while the toys they protect emit their own light, even as Gamma does. I might be looking too deeply into that, of course; it’s difficult to get detail on something that small. Still, the lack of light from those toys compared to the rest suggests something to me.

The sad thing of this story is that Zimmy and Gamma will likely vanish into the ether once this story is through. It wouldn’t even be too difficult to explain Zimmy and Gamma’s continued presence in the story, even if primarily in the background; Antimony’s ability to speak Polish would give Gamma a means of interacting with other people (something Zimmy actually fears, as she’s afraid of losing Gamma due to Zimmy’s own perceived inadequacies) and perhaps even learning English so that Gamma could interact with her peers. Likewise, Antimony’s ability to help ground Zimmy would give Gamma a chance to rest (and perhaps to also show us if my suspicions about Gamma are true; that Gamma relies as much on Zimmy for her own reality-related talents as Zimmy relies on Gamma to remain grounded in the world around her) and perhaps lessen the dependence Zimmy has for Gamma, and allow their relationship be based on who they are, rather than what they are.

This would be a good thing for both Antimony and for Kat. One issue that has been evident is that Antimony is a touch detached from those around her. Teaching Gamma English and helping keep Zimmy grounded would be a good method of anchoring Antimony in the Court. Likewise, Kat is perhaps a tad thin-skinned (as Zimmy’s “nose” taunts have shown)… and the potential of making added friends (even one as ornery as Zimmy) is always a good thing. It would also be interesting to see how Antimony and Kat respond to seeing more of Zimmy and Gamma’s relationship; their discomfort at seeing the level of emotion between Zimmy and Gamma is clearly evident. When you consider how close Antimony and Kat are, they could very well be gazing through a looking glass at the intensity of their own friendship, platonic as it may be.