Humbug
Shaenon: This is what I do to entertain myself. My only regret is that I didn’t have the chance to make Ira give Unity bran as well as pins.
Channing: What a relief. One less thing I have to worry about accidentally spoiling. I’ve only been watching myself for like ten years.
So…Ira is the man behind the curtain after all.
…Oh my goodness.
This is a work of genius.
This, so much.
I see that Ira in Hebrew means “watchful.” I assume you knew that. I also assume the Ira’s last name is Green. After all, “Ira Green” is an anagram for “err in age!” Oh, wait . . . “ere grain!” No, that’s not right. “Reign era?” I’ll keep working on it
According to http://skin-horse.com/comic/awfully-empty/, his last name is Rosenkrantz.
Does this mean we should worry about his health should he have a friend named Guildenstern? o_O
Unless he’s already dead.
Rosenkrantz translates as “rose wreath”, so at least it fits the color theme.
While true in the literal sense, it’s also the Danish word for ‘rosary’ and the family got the name because their coat of arms contains a feature which in Danish heraldic language is called a rosary (yes, many Danish noble family have names based on their coat of arms, rather than vice versa – it has to do with the general history of Danish nobility and surnames and would take far to long to explain here)
Oh good grief. A while back, I pointed out how all of Mr. Green’s aliases were fitting the color scheme of Oz (Mr. Green, Violet Bee, Goldbug, Dr. Ako) and the only one left would be red. Red as in “Rose-enkrantz”. I am beating my head against the wall for missing that.
It was subtle, but it was there. All props to Shaenon for that one.
Oh, that makes much more sense, because “Ira Rosenkrantz” is an anagram for “Zonk Rear Strain.” Now it’s all clear!
Even worse: he is clearly ZE SKIN NARRATOR!
I’ve always thought of Unity* as the Patchwork Girl?
*Universal Nanite Intelligence Training Yoke
*Applause*
I doff my hat in admiration of Shaenon’s perspicacity! Thank you for sharing your genius all these years…
I still like Ira and cannot see him as a villian! Surely Nick will be safe, given Ira’s fondness for Virginia? Or could he possibly view Nick as a rival given Mr. Green’s admiration of Dr. Lee?
That other shoe dropped from FRANKING orbit.
The best brick joke ever told
That’s amazing. Just amazing. What a setup!
WOW.
The level of genius here is that every one of these characters but perhaps Nick has had another more obvious Oz correspondence which the readership has been focused on (Unity as the Patchwork Girl, Sweetheart as Toto, Tip as Tip/Ozma) and we’ve assumed the Cowardly Lion (for one) was the more obvious superficial correspondence. (Did anybody ever hunt for a Scarecrow correspondence? I don’t recall.)
I was thinking the same thing. Nick was a pretty obvious Tin Man, but we were wrong about everyone else. I love the idea of Tigerlily as Dorothy—I don’t think we have a signed anyone to that role, either. I’m still pegging tips as Ozma, though. right now, she even looks like the raggedy boy before Ozma’s transformation.
“don’t think we had assigned”
… holy moly, I just realized that that might make Tremontino Mombi.
I think the key detail here is that Ira specifically hands the balloon to Tip in panel 1, and you can see Tip is continuing to hold it through panel 4. That makes Tip the one given the balloon by the wizard, thus corresponding to Dorothy.
Though there clearly can be more than one level of correspondence going on as Kirala says below.
I always had Tip pegged for both Tip and Dorothy, so it’s not surprising to me that other characters have double potential. And possibly since I’m only familiar with the first six Oz books, I’ve always had UNITY in mind as the Scarecrow. (The brains fixation helped strengthen the impression.) So, no? Didn’t *hunt* for one? 🙂
…wat.
You were sitting on this for HOW long?
My mind, she is blown.
Shaenon, you are an absolute gem.The internet would be a much sorrier place without you.
On a side note, my addled mind seems to have come with its own Oz adaption, one with Derek Jacobi as the Wizard, Jon Pertwee as the Scarecrow (obviously), Jeremy Brett as the Tinman, and Leo McKern as the Lion; other parts TBD. Boy do I need some sleep…
I would watch the absolute CARP out of that.
I was always impressed with your Dave in Slumberland comics in the run of Narbonic. This is a leap beyond. Thank you both.
The wizard revealed. Ten years of setup, the pieces placed, the trap sprung. So I guess we’re heading into the endgame now?
Seriously, the only things more impressive than Ira’s playing of the long game is Shaenon and Channing’s.
Oh, right. Mr. Green. And who if not the Wizard was it who convinced everyone what color the Emerald City was again?
So you’re telling us Tip is Dorthy?
I’m sure he’s adorable in ruby slippers … or silver shoes? Is the book or movie canon here?
Maybe both the book AND the movie… after all, I’m sure Tip is adorable in both ruby and silver shoes.
You’ve got to read deeper into the other Oz books. “Tip” is the name of a character in them—minimally speaking, a guy who turns out to be a girl. (I’m glad Del Rey reprinted the original Baum books back in the early eighties, otherwise I’d’a never got it.)
Oh, quite true. But what’s to say that each character in Skin Horse corresponds to only one character in the Oz stories? Or that only one character in Skin Horse corresponds to each character in the stories?
I was going by the person Ira gave the balloon to. That’s Tip.
The Wizard only grants the party members’ wishes in the books.
Of COURSE Tip is Dorothy!
The Dorothy/Alice character is the “normal” person, thrown into this mess so we, the reader, can have someone to identify with. I’m not up on TVtropes, but I’m sure someone here can provide a link.lo
To me that’s reinforced by Tip as narrator in the first few strips.
And here is where I first commented, 6 years and 5 months after I started reading the stirp and creepily following you all down here in the comments.
What I’d add now, that this is only my second favorite time Shaenon did this.
For those who have read Narbonic, look back at the Sunday strip on September 17, 2000 and the Friday strip on August 19, 2006. She knew! She didn’t care what the last name was, but she knew she was going to do that scene from the beginning.
Genius!
Hot dang, that’s some INSANE levels of planning in advance. Kudos to both of you for setting this up and then having the discipline not to spill it during the YEARS of development!
I read Shaenon’s annotated “Director’s Cut” of the Narbonic strips years ago, and posted something (possibly to Skin Horse) to the effect that my mind was blown by how far in advance she had clearly planned some things. I did not know the half of it.
I am endlessly impressed; I am also a little sad, because it suggests that we’re heading to closure, and the Skin Horse characters have been my daily friends since the first moment I tripped over the strip. Ah well; nothing lasts forever, and the ride has been a blast.
And that, jadies and lentlemen, is how you write a myth-arc. God I love it when a plot comes together.
I may or may not be coming to you guys for tips.
Shaenon, you’re the Baum.
That, my good man, is a Grade-A, First Class pun! Well done!
Indeed! Of all the well-deserved praise being heaped on Shaenon & Channing, that’s the best tribute of all!
i had to put on a hat so i could take it off in respect for that pun.
Hey, Ed, here’s your mic—you dropped it.
That is the best worst pun I’ve seen or heard in a while.
For such a pun, wise Eddurd, on thy brow
Place now this crown, which richly thou deserv’st;
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the Baum off from an anointed king!
Perfect.
Now that is how you play the long game when it comes to foreshadowing.
Bravo. Bravo.
Wow.
Just…wow.l
So glad I made sure to visit on a Sunday. This is incredible.
I think I just had a story-gasm.
I rarely comment here. (Long-time lurker.) And I also rarely read the Sunday strips. As many readers have said, my mind is blown. Thank you.
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Mind.
B L O W N.
Oh. Oh I just got another one!
How has everyone in the strip treated Ira since his first appearance? Why, it was almost as if he wasn’t there…
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
Ooh, and I was wondering about the Armistice heart just yesterday!
I never read the books, but I’ve followed the which-character-is-what discussions with interest. Only now does it surprise me that to the best I can recall, no one ever tried to figure out who the freaking WIZARD was!
You owe it to yourself to read the books. They’re marvelous, and the illustrations by John R. Neill (after vol. 1) are gorgeous.
Well, I think it was pretty well accepted that ‘Mr. Green’ was the wizard, and people certainly spent no small amount of time trying to figure out who he was.
I am in awe… or Oz…
Somewhere under the annex
Minds are blown
And the Skin hose we know and love so much
Has come home
Whoah.
Oh my god. Well done.
When I first started reading it, I thought “Skin Horse” was not nearly as good as Narbonic, and even stopped reading it a couple of times. What kept me coming back was trust in Shaenon, and OMG has that trust been rewarded.
This is the most incredible reveal of a long-term plot point, fairly forshadowed a la classic mystery stories, where you have all the clues but STILL can’t beat the detective to the announcement of the solution, I have ever seen in a comic. The only thing that comes close is a certain not-to-be-named cartoonist who hinted on the cover of #13 of his comic book that a large stone figure (seen only in black-and-white and from weird angles inside) might look like a familiar superhero, then popped what seemed to be that superhero’s face on the cover of #80 many years later – but in that case, there was no intervening repetition of further clues, nor was that surprise in any way the climax of the whole secret storyline driving the whole comic.
Wow. Just wow. I am in awe of the storytelling skills you obviously both possess.
And while I always look at them eventually, I almost never look at the Sunday strip on Sunday. I’m very glad I made an exception this time.
Again: Wow!
We’re not worthy!
Hot dang, this is almost 8-Bit Theater levels of callback.
Going just by elapsed time between setup and payoff, arguably even more (by a year or so).
Great Father Above, this is…wow…the sheer wonder of this long game is just…wow.
Another thought on the appropriateness of Tip representing both the character he’s named for and Dorothy is that in a lot of head canon the two character are quietly a couple – and Tip certainly has a love affair going on with himself.
+1 on Tip being into himself.
Very on brand for Tip.
[internal screaming]
Actually, on second thought
[external screaming]
And of course we have the issue, where do we go from here? Maybe Oz. Then again, maybe the safe house is Oz. It’s halfway between NJ and PA.
I’m a little sad you skipped Oz’s explanation that the pins were to make the scarecrow sharp.
Brains keep Unity sharp…
…and she’s supposed to be the Scarecrow…oh hell…XD
So who is Gavotte, and what does this tell us about her? (I haven’t read the Oz books, I suppose I’ll have to now.)
My current guess would be Glinda, or possibly the Witch of the North (two different people in the books), (or possibly both a la the movie), but that depends on whether Gavotte shows up again and what she does at that time.
Hmm… Dr. Lee then is the good witch of the south?
The Cypress, or Gavotte’s daughter would be my bet for the good witch of the South. In the Cypress’ case, that would be a literal interpretation.
Holy $#!^. I mean, given how Narbonic went, in retrospect I guess I’m not surprised that y’all managed to pull this off, but still. Wow. That is an amazing set up and reveal. Bravo!
Usually, Shaenon and Jeff, you don’t do reveals or other plot-critical things on Sundays, so leaving the Sunday material out of the print collections hasn’t mattered*. But this one … tell me this one’s going to be in the print collection. Because mother of monkeys**, but this is huge.
If the book is in the public domain by now, you might eve be able to include it without attracting legal trouble (though your own lawyers, if you have some, would know that sort of thing better than I would).
*Although obviously I’m delighted that the Narbonic Victorian storyline finally made it to print.
**Not in a swear font, because I actually use this phrase in real life.
All of L Frank Baums’s Oz books are public domain by now. So are the two by Jack Snow, the first two Ruth Plumly Thompson ones and her last 5, at this point, as copyright gets rather complicated.
All of the quote here are from the first book, though, so no problems there.
Just remember, Oz was not a bad guy. Whoever Ira is, he’s probably trying to help Skin Horse. I’m thinking he might be the founder of Skin Horse and has been watching over it the entire time.
I never read the book, so I may be off, but the worst that could be said about Oz was that he was a fraud. However, he sure could cook up miracles to help the heroes on their journey.
He also hired a little girl to assassinate his rival, assuming she would fail and be brutally murdered. He never had any intention of paying her team’s fee, and did in fact only pay one of the four (defrauding the others–though in his defense he did outright tell them that he couldn’t pay and that they didn’t need the things they wanted anyway, and they just asked him to again).
That’s just in the first book though. When he shows up later, he helps Dorothy get out from the underground kingdom and repents completely.
Ira always reminded me of Mr. McFeely… an evil Mr. McFeely. **Shivers**
OBTW, this is absolutely amazing!
It’s been over fifty years, but now I must go back to Oz.
Thank you Shaenon And Jeff!
And here I was beginning to suspect the far more simplistic that Ira is Tip looped back after x years when the possums returned or somesuch. WOW
I”m stil not quite sure Ira isn’t related to Dr. Collodi. Might just be me.
As an off and on reader of Skin-Horse, all I can do is add my applause to your well deserved acclaim. Bravo!
I hope that they teach this in a college-level literature class in a hundred years.
Im just marveling here at aaalllll the foreshadowing I completely missed. XD
Typical for me. I always read the Sunday strips, so of course the one I don’t it has the Big Reveal.
Holy butts. I’m… I’m just dumbstruck. It must have been eating you up inside, waiting to drop this bomb on us. Well done, all y’all. Well hecking done.
If Ira used bran on UNITY, it would have been RAISIN (the dead) BRAN!
SQUEEEEEEE!!! <3
I bow in awe and admiration. That was beautifully done.
I would love to have seen the grin that must have been on your face when you clicked the button to post this big Reveal, after all the years of planning and setup.
Ooof. The other other shoe may have just dropped.
What’s been the recent theme? Reality blindness… as in, “people are unable to see what is right in front of them.”
Is this entirely an in-strip subject (Tip and the others not seeing Ira for what he is and has been), or was it a message to the readers about the fact that Shaenon had successfully Gotten Away With It? or maybe both at once?
The main clue thus far was the fiasco where Ira seemed to predict the future (In regards to Tigerlilly’s dragon (I don’t have the hyperlink, sorry)) one of the departments (Department of Temporal Anomalies?) was going to investigate him, but instead received a text from their future selves saying that he was all clear…
I recall a Charlie Strauss story where the Department of Temporal Anomalies predicted that the protagonist’s office would be destroyed or disbanded within a year — not a good thing, given their department was in charge of defending the world against Lovecraft’s pantheon. The twist was… interesting.
That was http://skin-horse.com/comic/and-offer-a/
Words fail me. Thank you.
Two days later, and I’m still trying to find my lower jaw. I’m sure it landed somewhere near my desk after reading through this post, but I haven’t found it yet…
Magnificently done! Right on par with the “We’re all mad here” reveal in Narbonic. Absolutely love your work!
Remind me, who’re Ginny and Tigerlily in the Oz scheme? Is one of them Professor H.M. Wogglebug, T.E.?
Holy S#@%!
As someone who’s binged ten years worth of comics in ten days, I’m glad that I caught all of these except the Unity one. Though I suppose reading so many strips in such a short sitting makes it easier to connect the dots.
And every time you go back and read it again, you’ll catch more little details. It’s almost addictive.
A rose(nkrantz) is a rose is a violet.
The Oz scenario fits so well. Though several characters have double potential like UNITY is Scarecrow/Patchwork girl.
Just one of the many layers of that world.
I’ve been bingeing this on and off for at least 5 years and am well and truly gobsmacked. You, my dear, are a storytelling genius.
Based on others comments, I think I may have to find your earlier “Narbonic” strip and do the same with it.
Hold The Phone Here.
So Ira/Mr. Green *definitely* appeared before the team as A Lovely Lady [Violet Bee], but did he also appear as a great head, a terrible beast, and a ball of fire?
I love this revelation and the foreshadowing that lead to it.
…honestly from what we’ve seen of Mr Green before this, I should have predicted he’d be the Wizard analogue. Not because of the symbolism, but because both the Wizard and Mr. Green are the actual worst people (and I love them).