Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2013-11-18
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2013-11-18

by shaenon on November 18, 2013 at 12:01 am
Chapter: My Brother Sam Is Dead
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Discussion (52) ¬

  1. Norman
    November 18, 2013, 12:19 am | # | Reply

    And whatever you do, do not refer to that city just to the north as “Frisco”

    • djiril
      November 18, 2013, 11:05 pm | # | Reply

      Or you’ll have to pay a fine!

  2. Moe Lane
    November 18, 2013, 12:21 am | # | Reply

    This is the single most depressing/alarming strip of Skin Horse EVER.

    • Ian Thompson
      November 18, 2013, 4:56 am | # | Reply

      It is a Lord in his court, it is a universe where a great man still walks. If anything, It would inspire jealousy rather than depression.

      • Moe Lane
        November 18, 2013, 6:37 am | # | Reply

        But he’s GIVING UP.

        • iburns
          November 18, 2013, 7:52 am | # | Reply

          I know! How can one of my heroes be introduced on the brink of surrender? I hope he gets it together.
          On the plus side, we have learned a bit of zombie demographics.

  3. Evil Midnight Lurker
    November 18, 2013, 12:22 am | # | Reply

    He kept his dogs! That’s sweet and horrifying.

  4. MaggieDreadful
    November 18, 2013, 12:35 am | # | Reply

    Oh my gosh, It’s the Norton I, good to see he’s still going strong.

  5. Keiya
    November 18, 2013, 12:40 am | # | Reply

    YES ZOMBIE NORTON I!

    • Siva Smith
      March 5, 2016, 12:11 pm | # | Reply

      I am such a history nerd that I almost squeed!

  6. theauldgrump
    November 18, 2013, 12:50 am | # | Reply

    Ah, Bummer and Lazarus still accompany the Emperor, I see.

    • Seph
      November 18, 2013, 8:14 am | # | Reply

      And Lazarus’ name is more appropriate than ever.

    • Siva Smith
      March 5, 2016, 12:14 pm | # | Reply

      So, is your avatar Gravedust or Tombdirt? Or does it change with the new chapter?

  7. Mark Temple
    November 18, 2013, 12:56 am | # | Reply

    love the cobwebs on Emperor Norton..

  8. freddiefreelance
    November 18, 2013, 1:03 am | # | Reply

    Who are the little Love hearts shooting out of?

    • Ian Thompson
      November 18, 2013, 5:07 am | # | Reply

      That zombie in the pillbox hat seems to be examining her fan, very closely, and we all know what that means, still haven’t gotten your mojo down to baseline have you tip. 😉

  9. Amonduul
    November 18, 2013, 1:55 am | # | Reply

    So is Lazarus the one who got killed by the dog that was latter shived in prison or is that Bummer?

  10. WuseMajor
    November 18, 2013, 2:26 am | # | Reply

    …Of course the Emperor would be Norton. Go Zombie Emperor Norton I!

    …….I wonder if Unity has a plan for dealing with him too?

    • Ian Thompson
      November 18, 2013, 5:03 am | # | Reply

      I imagine that my Kandy Kluge Does not plan.I imagine that someone designates an area and says have fun. Despite being a gorgeous fun-loving sweet woman she is still a weapon,Possibly of one of mass destruction , considering her ability to punch through several feet of concrete and rebar accidentally.

      • iburns
        November 18, 2013, 8:00 am | # | Reply

        YOUR little Candy Kluge? Getting all possessive of the Pied Catgirl of Oz is just asking for a Sweetheart to the throat, not to mention protective jealous glares from the internet.
        Incidentally, the portmanteau couple name? Sweet Pied.

        • Ian Thompson
          November 18, 2013, 3:02 pm | # | Reply

          Yes Mine,We are into each other. send me your contact info and I can prove it.

        • Ian Thompson
          November 18, 2013, 3:04 pm | # | Reply

          besides sweetheart is too darned lawful to do anything like that , unless my advances were unwelcome and persistent. Granted the second half of that is true.

    • daibhidc
      November 18, 2013, 5:40 am | # | Reply

      “Look it’s Constable Armand Barbier!”

      Then BAM! Leg-sweep!

  11. mrmonkeyhead2013
    November 18, 2013, 3:55 am | # | Reply

    It’s a good thing Niue isn’t with them…

  12. eddurd
    November 18, 2013, 6:21 am | # | Reply

    (TUNE: “Wichita Lineman”, Glen Campbell)

    I am the Emperor called Norton,
    And I rule the U.S.!
    But Mexico, I can’t protect because it’s such a mess!
    Now I am holding court in Colma,
    In my imperial attire!
    I’m the Emperor, Norton …
    You’d best call me “Sire”!

    I have a plan for abdication,
    There is no doubt of that …
    And you can tell my plan is good, for I still have my hat!
    It’s, as you say, “the best hat ever,”
    The hat that you may now admire
    Of the Emperor, Norton …
    You’d best call me “Sire”!

  13. Rex Vivat
    November 18, 2013, 9:37 am | # | Reply

    Interesting how Unity seems to be the only non-green zombie in the room.

    • iburns
      November 18, 2013, 10:23 am | # | Reply

      Well, she isn’t really a zombie is she. Makes me wonder: if we had colorized Narbonic, would Zombie!Dave be green as well?

  14. WAKnight
    November 18, 2013, 9:44 am | # | Reply

    SQUEEEEEEEE!

  15. Stickmaker
    November 18, 2013, 10:44 am | # | Reply

    Not too loudly, please, UNITY. There could be Jägermonsters about.

    “Where iz nize hat?!”

    • iburns
      November 18, 2013, 2:07 pm | # | Reply

      It’s okay, a Jager can only take a hat won in honorable combat. And there is no way that Emperor Norton would be defeated. It’s a physical impossibility.

      • roberttheaddled
        November 18, 2013, 7:48 pm | # | Reply

        Winning by a trick counts – Such as when Maxim ‘buys’ a hat.

        http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100519

  16. Dave
    November 18, 2013, 11:32 am | # | Reply

    As someone who is not familiar with Narbonic or Shaenon’s other works, can someone fill me in on the background of Norton I? The reference is lost on me but I gather he must have been a big Narbonic character from all the outpouring.

    • John
      November 18, 2013, 11:51 am | # | Reply

      He’s not a Narbonic character, as far as I know. He’s a character [as in, boy, he’s a real character] from History. Lived in San Francisco, declared himself Emperor of the US in 1859.

      • Dave
        November 18, 2013, 1:26 pm | # | Reply

        Aw man, googling historical people never occured to me. Xd

        • roberttheaddled
          November 18, 2013, 7:49 pm | # | Reply

          References periodically in other pop culture as well – Illuminatus trilogy for starters.

          • Norman
            November 18, 2013, 9:59 pm | #

            Also in certain steampunk/fantasy roleplaying games named for a German castle ^_^.
            And in an(other) alternate North America, Mike Morrison stars in a movie as Nasty Jim Brannigan, a private cop working at Emperor Norton University in San Francisco.

          • jdreyfuss
            January 23, 2020, 11:34 am | #

            In Christopher Moore’s books he’s still alive and possibly immortal, as are his dogs.

  17. B. Durbin
    November 18, 2013, 11:51 am | # | Reply

    Norton I (Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico) is a person from actual history. He was a person who decided he was in charge and sent a proclamation to the local paper, which printed it (and all further proclamations.) He printed his own money. He’s the first person to propose a bridge between San Francisco and Oakland (which is why there was a push to name the new span of the Bay Bridge after him.) Because he lived in San Francisco, the locals decided he was fine and encouraged him, and he became a tourist attraction. He basically subsisted on charity, but was well-loved and even passed a sanity trial because the judge said that he was doing far better than most folks in charge. When he died, thousands of people attended his funeral.

    Look him up—one site is notfrisco.com and includes all the texts of his proclamations.

    • Miserichord
      November 18, 2013, 12:26 pm | # | Reply

      Joshua Abraham Norton, a good Jewish boy born in England from a merchant family who moved with his parents to South Africa when he was very young.
      He moved to SF in 1849, at the age of 29 to 34 (his birth date is unknown)
      and became a successful real estate investor. Tried his hand at speculating in rice futures, and proved less successful, finally declaring bankruptcy in 1858.

    • Ian Thompson
      November 18, 2013, 3:07 pm | # | Reply

      He stopped a race riot by standing peacefully in front of the Street to Chinatown and resetting the Lord’s prayer until”such time as the mob disbanded, “ashamed of the wrath they held towards their citymen”

    • Moe Lane
      November 19, 2013, 12:45 am | # | Reply

      “The Emperor Norton has never shed blood. He has robbed no one, and despoiled no country. And that, gentlemen, is a hell of a lot more than can be said for anyone else in the king line.”

    • David DeLaney
      November 21, 2013, 4:02 am | # | Reply

      After the Chinatown incident, all the policemen of SF saluted him whenever their paths crossed.

      He not only printed his own money, or ‘scrip’ (yes, you knew it was more foreshadowing, right?), which any fule culd do, but restaurants and stores _accepted_ it. As currency.

      Another of his proclamations named Mark Twain as the official Poet of the United States.

      His funeral procession included over ten thousand people, and there was a total eclipse of the sun.

      –Dave, as with local Knoxville politician Stacey Campfield (who you may also look up on Wikipedia), we are not making this up! He was perhaps the greatest avatar of the American Dream, and our sole Emperor, and there will never come his like again.

      PS: Yes, I _know_ this sounds like a series of Chuck Norris jokes. He can’t help that.

  18. Pygar2
    November 18, 2013, 12:42 pm | # | Reply

    He was kinda like “Batkid”, but they let him keep his job longer.

    Not much entertainment back then; in some ways it was very grim. Having a citywide joke to be in on, was a very popular thing. Tourists flocked to be presented to him, he ate at any establishment he came upon and never had to pay… there was, after all, publicity value in being a place at which the Emperor of the United States had dined! I don’t know if he was crazy or crazy like a fox… but he was *one* person no one wanted to mess with, and very egalitarian.

    • Dave Harmon
      November 20, 2013, 10:59 am | # | Reply

      Neil Gaiman have him an extended piece in his Sandman epic (reprinted in volume 6, Fables and Reflections), as the subject of a contest between Dream and Despair. Since he’s apparently a “vassal” of Dream, rather than Delirium, Gaiman seems to lean toward “crazy like a fox”.

      • David DeLaney
        November 21, 2013, 3:52 am | # | Reply

        And I am quite glad to see that U.N.I.T.Y. agrees with Death!

        –Dave

  19. Saberbeam
    November 18, 2013, 3:26 pm | # | Reply

    Well they can also get a hat by “bein’ sottil”, but I doubt Emperor Norton is about to let a Jager outsmart him.

  20. Saberbeam
    November 18, 2013, 3:30 pm | # | Reply

    And that was supposed to be a reply to iburns comment about Jagers. Accursed comment system! *shakes fist at sky*

  21. Shadowmehr
    November 18, 2013, 7:01 pm | # | Reply

    The Emperor is undead.

    Long live(?) the Emperor.

    If Our Heroes cannot dissuade Emperor Norton from stepping down, who will be stepping up?

    Do you suppose that U.N.I.T.Y.’s new wisdom will allow her to assume the crown? Or is that the kind of thought that would inspire nightmares in the thoughtful?

    • Rex Vivat
      November 18, 2013, 8:31 pm | # | Reply

      That quote sounds vaguely familiar.

      • Shadowmehr
        November 19, 2013, 5:58 pm | # | Reply

        It’s a variation on what is said every time a potentate of a country dies, and the next of the kin takes over; meant to both mourn the dead and celebrate the living. Seemed (in)appropriate here.

        • Rex Vivat
          November 20, 2013, 12:26 am | # | Reply

          I know. The original quote is “Rex mortuus est, vivat rex”. You may recognize those last two words from somewhere else.

    • David DeLaney
      November 21, 2013, 4:07 am | # | Reply

      …and now I’m imagining a crossover fanfic between Skin Horse and Tim Powers’ _Last Call_, in which U.N.I.T.Y. finds she is a legal Jack and proceeds to compete in the Assumption games for King of the West.

      –Dave, this is America, we can have female Kings if we want. There’s plenty of male queens around, after all.

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