2014-09-06
Our final guest artist is Vincent Kukua. As always, you may check out a higher-resolution version of this strip over on the GoComics mirror. Shaenon returns on September 15th!
Skin Horse
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Our final guest artist is Vincent Kukua. As always, you may check out a higher-resolution version of this strip over on the GoComics mirror. Shaenon returns on September 15th!
I’m always shocked when I find out i’m good at history too.
Its the obscure stuff that is entertaining. I recently found out (Via a tourist flyer) that Benedict Arnold burned the town where I work during the American Revolution. Even though I grew up across the river from said town – I don’t ever recall that mentioned in my American History classes.
That said – the cemetery next door (I can see it at eye level from my 2nd story window) was active from 1750 to 1935. There are at least a dozen or so graves (out of 314) that get ‘flagged’ around Memorial day, indicated that are the graves of veterans.
Thankfully they are very quiet neighbors – unlike Colma.
Yeah, unless you dig, historical figures generally get written up so their early doings are ignored and all you hear about is the One Big Thing that brought them to general attention.
The History According To Bob (podcast) has been doing a series on the Revolutionary War – Now that I KNOW about the Arnold escapade I’m hoping it’ll turn up in a later podcast. The Arnold stuff to-date was a 5 part on the lead-up and actual betrayal.
Fair warning to anyone who tries that podcast – He usually has 3-5 series running side-by-side. Currently Crimean War, Rise of Prussa/Germany prior to WWI, US Revolutionary War, and the Mexican/American War. And those are the ones I remember.
I’m still getting updates from ITunes but for some reason can’t find it in the iTunes store right now. His non-iTunes site is http://www.summahistorica.com
(TUNE: “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” from Fiddler On The Roof, Bock & Harnick)
Nightmarchers, Nightmarchers, marching at night!
Stealers of souls, spirits of fright!
Please, if I may,
I’ll keep out of your way …
I’m hoping that that’s alright!
Nightmarchers, Nightmarchers, beaters of drums!
Quoting the Bard, prick of my thumbs
Tells me this way something wicked now comes …
They beat ’til their prey succumbs!
Miss Nera, you’re not alone, a
Young seaman is protecting you, hon!
He served aboard Arizona,
Which sank in December of ’41!
Nightmarchers, Nightmarchers, please march on by!
Funny, but I
Don’t want to die!
Looking away, so you won’t catch my eye …
So … please, Seaman Hodge,
Help me to dodge
Spirits who slay!
Here I will stay!
So, Nightmarchers, march … away!
Okay, not only is that an excellently produced filk (as per your usual) but the combination of terrifying ghost story situation and cheerful bouncy tune gave me goosebumps. Thanks!
The sergeant said, the time to worry is when the drumming stops.. The drums stopped. We worried. Three against a thousand.
“In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?”
MacAuley, 1881, referencing Livy
Actual odds, three against ninety thousand, give or take. Horatius, Lartius, and Herminius not only won but lived. And all anyone remembers is that pathetic loser copycat Leonidas 🙂
Hmm. Nera, Jonah, and Hodge make three. Nera being really good at history, and Jonah being really good at showing up when he’s needed, she should have nothing to worry about.
Not as good at history as I thought I was, thinking Horatius at the bridge was centuries after Thermopylae, and not nineteen years earlier! Still, Leonidas was a king and had a much better publicist who got him a graphic novel and a movie deal. ^_^
Yes, it’s usual to think of Roman civilization as a successor to Greece, but the Republic goes way, way back.
And speaking of copycats, I just noticed that Miller cribbed one of his more memorable lines from MacAuley’s version of Horatius. Not that Miller doesn’t have plenty of good lines to call his own, and both tales are worth telling and retelling.
“But those behind cried, ‘Forward!’
And those before cried, ‘Back!’ “
And the sergeant who had guided us, the sergeant who had made us men, the sergeant who had made us warriors, collapsed to the ground and clutched his arms over his head.
“What happens when the drumming stops?” we asked.
The sergeant eyes squeezed shut in his pallid face. “Bass solo.”
I suspect we will learn that Seaman Hodge is Nera’s great-grandfather (or great-great-grandfather, if her recent ancestors consistently had children in their late teens); probably he begot her grandfather or grandmother shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Also, that Jonah will have gotten in worse trouble in Nera’s absence.
Can’t find Seaman Hodge on the online lists of USS Arizona casualties or survivors. Proves nothing; they’re incomplete.
Well, it’s not like she hasn’t interviewed the dead before. I’m just surprised that we’re jumping from aberrations of mad science to the supernatural spirit realms. Now things are getting really creepy.
Well, Mad Science isn’t new. Plus, Narbonic certainly had supernatural elements.
By the end of Narbonic, roughly half the main cast had been to Hell at some point.
Well this song has been done a lot, but I couldn’t resist.
To the tune of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by the Andrews Sisters:
Now Jonah, Nera and her Mom landed in the bay,
On their transocean roadtrip they decide to stay,
And it is here they disagree,
Nera just wants cryptids, not national unity,
But now she almost screams, cause it’s really scary,
It’s the spooky, boogie drummer men of old Hawaii!
While Jonah tries to lift the ancient Naha stone,
Brave journalist Nera wanders on her own,
To see if local entities,
Are affected by a lack of government agencies,
But now she jumps in fright, ’cause their really scary,
Their the spooky, boogie drummer men of old Hawaii!
Posthumous advice, from a Seaman,
Can Nera get by with help from this incorporeal veteran?
But now she jumps in fright, ’cause their really scary,
Their the spooky, boogie drummer men of old Hawaii!
Were there army personnel permanently assigned to the Arizona? The naval rank is chief petty officer.
Marines MOSTLY use Army style ranks. Last I knew Capital Ships carried at least SOME Marine Contingent. Now-a-days bird farms for sure. I don’t know about cruisers, and I’m fairly certain we (again) have no active battleships.
A WWII Seaman First Class is now just known as Seaman (E-3) according to Wikipedia and is equivalent to an Army PFC or a Marine Lance Corporal. A First Class Petty Officer (E-6) is an Army/Marine Staff Sergeant equivalent.
Aww. I was kind of hoping the mysterious voice was going to be the more supportive gal-pal Nera was wishing for earlier.