Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2022-04-14
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2022-04-14

by shaenon on April 14, 2022 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Phantomwise
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Discussion (69) ¬

  1. Justin
    April 14, 2022, 12:03 am | # | Reply

    I love how exactly one minute has passed since the first strip (not counting the opening quote).

    • David B Huber
      April 14, 2022, 12:10 am | # | Reply

      Very observant, Justin!

      With Sweetheart and Unity waiting to complete the field team inside.

    • Robert Nowall
      April 14, 2022, 12:52 pm | # | Reply

      They sure packed a lot into that minute.

  2. Towering Barbarian
    April 14, 2022, 12:03 am | # | Reply

    Well, as long as the situation is under control! šŸ™‚

  3. Moe Lane
    April 14, 2022, 12:04 am | # | Reply

  4. Nick
    April 14, 2022, 12:04 am | # | Reply

    Every now and again we’re reminded that Tip is a badass.

    • ranthalling
      April 14, 2022, 10:12 am | # | Reply

      Yeah – I love when Tip demonstrates that he is a bad ass.

  5. John Campbell
    April 14, 2022, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Technically it’s not a UFO if you can identify it as a flying saucer from Planet Lovetron.

    • David B Huber
      April 14, 2022, 9:42 am | # | Reply

      Artie would agree with you, John. šŸ˜‰

      • Aname
        April 15, 2022, 2:52 pm | # | Reply

        Technically it depends on what the “U” stands for.
        Ungulate Flying Object
        Usurious Flying Object
        Unconcious Flying Object
        Uwu Flying Object
        et cetera.

  6. BMunro
    April 14, 2022, 12:08 am | # | Reply

    Excellent callback.

    (It would be sort of hilarious if the comic actually ended with this panel.)

    • David B Huber
      April 14, 2022, 12:15 am | # | Reply

      I agree, BMunro. Hilarious.

      Cruel beyond Madness, but hilarious.

    • Trivena
      April 14, 2022, 3:57 am | # | Reply

      He’s even wearing pink again.

    • Sean K
      April 14, 2022, 7:41 pm | # | Reply

      It would be kind of like the way season 3 of Twin Peaks ended.

  7. Owlmirror
    April 14, 2022, 12:31 am | # | Reply

    We’ve seen Nick pull off a rescue by catching someone while they were falling, by flying sideways and then adjusting. Wasn’t it Jonah?
    *checks*
    yup:
    https://skin-horse.com/comic/in-inspiring/

    Nick: Dammit, I was hoping to spend my wedding night alone with my wife!

    Virginia: I think it would be a very bad omen for our bridesmaid to die on our wedding night.

    Nick: Yeah, yeah. I would save his ass no matter what, but I think I have a constitutional right to kvetch about it.

    *Later, Nick busts Tip’s chops*

    Nick: So, what, you literally went flying after your girlfriend?

    Tip: Nick, I think you of all people should be aware of the crazy things we do for love.

    Nick: *looks a bit abashed*

    Virginia: Yeah, but in Nick’s case, it actually had a chance of working.

    Nick: Ooh, solid burn Wilkin!

    • thnderspirit
      April 14, 2022, 12:34 pm | # | Reply

      I have no accepted this as canon.

      • thnderspirit
        April 14, 2022, 12:34 pm | # | Reply

        *now

  8. Owlmirror
    April 14, 2022, 12:36 am | # | Reply

    Incidentally, I have the whack notion that the flying saucer will teleport to Lovetron, without even going so high that Tip would freeze and/or asphyxiate. So maybe Tip will get to Lovetron after all?

    • Frank Hightower
      April 14, 2022, 12:59 am | # | Reply

      Unless it only teleports what’s inside, meaning tip will be left clinging to nothing and may fall to his d and break every bone in his body

    • Duane B.
      April 14, 2022, 5:48 am | # | Reply

      What if Lovetron IS planet Earth, and the saucer just lands somewhere in Kansas

      • mooring
        April 14, 2022, 9:26 am | # | Reply

        You meant the charismatic person who arrives out of nowhere in a novel flying machine and quickly convinces everyone to accept them as the legimitate ruler might be a humbug from Kansas??

        • Nomi
          April 14, 2022, 10:23 am | # | Reply

          Exactly. I don’t think Lovetron exists.

          • Dewy
            April 14, 2022, 12:25 pm | #

            This is exactly what I thought, too. Why would it be travelling over the ground and not heading into space? What’s really going on inside? Are they ‘seeing’ themselves in a ship flying through space right now?

      • awgiedawgie
        April 14, 2022, 11:25 am | # | Reply

        I was thinking it would land somewhere closer to Groom Lake.

  9. Frank Hightower
    April 14, 2022, 12:58 am | # | Reply

    Tip? I have to remind you you’re not a Waste Allocation Load Lifter and cannot breathe in space

    • Candace
      April 14, 2022, 1:19 am | # | Reply

      Maybe he can mojo himself inside if he gets desperate enough.

  10. JoB
    April 14, 2022, 2:08 am | # | Reply

    … this is going to turn into a Drei-Wetter-Taft ad, isn’t it?

  11. Doghouse
    April 14, 2022, 4:32 am | # | Reply

    And the circle is complete

    I am going to miss this strip SO much.

  12. Robert Nowall
    April 14, 2022, 6:46 am | # | Reply

    That’s gotta be close to the end.

  13. Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder
    April 14, 2022, 7:47 am | # | Reply

    That’s not a starship.
    It’s a prison that flies.
    And all the prisoners just walked into it
    happily.
    There’s no way to open the door from the inside.

    Tip hain’t really one of you
    he’s just an alien through and through
    trying to make believe he’s you
    trying to fit.
    But he is where you need him now.
    Lt. Tip is on the outside now.

    • SVGeezer
      April 14, 2022, 7:57 am | # | Reply

      Looking and not seeing a “To Serve Man” (It’s a Cook Book!) reference.

      Was there and I missed it?

    • James R. Baerg
      April 14, 2022, 11:53 am | # | Reply

      ISTR someone from a few centuries ago saying that an ocean voyage was like being in prison except for the added hazard of drowning. I suppose a space voyage has some similarities.

      • Carl Fishman
        April 14, 2022, 5:09 pm | # | Reply

        Samuel Johnson, I think. (Who also observed that the finest sight that a visitor to Scotland will see is the road back to England.)

        • BMunro
          April 14, 2022, 8:27 pm | # | Reply

          The version I know is even more condescending:

          “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England”

          (Not only do the English find the road back superior to anything in Scotland, but _the Scots themselves_ will find nothing in their country superior to a route out of it. Ouch.)

          • Robert Nowall
            April 14, 2022, 9:18 pm | #

            True, but after forced union it wasn’t long before the Scots ran the show. (I’m gonna miss these little intellectual diversions.)

  14. SVGeezer
    April 14, 2022, 7:54 am | # | Reply

    Could this be IT?

    It strangely feels like a proper end.

    • David B Huber
      April 14, 2022, 9:47 am | # | Reply

      I can see The Authors doing that. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow’s strip was a farewell message from Shaenon saying how much she’s enjoyed doing this for 10 years…

      Is Jeff still wearing his “Lawful Good” T-shirt?

    • Christian Rose
      April 14, 2022, 10:21 am | # | Reply

      I mean…I don’t want it to be, but it fits.

    • awgiedawgie
      April 14, 2022, 11:30 am | # | Reply

      Well, with Narbonic, the final strip was a bunch of guest artists neatly tying up all the unfired Chekov’s Guns. This would be a fitting final authors’ strip, followed by a similar collage of guest art.

    • James R. Baerg
      April 14, 2022, 11:58 am | # | Reply

      But the file name story would end mid-sentence if there aren’t a few more strips.

    • Daibhid C
      April 14, 2022, 1:50 pm | # | Reply

      It feels extremely bookendy, of course, but there’s just TOO MANY loose ends to tie up. Ending here would be like ending with Helen arriving at the Arctic base; yes, it would nicely mirror Dave arriving at the bunker, but it wouldn’t have contained anything resembling a resolution.

      “Have all the non-humans just walked into a trap?”, “Who gassed Team Irradiation, and why?”, and “What is A-Sig planning next?” feel like bigger questions than “How does Caliban’s barista career go?” or “Whatever happened to those Madblood robots, anyway?”

      • 5-tons-of-flax
        April 14, 2022, 6:50 pm | # | Reply

        We know the answer to your second question, at least. Alpha Alpha and Valiant gassed them. They were guarding Echo Bravo.

      • Robert Nowall
        April 14, 2022, 7:20 pm | # | Reply

        Some of the Madblood robots were floating around here and there: there were three (and then two) at the “Green Noah” Iron Robot contest.

  15. jwghaller
    April 14, 2022, 9:01 am | # | Reply

    <3

  16. soft
    April 14, 2022, 9:49 am | # | Reply

    Love the panel with him just hanging on by one arm without any sign of strain, like a badass.

    And I’m also concerned, as this flying saucer doesn’t appear to be leaving the planet’s atmosphere….

  17. Christian Rose
    April 14, 2022, 10:19 am | # | Reply

    Um… where’s Toto?

    • bergerjacques
      April 14, 2022, 10:40 am | # | Reply

      Blessing the rains down in Africa, I expect.

      • awgiedawgie
        April 14, 2022, 11:32 am | # | Reply

        Still? They’ve been working on that for 40 years!

        • bergerjacques
          April 14, 2022, 3:20 pm | # | Reply

          They know how to hold the line…

          • Sean K
            April 14, 2022, 7:49 pm | #

            *golf clap*

      • The Chief
        April 14, 2022, 11:36 am | # | Reply

        As Phil Ehart said when the band was breaking up “Well, Kansas, I don’t think we’re in toto anymore.”

        • Forrest M Davis
          April 14, 2022, 4:32 pm | # | Reply

          Oh lord, I so want that to be a true quote! Absolutely brilliant.

          • The Chief
            April 21, 2022, 9:00 am | #

            Sorry for the late reply. Actually, this is a joke that a SF comedy writer I know, Brian Westley, came up with back in the 80’s.

  18. Robert Nowall
    April 14, 2022, 12:51 pm | # | Reply

    The crossdressing psychologist dangled for a saucer ride he has just wangled. “It’s under control,” he insists on the whole, but I wonder if he’ll wind up mangled.

  19. Shadowmehr
    April 14, 2022, 1:04 pm | # | Reply

    The law of Unity of Rings takes effect here. This is the beginning of the end, and perhaps the end of a new beginning.

  20. James Reynolds
    April 14, 2022, 2:06 pm | # | Reply

    I’m sorry if someone else has already said this, but
    ITS A COOKBOOK!

    • Robert Nowall
      April 14, 2022, 2:13 pm | # | Reply

      “Anyone Can Cook” by Auguste Gusteau?

      • Duane B.
        April 14, 2022, 9:01 pm | # | Reply

        “You can cook Anyone” by Gus Gus?

    • awgiedawgie
      April 14, 2022, 2:42 pm | # | Reply

      Mr. Chambers, don’t get on that ship!!

    • BMunro
      April 14, 2022, 8:21 pm | # | Reply

      But bees don’t eat people.
      Or maybe _bees from Lovetron_ do. (We don’t have anything but their word that regular terrestrial bees are also from Lovetron, after all. It’s not like our protagonists have been talking to any terrestrial hives.)

  21. Midwestmutt
    April 14, 2022, 3:48 pm | # | Reply

    I only know Wizard of Oz from the movie so this comic has taken turns in plots I never knew existed. But I feel this return to Kansas has significance.

    • Frank Hightower
      April 14, 2022, 11:48 pm | # | Reply

      I read the book and summaries of the sequels and it still took turns in plots I never knew existed

  22. Beachfox
    April 14, 2022, 6:44 pm | # | Reply

    Ooooo, shivers. That is an -excellent- “we’re in the end-stage now” setup.

  23. BMunro
    April 14, 2022, 8:31 pm | # | Reply

    “and I _always_ wear nice underwear.”

    Isn’t “always make sure you have clean underwear” something your mother is supposed to tell you?

    Other psychiatrist: “Let’s begin with your mother, Mr. Wilkin.”

    • Robert
      April 14, 2022, 11:32 pm | # | Reply

      Wasn’t that a Far Side cartoon?

  24. The Flower Cosmic
    April 14, 2022, 8:54 pm | # | Reply

    Now that’s one hell of a callback šŸ˜€

  25. Daibhid C
    April 15, 2022, 3:19 pm | # | Reply

    Okay, but I’m not sure I follow the chronology here.

    1. Chris and Marcie are “guarding” Alph and Echo by watching Babylon 5 with them.

    2. Chris and Marcie stop doing that and go back to their motel to pack, at which point they’re gassed.

    3. While Sweetheart is complaining about this, Alpha, Echo and Valiant announce they’re also leaving.

    I guess they could have gone to the motel, gassed the nerds, and got back before anyone noticed, I’m just not sure why.

    • Candace
      April 16, 2022, 12:59 pm | # | Reply

      This.^

  26. Daibhid C
    April 15, 2022, 3:22 pm | # | Reply

    This was meant to be a reply to 5 tons of flax’s reply to me.

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