Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2018-08-10
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2018-08-10

by shaenon on August 10, 2018 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Angry with the Sky
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Discussion (48) ¬

  1. Robert Nowall
    August 10, 2018, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    The start of what, Ira?

  2. Exasperation
    August 10, 2018, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    If Ira went around being shocked every time he encountered something his memories didn’t prepare him for, he’d have no time to do anything else.

    • Duth Olec
      August 10, 2018, 12:58 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, like enjoy his balloon–wait, where’d it go??

    • awgiedawgie
      August 10, 2018, 12:59 am | # | Reply

      But that’s just it. When Sweetheart would arrive at Annex One, Ira would scream in shock, “Ahh! Talking dog!” I can only find the one occasion, and Ira did it twice in the same conversation (the second time was three strips later), but I think it’s safe to assume he did it on a regular basis, since he had to be reminded daily that Tip was a man.

      So it is kind of odd that he does not act at all surprised here.

      • Exasperation
        August 10, 2018, 1:58 am | # | Reply

        Oh, sure, ruin my joke with your “facts” and “logic”.

        • awgiedawgie
          August 10, 2018, 4:59 pm | # | Reply

          I know, I know… those are so inconvenient at times. They spoil the best jokes and the worst plans.

    • Barking Monkey
      August 10, 2018, 6:32 am | # | Reply

      Or maybe Ira always seemed forgetful because he was experiencing a genuine reality much stranger than what everyone else was perceiving, and the reality filter just dragged him down closer to the frame of reference of the reader…(granted, not a very likely scenario, but the Sgt. Dietrich in me can’t help but like it.)

    • aylatrigger
      August 10, 2018, 8:59 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, I am an extremely forgetful person…and nothing shocks me. I just expect things I do not know to occur/be seen.

  3. Alphaghoul
    August 10, 2018, 12:19 am | # | Reply

    I knew it! He was faking the entire time! He might even secretly be Mr. Green!

    • Gyrre
      August 10, 2018, 12:28 am | # | Reply

      I don’t know about being Mr. Green, but I have suspicions.

    • awgiedawgie
      August 10, 2018, 1:15 am | # | Reply

      That theory has been presented before. Nearly 4 years ago, in fact. A few readers were discussing that possibility. It’s come up again a few times here and there in the years since then.

      We’ve all seen little inconsistencies now and again, but this seems to be the first time that Sweetheart has noticed a chink in Ira’s facade.

    • awgiedawgie
      August 10, 2018, 1:19 am | # | Reply

      And the irony of it all…

      Virginia gave him the plans for the weather machine. A-Sig may not even have had them. It may have been her own personal design. And she thought she was just doing something nice for a senile old man.

      • Wesley
        August 10, 2018, 7:49 am | # | Reply

        Oh fudgessicles I completely forgot that Lee did that

      • Sasha Honeypalm
        August 10, 2018, 8:14 am | # | Reply

        When was this, again?

        • Daibhid C
          August 10, 2018, 2:08 pm | # | Reply

          End of “Yes, Virginia”.

          http://skin-horse.com/comic/you-um/

          The last panel there triggered many people’s “How out of it is Ira really?” senses.

          • Shadowmehr
            August 10, 2018, 8:36 pm | #

            Back then, I wondered if the weather machine was a Chekov’s Gun. Sometimes I hate being right. (This isn’t one of those times.)

          • awgiedawgie
            August 10, 2018, 9:54 pm | #

            I knew it was a Chekov’s gun, but I honestly thought (and still do, somewhat) that it would be Tigerlily that would fire it, rather than Ira himself.

      • Knuckles
        February 8, 2022, 9:54 am | # | Reply

        Even knowing that now, I still think it was very sweet of her to do that for Ira.

  4. dvandom
    August 10, 2018, 12:33 am | # | Reply

    Ira’s been brain-wiped so many times that the mad science cure just sort of slides off his brain.

  5. Bruce A Munro
    August 10, 2018, 12:35 am | # | Reply

    “I should have taken him?” That doesn’t sound ominous _at all_.

    • Candace
      August 10, 2018, 2:19 am | # | Reply

      Yes, this comment is very worrisome.

    • Shadowmehr
      August 10, 2018, 8:35 pm | # | Reply

      That line is the verbal equivalent of two gears beginning to mesh. Which is not a good sound in this context.

  6. M. Alan Thomas II
    August 10, 2018, 12:38 am | # | Reply

    Are we sure Ira isn’t a slow-aging Dr. Collodi?
    http://skin-horse.com/comic/boring-psych/

    • D. Walker
      August 10, 2018, 2:30 pm | # | Reply

      Even accounting for artistic inconsistancy, the character designs are still distinct. Ira has larger ears, larger eyebrows, a different jaw shape, less wrinkles…

      Plus, we know Collodi wore a “cheap and fake” toupee, so he must have been bald, which Ira is not.

      • D. Walker
        August 10, 2018, 10:33 pm | # | Reply

        That said, Konstantin is still a dead ringer for Fox Mulder.

  7. Urlance Woolsbane
    August 10, 2018, 1:12 am | # | Reply

    YANA

  8. Moe Lane
    August 10, 2018, 1:18 am | # | Reply

    Dammit, Ira. I *liked* you.

    • Towering Barbarian
      August 10, 2018, 4:00 am | # | Reply

      It might still be a bit too early to withdraw that liking yet. ^_^

      • Dr. Steve
        August 10, 2018, 10:13 am | # | Reply

        Who wouldn’t like a nice old fellow who can act so innocently befuddled while masterminding a… well… something. Probably global domination. Hmm… makes me wonder about Uncle Billy.

    • OneUniverse
      August 10, 2018, 2:25 pm | # | Reply

      I just hope Ira isn’t Mr. Green.

  9. Duth Olec
    August 10, 2018, 1:19 am | # | Reply

    Now that I–well, look it up–Ira warned Chris about going into the basement, and what happened when he did? He told the silverfish to eat the files. (Silverfish that also remarked on “many colossi” coming to look for the files.)

  10. Peter M Eng
    August 10, 2018, 1:39 am | # | Reply

    I’m reminded of people who have unusual body chemistry. Things that were supposed to calm them down made them anxious, and vice versa.

    I wonder if the enforced reality blindness effect works in reverse on Ira?

    • awgiedawgie
      August 10, 2018, 1:47 am | # | Reply

      I am like that. Also some things that give others nausea or heartburn are soothing to me, and antacids give me heartburn. I had an interesting childhood.

      • Candace
        August 10, 2018, 2:18 am | # | Reply

        Yup, me too. I had an *interesting* experience in a hospital once when a couple of medications they gave me together had some kind of weird synergistic effect and caused me to have a really rare one-in-a-thousand kind of bad reaction. One of them was Benadryl, which they had given me to help me sleep, even though I had already explained to the nurse that it would not only not help me sleep, but not relax me in any way, shape or form.

        • Kirala
          August 10, 2018, 11:14 am | # | Reply

          Benadryl is of the devil. It (along with pretty much every -edrine antihistamine) makes me super jittery *and* exhausted. I can’t rest or work. I call it my zombie state: neither dead nor alive.

          I’m still vaguely suspicious about all the people who claim it’s relaxing/sleep-inducing. Who are these *quiet* dead?

          • awgiedawgie
            August 10, 2018, 5:22 pm | #

            Well, whoever is marketing diphenhydramine (Benadryl’s active ingredient) is really selling the whole “sleep inducing” thing, since the same ingredient is in Tylenol PM, Advil PM, Motrin PM and Aleve PM, as well as drug store brand versions of the same things.

            While one of the principle effects of diphenhydramine is sedation, some of its other effects can include increased heart rate, irritability, irregular breathing, excitability, and restlessness. So basically, it counteracts itself. They know this, and yet the medical community as a whole continues to not only allow it, but even encourage its use.

          • Gyrre
            August 11, 2018, 3:56 pm | #

            That’s the American pharmaceutical industry for you.

            While I don’t have a bad reaction to diphenhydramine, it doesn’t make me drowsy either. I wonder if it’s from being on antihistamines since I was 9 or 10.

          • awgiedawgie
            August 11, 2018, 6:17 pm | #

            Hmmm…. I don’t know how old you are (for some bizarre reason, I just act like all other commenters are the same age as I am), but there is some discussion about diphenhydramine being linked to dementia in older people. Also, it is not recommended for anyone over 60 to take it at all, for some of its other effects on the body. I don’t know if there are similar concerns for any other antihistamines, but if you’ve been taking them since 9 or 10, it could become an issue for you.

    • soft
      August 10, 2018, 10:10 am | # | Reply

      I have a friend I’ve known since high school which caffine actually puts him to sleep.

      • wearsshoes
        August 10, 2018, 10:31 am | # | Reply

        “If you can’t sleep at night, it’s not the coffee, it’s the bunk.”
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July_(film)

        • Feech
          August 10, 2018, 12:00 pm | # | Reply

          I remember his poor girlfriend being so baffled. “But coffee keeps you awake at night.”

      • awgiedawgie
        August 10, 2018, 5:26 pm | # | Reply

        Caffeine doesn’t put me to sleep, but it doesn’t keep me awake, either.

        • Gyrre
          August 11, 2018, 3:57 pm | # | Reply

          Ditto.

    • Exasperation
      August 10, 2018, 6:21 pm | # | Reply

      I have that with Novocaine (and related compounds). Instead of numbness, they cause intense pain.

  11. Edgar M Lemos
    August 10, 2018, 5:14 pm | # | Reply

    Ah finally the mask slips a bit.

  12. awgiedawgie
    August 10, 2018, 5:49 pm | # | Reply

    Then again, maybe we’re all daft, and Ira simply isn’t shocked at a talking dog because of everyone — and everything — else that’s in the room. After all, a talking dog is certainly no more bizarre than a sentient automaton who acts like he’s still in the 1800s… attached to another sentient automaton whose principle skill is smashing things.

    (No I really don’t believe that’s all there is to it. Ira’s up to something.)

  13. jdreyfuss
    February 3, 2020, 2:30 pm | # | Reply

    Is Ira Mr. Green?

    • awgiedawgie
      February 3, 2020, 3:01 pm | # | Reply

      You’re not the first person to have that thought. I think the first time I saw someone say that was back in 2014.

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