Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2022-06-22
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2022-06-22

by shaenon on June 22, 2022 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Phantomwise
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Discussion (58) ¬

  1. Towering Barbarian
    June 22, 2022, 12:03 am | # | Reply

    There is, Jonah! Eventually she becomes a super hot wife. 🙂

  2. Ladon
    June 22, 2022, 12:18 am | # | Reply

    On the nose? Nose such thing!

  3. Chrysalis
    June 22, 2022, 12:37 am | # | Reply

    Words to live by. Thank you, Gavotte.

  4. WuseMajor
    June 22, 2022, 1:04 am | # | Reply

    …Yeah, what WAS up with Nera’s mom?

    • dvandom
      June 22, 2022, 1:07 am | # | Reply

      And what about Scarecrow’s brain?

    • Candace
      June 22, 2022, 1:14 am | # | Reply

      A bit of a reveal that even Nera doesn’t know what was up with her mom.

      • awgiedawgie
        June 22, 2022, 7:31 am | # | Reply

        I get the feeling that may have been self-induced ignorance… Nera’s self preservation instinct kicking in.

        Either that, or when she was growing up, her mom just kept saying “you’re better off not knowing” whenever Nera would ask. But now that she’s all grown up, she feels she deserves to know anyway.

        • Robert Nowall
          June 22, 2022, 9:28 am | # | Reply

          Seemed she was involved in something that was not the Shadow Government that Skin-Horse and Anasigma were part of. A shadow Shadow Government?

          • Shadowmehr
            June 22, 2022, 1:08 pm | #

            A darker shade of black?

        • Rat
          June 22, 2022, 8:31 pm | # | Reply

          How certain are we that all of Dr. Narbon’s clone daughters were dissected, save Beta?

          Or, even more terrifying: Mell probably has family out there. Somewhere.

          • WuseMajor
            June 22, 2022, 9:04 pm | #

            I admit, I speculated for awhile that Nera’s mom *was* Mell…right up until Nera and Jonah ran into Caliban in one of the bonus stories and Nera didn’t recognize him.

    • Prodigal
      June 22, 2022, 1:21 am | # | Reply

      Nera’s Mom has got something going on.

    • Robert Nowall
      June 22, 2022, 6:25 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, that was on my list, too.

    • David B Huber
      June 22, 2022, 7:04 am | # | Reply

      The way Nera says that makes me think she’s referring to a very recent and specific event.

      Perhaps Nera invited her mom to join them at The Return but she was called away at the last minute?

    • JSStryker
      June 22, 2022, 1:12 pm | # | Reply

      “What was up with Nera’s mom?” that my friend is a story for another time…

  5. Ogden Wernstrom
    June 22, 2022, 2:32 am | # | Reply

    Yes, Jonah. You know there is more. You and Panoptica both saw it, but at the time you thought you could choose a modestly successful life and be content. Are you still sure? There’s a much lousier cartoon out there for you, Jonah. Your writers are holding you back. Would you like to punch Batman?

    • Ogden Wernstrom
      June 24, 2022, 2:02 am | # | Reply

      In case there’s any doubt, the “much lousier” bit wasn’t a dig on the actual cartoon, but an attempt to make it clear I wasn’t seriously criticizing the cartoon for not going in that direction. Ok, going away now.

  6. M
    June 22, 2022, 3:58 am | # | Reply

    Speaking of which, a question for our authors: What’s the best way of finding out about your future projects, once you’ve recovered from writing SH and I’ve finally got out of the habit of refreshing skin-horse.com every day? Maybe you could set up a mailing list for notifications or something? (Please don’t say Facebook.)

    I really don’t want to miss out on The Further Adventures of Nigel the Anti-Gravity Ferret.

    • David B Huber
      June 22, 2022, 7:10 am | # | Reply

      +1 😉

    • awgiedawgie
      June 22, 2022, 7:37 am | # | Reply

      My first thought is their Patreon page. It’ll still be active after the conclusion of Skin Horse.

    • LuckyCheshire
      June 22, 2022, 9:56 am | # | Reply

      +1

    • shaenon
      June 22, 2022, 9:13 pm | # | Reply

      Dang, that’s a good question. I have shaenon.com and a Twitter account, and there’s our Patreon.

      • Clifton
        June 23, 2022, 1:28 pm | # | Reply

        I can testify that Shaenon is an excellent Twitter follow. Horror movie recs and top-notch sarcasm!

  7. Robert Nowall
    June 22, 2022, 6:12 am | # | Reply

    Thought there could be another marriage—theirs.

  8. David B Huber
    June 22, 2022, 7:08 am | # | Reply

    I love how Jonah and Nera are standing in for all us fans so the authors can use Gavotte to advise us to be satisfied, if not content.

    • Robert Nowall
      June 22, 2022, 9:29 am | # | Reply

      I am looking forward to seeing the last one, and then posting, “But what about So-and-So?”

      (I’ve got a theory about how it *could* end, but I don’t want to post that till it *does* end.)

    • Colonelsam
      June 22, 2022, 9:38 am | # | Reply

      This was exactly my thought. A nice narrative device. There are so many characters, so many sub-plots that we can’t know them all. Or maybe we will some day. Oh well, we have to find ourselves content with a mere decade-and-a-half of great stories. 🙂

  9. 5-tons-of-flax
    June 22, 2022, 7:17 am | # | Reply

    “How many possibilities do you see, Jonah?”

    “14,000,605.”

    “In how many are the plotlines resolved?”

    “One.”

    • awgiedawgie
      June 22, 2022, 7:39 am | # | Reply

      Not even one. They’d all have at least a few dangling threads. Like what’s up with Nera’s mom?

      • jdreyfuss
        June 22, 2022, 8:13 am | # | Reply

        I bet there’s one where we find out what’s up with Nera’s mom but nothing else gets resolved.

        • Adept Arcanist
          June 22, 2022, 3:25 pm | # | Reply

          See, that just makes me imagine a puzzle adventure game where you have to work your way through the different timelines until you finally have enough information to make a timeline where everything really *does* get resolved. 😛

          • Huttj
            June 22, 2022, 9:06 pm | #

            You just described the 999 series. First 2 are good, third is ok.

          • David B Huber
            June 23, 2022, 8:30 pm | #

            The beauty of hyperlinks! The final strip could function similarly to the Cast page, being a montage of joyous reunions, each serving as a gateway to an offshoot strip providing closure for that thread…

      • Duane B.
        June 22, 2022, 8:51 am | # | Reply

        And, what about Naomi?
        Electric Company (childrens show 1970’s)

        • Robert Nowall
          June 22, 2022, 9:25 am | # | Reply

          And what happened with Chuck Cunningham?

          • Duane B.
            June 22, 2022, 6:26 pm | #

            We don’t talk about him…..you know why…
            It was lucky that Fonzi was there to help.

  10. davidbreslin101
    June 22, 2022, 9:13 am | # | Reply

    A lovely touch that Panel 3 foregrounds a single bee out of the swarm.

    • Robert Nowall
      June 22, 2022, 9:26 am | # | Reply

      “I’m ready for my closeup, Ms. Vivaldi!”

  11. Robert Nowall
    June 22, 2022, 9:23 am | # | Reply

    Deep down somewhere near DC was a tall machine.
    It’s Annex One returning to the DC scene.
    There came rogue reporters for an interview.
    One was this psychic boy name of Jonah B. Yu
    Who never ever learned to read the signs so well,
    But he hung with Nera V., so you never could tell.

    Go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Jonah B. Yu.

    He was a blogger on the Web, with this mystic crack.
    Never could decide on just one happentrack.
    Offering advice in the cryptic trade,
    Claiming that he helped fix the mess they made.
    The people coming by, they would stop to say,
    “Oh, yeah, I am not paying for that crap today.”

    Go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Jonah B. Yu.

    His vision told him, “Someday you could be a man,
    And make out a lot with Nera while she’s in command.
    Many people coming from all around,
    To see the flying saucer when it’s coming down.
    Maybe some day your vision will be right,
    Saying, ‘Jonah B. Yu’ tonight!”

    Go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Go, Jonah, go, go!
    Jonah B. Yu.

    —from “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry.

    • Manifesta
      June 22, 2022, 12:34 pm | # | Reply

      Pure beauty!

    • Daibhid C
      June 22, 2022, 3:23 pm | # | Reply

      Bravo.

    • Andy4Hire
      June 22, 2022, 5:58 pm | # | Reply

      Well done, well done.

    • Candace
      June 23, 2022, 12:31 am | # | Reply

      Applause!

  12. Canadian Mad Scientist
    June 22, 2022, 11:22 am | # | Reply

    Wow, coming back from a vacation and we’re in the final week! Some mystery gives a sense of a larger world, though. My guess is that Nera’s mom is another major player in the world, but one who hasn’t really been involved in either the Narbonic or Skin Horse storylines. The elder Helen Narbon would have been a fun reveal, but as we’ve seen, the Narbons are big on cloning.

    Also, I don’t think I mentioned it at the time, but it was really cool to see “Bigfoot!” on the recent playlist! I hadn’t realized Frank Turner’s version was a cover. Not sure which version I prefer, but I like them both.

  13. Robert Nowall
    June 22, 2022, 12:08 pm | # | Reply

    Though Jonah Yu’s visions aren’t clear, Gavotte tells him “Be of good cheer!” There’s still other stories, of new categories—though Artie’s not thrilled with the beer.

  14. Sleepy John
    June 22, 2022, 2:16 pm | # | Reply

    How about seeing the future where you get clouted with a handy chunk of two-by-four?

    • Candace
      June 23, 2022, 12:49 am | # | Reply

      I expect Jonah has seen that one.

  15. Daibhid C
    June 22, 2022, 3:32 pm | # | Reply

    Much as I’d like answers to the millions of questions I still have, I’m perfectly content not getting them if the story works better that way. Nera’s mom in particular strikes me as one where the reveal probably couldn’t live up to the hype.

    (I once created a character in a Doctor Who shared ficverse with a Mysterious Past that I planned to reveal as soon as I decided what it was. I then went completely overboard with Mysterious Past tropes, until I realised that if I actually did explain them all, then one way or another the character would become unusable.)

    Incidentally, it just occured to me that the story of the secondary characters all hanging around waiting for the main characters to come back has a definite Moominvalley in November feel to it. That didn’t give us any answers and was a pefectly good, if melancholy finale. Although I hope they do actually come back in this one.

  16. Beachfox
    June 22, 2022, 4:09 pm | # | Reply

    Nora’s mom’s a lawyer and delivered Anasigma their new CEO a few years back, what’s there to wonder about?

    • WuseMajor
      June 22, 2022, 9:06 pm | # | Reply

      I thought that too, …until Nera failed to recognize Caliban in one of the bonus stories.

    • awgiedawgie
      June 22, 2022, 9:51 pm | # | Reply

      Plus that would make Mell at least in her 50s by now, and I can’t believe that cute little lawyer who delivered Chris and Marcie was that old.

      • Candace
        June 23, 2022, 12:56 am | # | Reply

        awgiedawgie, I think you might be surprised at how many women there are out there who are in their fifties, but don’t look it, and are still in good shape. Also, Mell has had access to Mad Science, and is Evil (and apparently very happy with being Evil), so those things could help with the whole aging thing.

        • awgiedawgie
          June 23, 2022, 8:46 pm | # | Reply

          Fair point (and no, I wouldn’t be surprised – I know a few of those women). But if Narbonic and Skin Horse are still running more or less in real time as they have been – with only occasional skips to make up for long-running story arcs – then unless I missed some important detail somewhere, Mell should be only around 12 or 13 years older than Nera.

  17. Andy4Hire
    June 22, 2022, 6:03 pm | # | Reply

    Gavotte: “You see many possibilities, Jonah. For now, be in this one.”
    Jonah: “Er, yes, ma’am, I know there’s a bee in this one. Quite a few of you, in fact. But that doesn’t really solve my–”
    Nera [pulling Jonah elsewhere]: “RIGHT YOU ARE MA’AM for cripe’s sake, J, I seriously cannot tell if you’re doing this on purpose.”

  18. DWVR
    June 22, 2022, 9:08 pm | # | Reply

    There must be more!

  19. Candace
    June 23, 2022, 12:59 am | # | Reply

    Jonah, never underestimate the value of having a super-hot girlfriend who loves you. Many guys out there would kill for that. (OK, probably not literally, but still…)

  20. Rob Nobody
    June 24, 2022, 6:54 pm | # | Reply

    But that is another story, and shall be told another time.

    • ShadowCat
      October 18, 2022, 2:23 pm | # | Reply

      Gotta love a Never Ending Story reference!

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