Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2021-06-29
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2021-06-29

by shaenon on June 29, 2021 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Off to the Fair
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Discussion (40) ¬

  1. Alphaghoul
    June 29, 2021, 12:03 am | # | Reply

    It my seem corny, but I still find this funny. So is this being paranormal with reality blindness or just denial?

    • Owls
      June 29, 2021, 12:09 am | # | Reply

      I feel like one of the more interesting conundrums of a world like this is ‘Where do you draw the line?’.

      Like, if you lived in a ‘regular’ modern world and then learned vampires exist and then someone said ‘Hey, so do Werewolves’ would you believe that? I probably would. But it could also be wrong. If Vampires exist, why not magic or werewolves or goblins or- so on.

      But really, the Groovitron teleporting them to the Mothership is like… a Tuesday for Mad Scientists.

      • Daibhid C
        June 29, 2021, 8:04 am | # | Reply

        It also depends on what your normal is to start with.

        If you’re living in 16th century London, and someone finally convinces you that rhinoceroses aren’t just unlikely traveller’s tales, you might well think “Okay, then why not dragons?”

        If you’re living in 16th century Lisbon, and grew up knowing there’s a rhino in King Manuel’s menagerie, this doesn’t affect your opinion of dragons at all.

      • Frank
        June 29, 2021, 11:41 am | # | Reply

        Well, I mean, the Yeti has a scientific classification now. But when people say “why not the Loch Ness Monster”, scientists say no

        • 5-tons-of-flax
          June 29, 2021, 5:41 pm | # | Reply

          The Loch Ness Monster has been officially classified. It’s a whale wang.

    • Towering Barbarian
      June 29, 2021, 12:19 am | # | Reply

      I’d say that she’s like Piro from Mega Tokyo. It’s not that she’s blind to the paranormal but she avoids it as much as possible.

      • Daibhid C
        June 29, 2021, 8:15 am | # | Reply

        Yeah, the way reality blindness works, she’d not have registered it at all. This is “I know what you said, and I hate it”.

        • awgiedawgie
          June 29, 2021, 8:38 am | # | Reply

          Not necessarily. Dave’s brother couldn’t even see Artie, but he could hear Dave talking about him. He just thought Dave was crazy.

          It was established long ago that everyone has some degree of reality blindness. It all depends on where your own brain draws the line of “too weird to accept”.

          • bergerjacques
            June 29, 2021, 11:08 am | #

            So where on the line does that put Ginny. She’s always claimed to be a scientist that straightens out the silly and the mad. But Ginny was completely immune to the epidemic of reality blindness that followed the possums departure on the Groovetron.

          • awgiedawgie
            June 29, 2021, 12:49 pm | #

            As I have repeatedly said, I firmly believe that she is fully Mad. She just doesn’t realize it because she’s been that way since she was a year old. That’s how she can actually comprehend the work of other Mad scientists in the first place.

          • Robert Nowall
            June 29, 2021, 3:25 pm | #

            It seemed to me that if Dr. Lee were normal, she wouldn’t even notice Nick. But if Dr. Lee were normal, nothing that’s happened to him of late would have happened to him at all.

  2. Pygar
    June 29, 2021, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    Tell my *what* that? Panel 1, Boss!

    • thejoemoose
      June 29, 2021, 12:37 am | # | Reply

      I think it was “Don’t try to tell me….”

  3. Towering Barbarian
    June 29, 2021, 12:14 am | # | Reply

    Poor Sweetheart! She was born to be Mundane, but the world won’t let her. 🙂

    • David B Huber
      June 29, 2021, 12:32 am | # | Reply

      Or – just maybe! – Sweetheart’s BS detector is on the money? After all, they did mention Pavane just before the Groovitron “exploded”. It would be simpler to fake than achieve.

      What if this is an elaborate con by Pavane to trick Tigerlilly into some rash action?

  4. BMunro
    June 29, 2021, 12:30 am | # | Reply

    The lampshade is so big it could be seen from space.

  5. Feralbeagle
    June 29, 2021, 1:11 am | # | Reply

    It’s dialog like this that that keeps me coming back!

  6. BMunro
    June 29, 2021, 1:11 am | # | Reply

    Skin Horse often veers from what I might call “SFnal mad science” to “fantasy mad science.” Robots and genetically engineered animals are standard SF. Zombies are more of an edge case, although I’d consider Unity (Nanomachines) passes the sniff test (hah) better than zombie-virus-which-does-stuff-no-virus-could-possibly-do zombies.

    And then there’s stuff like being able to summon personally themed clothes out of thin air and build teleporters out of clothes hangers, which is simply magical. (I require at least some AA batteries, aluminum foil, and a carefully angled mirror as well as the clothes hangers before I’ll accept it as Super Science rather than sorcery.)

    Not that I _mind_: it’s comedy, and you really can’t have stuff like Steampunk Mad Science without fantasy elements. But I can certainly see how Sweetheart finds some forms of mad science more mentally distressing than others.

    • David B Huber
      June 29, 2021, 1:53 am | # | Reply

      Ah, BMunro, be not so quick to discount Clarke’s Law!

      A pocket Bag of Holding is no more magical than a TARDIS. Constructing a tesseract from coat hangers requires merely finding a geometric form echoing the spring’s torsion in the ZPF, warping spacetime (e=mcc=√i, even if only a 3D shadow of a 4D construct). A healing draught can be easily formulated using nanites, as you point out.

      Earth is currently at only a Stage 3 (of 9) technological level. Illustrative examples: The Federation is a mix of Stage 4 and 5. The Gallifreyans are Stage 6, while the Organians are Stage 7. The Oans are Stage 8 while Stage 9 achieves direct reality manipulation (Q).

      • CCC
        June 29, 2021, 6:22 am | # | Reply

        What scale are you measuring these techological levels on? (There appear to be several, mutually contradictory scales out there)

        • David B Huber
          June 29, 2021, 7:57 am | # | Reply

          Just something I made up myself decades ago.

      • BMunro
        June 29, 2021, 8:28 pm | # | Reply

        Your mouth may be saying technobabble, but all I hear is “a Wizard did it.” 🙂

    • Nivek
      June 29, 2021, 1:58 am | # | Reply

      What you’re describing is the difference between Hard and Soft sci-fi. Hard sci-fi works based on actual science (or “sane” science in this setting) whereas Soft sci-fi runs on “I reject your reality and substitute my own” logic (mad science obviously).
      There’s a page on tvtropes called “The Sliding Scale of Sci-fi Hardness”.
      And yeah, Soft sci-fi works way better for comedy than Hard, since it runs entirely on author fiat.

    • Frank
      June 29, 2021, 11:42 am | # | Reply

      Well, I mean, we do see Tip’s luggage

      • BMunro
        June 29, 2021, 8:26 pm | # | Reply

        I’m referring to Tigerlily Jones. http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-191/

        • David B Huber
          June 29, 2021, 10:28 pm | # | Reply

          Dr. Jones is a special case. Her brilliance is on a level that discomfits Sparks while her Belief approaches Stage 9.

    • somewheninwibblyspace
      October 12, 2021, 1:25 pm | # | Reply

      Well. Zombie virus is based rather uncomfortably closely to leprosy + rabies. The only thing really unrealistic about it is how fast it infects. The shambling, jerky walk and using more of one’s muscle power than the body usually allows (because rabies doesn’t care if the ligaments tear) is realistic. Body falling apart while still moving is leprosy. Trying to bite others is rabies. Rabid things are afraid of water (still unexplained), which doesn’t usually show up in zombie media, but the rest… It’s creepy because it’s mostly realistic.

  7. Robert Nowall
    June 29, 2021, 6:52 am | # | Reply

    Tony and Merc have several different “things” going on. Hard to pick just one.

  8. William F Rust
    June 29, 2021, 7:42 am | # | Reply

    I love a webcomic ,whose commentators can be just as entertaining as the webcomic itself. Thanks

    • Candace
      June 30, 2021, 2:01 am | # | Reply

      Indeed! Skin Horse is one of the few comics I follow that I actually religiously read the comments, because SH fans are awesome!

  9. jdreyfuss
    June 29, 2021, 10:51 am | # | Reply

    I want a shirt that says “Please Ignore My Zombie Girlfriend.”

    • David B Huber
      June 29, 2021, 12:40 pm | # | Reply

      +1. And congrats, jdreyfuss, on calling Tony and Merc’s astral journey!

  10. Frank
    June 29, 2021, 11:42 am | # | Reply

    Hey, Unity got her churros!

  11. awgiedawgie
    June 29, 2021, 12:51 pm | # | Reply

    I actually know a lot of people who are so open-minded their brains fell out.

    • Candace
      June 30, 2021, 2:02 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, I can see how that could happen.

  12. Robert Nowall
    June 29, 2021, 1:09 pm | # | Reply

    Our doctrine Cosmognothics
    Was shining like a supernova star
    We are following
    Through the funk
    In the middle of the old New War
    We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
    Planet refugee.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.

    We came back to tell you we’re gone.
    Oh, as if we didn’t see that.
    As if we didn’t see the Groovitron
    As if we never noticed the big explosion.
    We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
    Planet refugee.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.

    There’s a walking moving building
    Whose rooms are known to have some trampolines.
    And sometimes when it’s fuzzy, fractured,
    Or trampled into town, we say,
    This is what it means:
    It means that we’re bouncing off to Lovetron, Lovetron,
    Planet refugee.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.

    You know confusion stuff
    Is still a winner on the chart.
    All you witnessed saw us blown apart
    It’s all right, it’s all right,
    It’s all right, you fellas,
    ‘Cause we’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
    Our planet refugee.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.

    We’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
    Planet refugee.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
    Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
    Just wanna go to—Lovetron—oooh.

    —from “Graceland,” written by Paul Simon, sung by Big Daddy.

  13. Shadowmehr
    June 29, 2021, 1:23 pm | # | Reply

    To paraphrase Douglas Adams, reality is lot more fluid than most people think.

  14. Tonan
    June 29, 2021, 3:19 pm | # | Reply

    Sweetheart will probably be wrong here, but “I won’t be so open-minded my brains fall out” is my new favorite quote.

  15. Robert Nowall
    June 29, 2021, 3:29 pm | # | Reply

    So Sweetheart can’t come to believe the info from them she’s received. Reality blindness brings no open mindness. Their thing, well, it can’t be conceived.

  16. The Flower Cosmic
    June 29, 2021, 6:59 pm | # | Reply

    Their thing is weird but AWESOME!

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Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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