Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2019-01-30
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2019-01-30

by shaenon on January 30, 2019 at 12:01 am
Chapter: The Iron Man
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Discussion (64) ¬

  1. dvandom
    January 30, 2019, 12:05 am | # | Reply

    Well, Mustachio’s mom may very well be a vial of mercury….

    • Ysabet
      January 30, 2019, 11:14 am | # | Reply

      Considering mercury-poisoning brain-damage and M’s Victorian-era creator, it’s entirely possible.

  2. Dr. Brain
    January 30, 2019, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    nick’s not wrong about m’s mom.

    • Frank
      January 30, 2019, 5:29 pm | # | Reply

      I thought his “mom” was Madblood

    • s854
      January 30, 2019, 5:33 pm | # | Reply

      Didn’t M’s “mom” look like Lupin Madblood? If that was Dr Lee, then that’s … unexpected.

      On another not, I am now wondering how idiomatic a word “Vial” is for Moustachio. It’s used a lot in Bible quotes from the period, but apart from that? Google’s less useful than I’d hoped.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 30, 2019, 6:48 pm | # | Reply

        It’s not idiomatic at all. He’s saying that his mechanism for generating empathy is literally two springs and a vial of mercury. And he’s saying that even with that very basic mechanism, he can still tell how Nick feels about Dr. Lee.

        • s854
          January 30, 2019, 8:07 pm | # | Reply

          Sorry, I’ll try again. I was just thinking that it may not be the sort of word someone like Moustachio would use.

          • Rimwolf
            January 30, 2019, 8:42 pm | #

            I can’t cite specifics, but I’m sure I’ve read Victorian novels where people are getting a vial of this or that from the apothecary. It didn’t strike me at all as out of character.

          • David Palmer
            January 30, 2019, 9:04 pm | #

            Google Ngrams says that both ‘vial’ and ‘phial’ decreased in usage significantly from 1800 to 1920 (the two being about equally common over this time period). Since then, vial has had a partial resurgence but phial has continued to drop despite the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons.

            So Victorians used both of these words.

          • awgiedawgie
            January 30, 2019, 11:23 pm | #

            Not sure what ngrams you’re looking at. What I see shows a fairly steady use of “vial” since 1750, with fairly level usage from 1750 to 1850, and then a slight decline from 1850 to 1900, followed by a flat period of 50 years or so, and then an increase over the past 60 years, back to where it was around 1850. I wouldn’t say there was any “significant” decrease in its usage. It’s not quite a flat line, but it has been fairly consistent for over 250 years. Which is why I said it’s not idiomatic for Moustachio to use it.

  3. Brushtail
    January 30, 2019, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    That sounds like the “your mom” jokes that my group used to roll out in high school, the best of them made no sense whatsoever.

  4. Moe Lane
    January 30, 2019, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    At this rate, the rest of Annex One is going to start putting up large banners saying “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET ON WITH IT”

    • dornbeast
      January 30, 2019, 12:31 am | # | Reply

      I vote for stripping them naked and stuffing them in a broom closet, but I’m probably the worst source of advice on such matters.

      • kiralamouse
        January 30, 2019, 8:12 am | # | Reply

        Tigerlily Jones might agree with that idea, *and* has the capacity to do it. It could happen.

        • Arrowatch
          January 30, 2019, 10:32 am | # | Reply

          TLJ would never stick them in a broom closet, it would be a technicolor vibrating heart shaped suite the size of an apartment named something upbeat and slightly disturbing to squares like me that she classifies as a closet.

          The broom serves Moet en Chandon.

          • Shadowmehr
            January 30, 2019, 8:55 pm | #

            I’m suddenly reminded of Austin Power’s “pad”. I would guess there’s more clock-punk madtech though.

          • Candace
            January 31, 2019, 12:17 am | #

            Arrowatch: So much this!

  5. Rimwolf
    January 30, 2019, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    Oh yeah? Well, YOUR mom is a mashup of your biological mother, Ginny, Tigerlily, and a Coke machine.

  6. Alphaghoul
    January 30, 2019, 12:11 am | # | Reply

    Funny thing, I was gonna ask if Nick was young enough to be Dr. Lee’s son when she told him to wash his hands.

    • bryceanderston
      January 30, 2019, 12:17 am | # | Reply

      I guess based from Narbonic and other works, I always kind of thought of a mad scientist’s relationship to their creations as parent-child. And since Lee was the one who scoolped Nick’s brains…

      • Seph
        January 30, 2019, 2:44 am | # | Reply

        She may have put him into the Osprey, but she didn’t create his mind—which to my way of thinking makes it a lot less incestuous.

        Also, Virginia’s not mad, honest.

        • reynard61
          February 3, 2019, 1:52 am | # | Reply

          Oh, she’s mad (at A-sig); she’s just not *a* Mad…

    • David B Huber
      January 30, 2019, 12:21 am | # | Reply

      Nick is young enough.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 30, 2019, 12:46 am | # | Reply

        I’ve always figured Nick was at least in his mid 20s, and Virginia no more than her mid 30s. Maybe I’ve overlooked something that indicates otherwise, but I’d say no, he’s not young enough.

        • David B Huber
          January 30, 2019, 2:06 am | # | Reply

          I did not say Nick was young enough to be Ginny’s offspring… 😉

        • awgiedawgie
          February 1, 2019, 9:48 pm | # | Reply

          OK, so update… Assuming the t-shirt Virginia’s wearing here is one she actually got competing in the Olympiad, and assuming – given her genius – that she was one of the youngest competitors there, that would make her no more than 40 years old, so maybe only a few years older than I originally thought.

          And she probably answered Question 6 correctly, and in record time.

      • nebulousrikulau
        January 30, 2019, 8:04 am | # | Reply

        At least his current body is. The brain is somewhat older.

        • D. Walker
          January 30, 2019, 5:27 pm | # | Reply

          That might not be true, depending on what kind of “cloning” they did.

          If it they actually cloned him, removed the clone’s brain, and replaced it with his… that’s actually kind of horrifying and amoral, because they murdered his clone to give him its body. And also it would have required a donor egg of some sort, and there are only so many on hand to choose from… which… let’s not go there.

          But if rather than it being a “clone” body, it is instead a “clonal” body, where they simply stuck the brain in a vat and caused new tissues to grow around it, that’s a form of regeneration, and really you could argue the body is simply just the newest extenstion of the brain.

          • awgiedawgie
            January 30, 2019, 6:52 pm | #

            You’re forgetting that this is Mad science we’re dealing with here. Tigerlily could very well have designed the clone-o-mat to produce a body without a brain.

  7. Marisa Mockery
    January 30, 2019, 12:31 am | # | Reply

    Didn’t know the equivalent of alcohol to robots was springs and liquid metals. You learn something new every day.

    And Nick looks so adorable in the first panel I just wanna snuggle him 🙁

    • Pygar
      January 30, 2019, 12:40 am | # | Reply

      Empathy, not ethanol! He’s saying even *he* can gauge Nick’s feelings, and he is steam-era tech!

      • awgiedawgie
        January 30, 2019, 12:49 am | # | Reply

        And if even Moustachio can see what’s going on, Nick has reached a heretofore undiscovered level of De Nile.

        • harryvoyager
          January 30, 2019, 1:46 am | # | Reply

          Well, given that Moustachio and Hitty are one of the only stable functioning couples in the Skin Horse team, he might actually be just the right person to see what’s going on, or needs to be going on…

          • warpzone32
            January 30, 2019, 1:55 am | #

            HITTY VERY BUSY WITH CAREER RIGHT NOW.

            (shudder, distant sound of explosions)

          • jjjdavidson
            January 30, 2019, 8:12 am | #

            Yes, Hitty’s very much the career girl these days.

  8. thedoctor55
    January 30, 2019, 12:58 am | # | Reply

    Me thinks he doth protest too much!

    • jrwences
      January 30, 2019, 1:18 am | # | Reply

      Sherlock!

  9. Bruce A Munro
    January 30, 2019, 1:41 am | # | Reply

    ‘My empathy is two springs _and_ a vial of mercury’

    …that almost comes across as a diss.

  10. Candace
    January 30, 2019, 1:44 am | # | Reply

    Poor Nick must be very stressed indeed to make two such lame “Your mom” retorts in such a short period of time. Unity probably should to talk to the kid. (He’s in much less danger of her being tempted to consume his brain now that it’s covered in a meat suit she recognizes as a friend.)

    (And yes, I said Unity, not Tip. Nick doesn’t like Tip, and Unity will be simple, honest, and direct, which I think is really what Nick needs right now. Also, Unity tends to be very practical.)

    • David B Huber
      January 30, 2019, 2:08 am | # | Reply

      +1

    • kag
      January 30, 2019, 2:45 am | # | Reply

      But Tip might use the therapy puppets. Those always help.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 30, 2019, 2:53 am | # | Reply

        Yeah… we already know how much Nick likes Tip’s therapy puppets.

    • Chrisn
      January 30, 2019, 11:33 am | # | Reply

      Since Unity-on-brains was the one who convinced Nick and Ginnie to wait before, maybe we we need her back to tell them to go ahead.

      • Candace
        January 31, 2019, 12:21 am | # | Reply

        Point.

      • awgiedawgie
        January 31, 2019, 1:48 am | # | Reply

        Unity wouldn’t even need to be on brains to be smart enough to tell them that.

  11. warpzone32
    January 30, 2019, 1:52 am | # | Reply

    I, for one, am sick of all these toxic mercury jokes.

  12. Rob Clark
    January 30, 2019, 8:32 am | # | Reply

    Tune in Friday on MacGyver, when using only two springs and a vial of mercury, Angus creates empathy and saves the day…

  13. Robert Nowall
    January 30, 2019, 10:15 am | # | Reply

    I would suggest Nick take Dr. Lee out to a romantic dinner at an expensive restaurant, but, then, they’re all fugitives from (a) Anasigma, (b) the faction of Skin Horse back at the Maragda Building, and maybe (c) justice, too. And that hurricane that’s somewhere around.

    • awgiedawgie
      January 30, 2019, 12:36 pm | # | Reply

      And they’re probably also penniless. A-Sig probably has by now either seized or frozen all their accounts, so unless they have actual cash stashed away somewhere, they’re going to have to rob a bank or knock over a convenience store (literally) when they need money and food.

      • Robert Nowall
        January 30, 2019, 1:29 pm | # | Reply

        If Nick is still in the Machine Union (and presumably Moustachio and Hitty are), maybe they’re in the credit union and can get a loan.

        • Sheik
          January 30, 2019, 3:16 pm | # | Reply

          Any ATM will do.

      • Midwestmutt
        January 30, 2019, 1:31 pm | # | Reply

        Check Ira’s quarters.

        • Robert Nowall
          January 30, 2019, 5:25 pm | # | Reply

          Don’t forget his pennies, nickels, and dimes, either.

          • Shadowmehr
            January 30, 2019, 8:57 pm | #

            Might be some folding money forgotten in a pants pocket somewhere, or in the couch cushions.

    • Candace
      January 31, 2019, 12:25 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, I think they’re going to be limited to Mountain Dew and Doritos. Or they might be able to have a pizza delivered. Given they’re in a walking building, the delivery person can probably find them.

  14. Sleepy John
    January 30, 2019, 11:47 am | # | Reply

    Dude, the woman carried your naked brain around in her bare hands. You have no secrets.

    • Pygar
      January 30, 2019, 12:54 pm | # | Reply

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjRfyeLvE64 It had to be done…

      • Shadowmehr
        January 30, 2019, 9:03 pm | # | Reply

        No, it really didn’t, but I’m glad you did anyway. (Puts hands behind back, stares into the distance, starts humming.)

      • awgiedawgie
        January 30, 2019, 11:27 pm | # | Reply

        I’m almost sorry I clicked on that… but only almost sorry. It’s a classic.

  15. notStanley
    January 30, 2019, 2:48 pm | # | Reply

    Would there be enough spare change in Ira’s couch for a fancy meal? Dr. Lee deserves more then a couple items from McDeaths Dollar Menu.

  16. Rimwolf
    January 30, 2019, 7:16 pm | # | Reply

    Ten years ago today: http://skin-horse.com/comic/considered-a-matter/

    Now you have a chance, Nick.

    • awgiedawgie
      January 30, 2019, 11:29 pm | # | Reply

      And I have to echo OneUniverse’s comment from a year ago… That’s still one of my favourite shots of Virginia.

    • Candace
      January 31, 2019, 12:32 am | # | Reply

      Thanks for sharing that link – I had forgotten about that one. It occurs to me now to wonder if Nick was making it hot in there on purpose to try to cause Virginia to remove clothing.

  17. Knuckles
    February 9, 2022, 9:40 am | # | Reply

    To be fair Moustachio, you’ve always been one of the most empathetic members of the team.

    Admittedly that’s not a high mark to make but still worth points.

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