I want to thank Paul Nagami a million times over for agreeing to watch this episode and comment on fungi. He was wonderful and had far more insightful and witty observations than I could fit into twelve panels. Speaking of which, if you’d like to learn more about the mycology in this episode, and also how it would be cooler if it were about fungus/caveman symbiosis, check back on Sunday for a new sporadic bonus feature I call MOW: SUNDAY TIMESLOT.
Paul, you are the best. Thanks again.
Also, just to plug my other comics for a moment… For the month of March only, any purchase of Narbonic and/or Skin Horse books at the Couscous Store will come with an original tiki-themed character sketch! By me! Narbonic purchases get Narbonic sketches! Skin Horse sketches get Skin Horse sketches! What happens if you buy both Narbonic and Skin Horse books? I don’t know! Order some and find out!
Thank you, won’t you?
This comic just keeps getting better and better. It’s also keeping me watching xfiles again on hulu, just to keep ahead of you.
I guess one of the perks of being a big-shot webcartoonist is that you can whip out a mycologist whenever you need one.
I can’t remember the last time something made me scream with laughter like this. Paul Nagami is a god, and Mulder and Scully are just jealous.
Sadly, though, the Skin Horse server problems seem to be slopping over into MotW, frequently making it hard to open the comments. This time, I can’t open the tiki sketches.
Yeah, Skin Horse and MoW are on the same server, so they’re having the same server problems. Narbonic’s on another server, so it’s safe.
Clearly, it’s dangerous to be around Shaenon, at least right now. She just threw one title character off a flying island, killed off two reader cameos, and now this.
All I could think while watching this was “Oh my God, a penis just burst out of that dude’s neck ‘Aliens’ style.”
I’m glad you brought in an expert but even my high school level level of biological understanding was screaming “Bullshit” at the examination of the fungi’s life cycle. But, hey, it’s the X-files. All is forgiven.
Your penultimate sentence is the perfect successor to your first. Well, maybe with a couple more “X”s.
I’m a mycologist, and I think this is a great idea! Call me when you get to “Field Trip”.
Fourth-walling the more forgotten episodes is a really excellent strategy, I have to say.
Did you also have Marshall McLuhan waiting in the wings?
Mentioning the arctic episode from season one reminded me: the arctic episode was obviously based on John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, and then when i saw the MITES! episode I thought, basically the same plot as the arctic episode, but I think that if you just saw MITES! without knowing the arctic episode existed then you wouldn’t think, “Oh, this is a rip-off of The Thing.” So maybe imitation leads to creativity sometimes? As an all-too-often uncreative-feeling songwriter, I can take some hope from that.
There’s an X-Files subtype in which Mulder and Scully get trapped somewhere remote and almost die. It’s established by Ice, the arctic episode that’s definitely derivative of The Thing, but includes less Thing-y stories like Darkness Falls with the mites, Dod Kalm with the ghost ship, Firewalker, and even How the Ghosts Stole Christmas.
I haven’t watched ‘Firewalker’ yet, but another common element of ‘Ice’ and ‘Darkness Falls’ is that at the end of the episode the thing that Scully and Mulder are fighting against is destroyed by some other branch of the government.
Also, it must be pointed out that those killer mushrooms are pretty adorable.
The ‘fungus’ part of the ep was stupid, but at least they let Scully do something brilliant to rescue herself at the end of the episode. It was as if someone had that one scene in mind and wrote the entire story to lead up to that one moment. (Hint.)
Hey, wasn’t this the one with Josh Lyman?
It’s a “sporadic” feature. Very nice.
You didn’t plug your f*****g awesome story on Escape Pod!
“The ‘fungus’ part of the ep was stupid, but at least they let Scully do something brilliant to rescue herself at the end of the episode. It was as if someone had that one scene in mind and wrote the entire story to lead up to that one moment. ”
You said it sister @Diane Castle! 100% behind yah!
Started reading the comic, my jaw dropped, and couldn’t stop laughing LOL! Thanks Shaenon!