Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2020-08-18
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2020-08-18

by shaenon on August 18, 2020 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Muddled Duddled Fuddled Wuddled Fox
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Discussion (47) ¬

  1. Moe Lane
    August 18, 2020, 12:34 am | # | Reply

    Ayup.

  2. avatarjk137
    August 18, 2020, 1:14 am | # | Reply

    Loving this gator (croc?) so far!

    • Candace
      August 18, 2020, 1:18 am | # | Reply

      His jaw looks pretty wide, and he seems pretty friendly, so probably a gator. (Also, this sanctuary doesn’t look like it has enough security to properly deal with crocodiles. You really don’t want to let those guys get loose…)

      • Daibhid C
        August 18, 2020, 10:53 am | # | Reply

        Apparently, they didn’t have enough security to deal with gators, either…

      • jdreyfuss
        August 18, 2020, 12:06 pm | # | Reply

        I’m seeing a lot more teeth outside the mouth than you usually do for a gator. Remember, aside from the shape of the snout, a crocodile looks like an alligator that needs braces. And then there’s the caiman, which looks like a hedge trimmer.

        It probably is supposed to be a gator though, because of the short, fat snout.

        • mickeyjf
          August 18, 2020, 12:17 pm | # | Reply

          The only way to cartoon any of these types is with lots of teeth outside the mouth. It’s in the handbook.

        • Nix
          August 18, 2020, 5:20 pm | # | Reply

          Going by Shaenon’s gerbils, I don’t really think that judging fine anatomical detail on the basis of biological accuracy is terribly sensible. I believe she uses a mix of “rule of cool” and “how horrifyingly painful would this be to draw over and over again” 🙂

  3. Candace
    August 18, 2020, 1:14 am | # | Reply

    The alligator looks dubious. He’ll learn about #12 soon enough.

    • OneUniverse
      August 18, 2020, 10:38 am | # | Reply

      Did #12 tell Rey he was a male?

  4. Altarboy
    August 18, 2020, 2:19 am | # | Reply

    Possum, gator, turtle, and fox among other anthro splices. It’s Walt Kelly gone bizarro.

    • David B Huber
      August 18, 2020, 7:39 am | # | Reply

      I have always cherished Pogo’s observation of the problem being “It’s what you know that ain’t so!”

    • Clifton
      August 18, 2020, 8:18 pm | # | Reply

      “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Never have those words been so timely.

    • Robert Nowall
      August 18, 2020, 9:55 pm | # | Reply

      The gator’s no Albert, but he’ll do.

  5. Pygar
    August 18, 2020, 2:53 am | # | Reply

    The Alligator distinctly remembers passing the crown to his seventh son…

    • OneUniverse
      August 18, 2020, 10:34 am | # | Reply

      Not her sixth daughter?

      • Pygar
        August 18, 2020, 11:36 am | # | Reply

        Nope, and here’s proof!

        • BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
          October 13, 2020, 7:11 am | # | Reply

          But was his seventh son the seventh son of a seventh son?

  6. HarryS
    August 18, 2020, 2:55 am | # | Reply

    Finally the comic seems to be actually starting. Skin Horse is supposedly about non-humans, so I’ve been waiting for it to actually get there rather than just have a few token non-humans around. Counting the main characters (and depending on who you count as a main character) you get around 10 humans, a human cyborg, a human cadaver inhabiting nanotech goo, a dog, a lion, a tiger, a robot or two and a swarm of bees. That’s double the humans versus non-humans. These guys are finally evening the ratio, assuming they aren’t just a passing reference.

    • awgiedawgie
      August 18, 2020, 7:24 am | # | Reply

      You know, if you don’t like the way the comic has been written, you don’t have to read it. But if you want to criticize the way it’s written, you can go elsewhere to do it. Who are you to say what it’s supposed to be about?

      • maarvarq
        August 18, 2020, 8:14 am | # | Reply

        Hear hear!

      • maarvarq
        August 18, 2020, 8:15 am | # | Reply

        … to awgiedawgie’s comment, of course.

      • Robert Nowall
        August 18, 2020, 11:17 am | # | Reply

        I s’pose if I didn’t like a story or storyline, I’d say so. Hasn’t happened here, but I suppose it could. (For example, I *really* didn’t like a lengthy World War II story in “9 Chickweed Lane” a few years ago, intensely enough that I would have *really* liked to say so, but in their world there’s no replying.)

        Actually I’d see the story as essentially government bureaucrats trying to do good while doing their job, which is often two different things. Whether they’re human or non-human doesn’t affect that.

      • HarryS
        August 18, 2020, 2:03 pm | # | Reply

        Sorry. I must have misunderstood the description:
        “Somewhere in this great nation of ours is Project Skin Horse, an overworked, underfunded secret agency dedicated to assisting America’s nonhuman citizens. The receptionist is a clockwork robot, the project head is a swarm of bees, the field team consists of Sweetheart the talking dog and her faithful zombie Unity, and Dr. Tip Wilkin, the lone human staffer, feels he can only do his job properly in high heels. They’re the shadow government. They’re here to help. Please go easy on them”
        And there are Shaenon’s words on the Narbonic commentary about how she wanted her next comic to be less about mad scientists and more of their creations.
        I apologise if I have misunderstood those statements. The comic has been enjoyable to read even with much of it having no non-humans in it.
        PS: Yes, I’m a furry. Feel free to call me speciest.

        • awgiedawgie
          August 18, 2020, 6:39 pm | # | Reply

          Thanks for explaining your perspective.

          From that description, I read that basically the comic is about Project Skin Horse itself, not so much specifically about their clients, the non-humans (and that is borne out throughout the whole series). Although almost the entire staff of Skin Horse are themselves non-humans. Occasionally the people they work with, and especially the people they work against, are actually human.

          But even among those humans, there are a couple of wild cards. Tip is part werewolf, and has been injected with Essence of Unity, so he’s not 100% human any more. Jonah was zapped by a malfunctioning Mad creation, so while he’s not exactly non-human, he probably qualifies as an enhanced human (like all the AG-I people). Chris and Marcie have absorbed so much radiation over the years, it’s amazing that they still have normal human features

          Then there’s a few Mads in the mix (actually, a lot of those, if you count the population of St. Charlie).

          But ordinary humans? There really aren’t very many of those in the regular cast.

    • Daibhid C
      August 18, 2020, 10:56 am | # | Reply

      Supposed by whom?

      • Ogden Wernstrom
        August 18, 2020, 11:31 am | # | Reply

        It says so right here in the Skin Horse advertisement on the grocery shopping flyers, next to the part that says Renard and #12 are going to be 11th hour additions to the main characters list, and $1.50 a pound for grapefruit.

  7. awgiedawgie
    August 18, 2020, 7:27 am | # | Reply

    The only real difference is that #12 wants to murder people in their sleep, and the gator will do it while you’re awake.

    • OneUniverse
      August 18, 2020, 10:36 am | # | Reply

      What about those of us that are only half asleep?

      • awgiedawgie
        August 18, 2020, 12:44 pm | # | Reply

        They tag team you.

  8. Robert Nowall
    August 18, 2020, 7:40 am | # | Reply

    If they’re crushing oppressors in their steel jaws, does that mean robots are welcome?

  9. Steverino
    August 18, 2020, 7:46 am | # | Reply

    Happy Herp’s Sunshine Sanctuary would be a great name for a Florida-based rock band.

    • awgiedawgie
      August 18, 2020, 6:08 pm | # | Reply

      Yeah, but you just know they’d end up getting called “Happy Herpes”.

  10. davidbreslin101
    August 18, 2020, 9:01 am | # | Reply

    “RRC” is a clever acronym, designed to sound like the common Alligatorese phrase “Rrrrk!”

  11. Richard Dodson
    August 18, 2020, 9:37 am | # | Reply

    Okay, so it’s not actually Reptile Gardens, but it does LOOK like Reptile Gardens. But no word on whether they needed Free Ice Water or 5cent coffee on the way there.

    • Robert Nowall
      August 18, 2020, 10:58 am | # | Reply

      Yup, that’s it. Can’t remember if we visited it when my family went out that way in the early 1970s.

  12. Robert Nowall
    August 18, 2020, 10:58 am | # | Reply

    I got to wondering if any of the cobras are here.

    • Shadowmehr
      August 18, 2020, 1:07 pm | # | Reply

      They’re still in Annex one, except for Alfie, who’s first mate on the Habbakuk. All of them would be a bit to peaceful for the gator crowd.

      Now ask about the pythons in the back . . .

      • awgiedawgie
        August 18, 2020, 1:31 pm | # | Reply

        I know Virginia, Moustachio and Hitty transported the Cobras to the Jersey safehouse, but I don’t recall them ever returning to Annex One. I kinda figured that all of them were on the Habakkuk, even though we only saw Alfie.

        • Robert Nowall
          August 18, 2020, 4:33 pm | # | Reply

          I figured Alfie took a *job* as XO of the Habakkuk—but what happened to the others, I don’t know. Really they all should have been in school by now.

          • awgiedawgie
            August 18, 2020, 6:46 pm | #

            I figured his “job” as XO was just symbolic, since he and Bubbles… sorry, Captain Waters… are romantically involved.

  13. BMunro
    August 18, 2020, 11:13 am | # | Reply

    Renard: how did you fight off A-Sig? They have combat drones and heavily armored soldiers with high tech-weapons, you have…
    (A scaly foot the size of a bus comes down nearby)
    Alligator: we have Bob
    Renard: point taken.

    • David B Huber
      August 18, 2020, 6:45 pm | # | Reply

      Love it!

  14. jdreyfuss
    August 18, 2020, 12:09 pm | # | Reply

    Anyone else hearing this guy talk with the voice of the daddy gator from How I Spent My Summer Vacation?

  15. Robert Nowall
    August 18, 2020, 5:14 pm | # | Reply

    Oh-oh-oh, when you’re feelin’ chirpy,
    Come and stop at Happy Herpie’s.
    The place that’s got most everything in lizards galore.
    Their Sunshine Sanctuary
    Is evolutionary.
    They’re the place with all the greatest reptiles and more.

    So come on by and put it to the test.
    Snakes, iguanas, we’ve got all the best.
    We’ll show you lizards you didn’t know exist.
    And herpetology you cannot resist.

    So when you’re feelin’ chirpy,
    Come and stop at Happy Herpie’s
    The place that’s got most everything in lizards galore.
    And come and have some fun
    With snakes that have uncoiled…
    Happy Herpie’s will not be underdone
    Ooh-ooh-ee-ooh…

    —from, well, a well-known commercial in the New York area in the 1970s.

  16. Semper Solus
    August 18, 2020, 6:25 pm | # | Reply

    my jaws carry bacteria too!
    i don’t floss!

  17. Andy4Hire
    August 18, 2020, 7:12 pm | # | Reply

    Waitwaitwait. Is this Reginald, from Unity’s adventure in New Orleans a few years ago, as detailed in Nick’s old LiveJournal beginning with this entry here?

  18. s854
    August 19, 2020, 5:17 am | # | Reply

    I’m just wondering how good Trinity is at punching ‘gators in the face. Assuming they found her some new hands, that is.

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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.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com.

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