Skin Horse Pitch, Part One
Shaenon: Now that the strip’s rolling along nicely, more or less, I thought I’d share the email I sent Jeffrey when I first came up with the idea for Skin Horse. At this point, I was just soliciting feedback, but I had the idea that Jeffrey would be a good person to collaborate with if he liked the idea. Which he did! Bonus! Here’s my original description from the email:
The strip would be called “Skin Horse,” Skin Horse being the code name of a government agency devoted to issues involving nonhuman intelligences. These are mostly individuals created by humans: transgenics, AIs, cyborgs, etc., although there might be some naturally occurring examples like a sapient mangrove swamp in Louisiana. Skin Horse is a bit like the X-Files in its secrecy, but it operates more like a welfare office; its driving philosophy is that sapient nonhumans are American inhabitants (although most of them are not full citizens per se) with special needs, which Skin Horse exists to meet. It is pathetically underfunded and overworked.
More next week…
Justin Grubbs (the_purple_knight) says: Unity’s posture here just makes me want to hug her very much. I’m just a little afraid I’d get punched.
Emily Scherer (scherer) says:
I have a friend who always assumes this exact posture,
however, I know from experience that if I try to hug her at this point I will get punched
Laura Rickelman (lazy) says: I’m really rooting for the future appearance of the sapient mangrove swamp. That is an AWESOME idea.
Jane Narbon (lady_madsci) says: She’s so cuuuuute!
Ed Gedeon (eddurd) says:
Looks just like the grandkids. “I’m mad, I hate you, my love and forgiveness can be bought with a cookie.”
Aaron Shades (prof_tinker) says:
Ed: yeah, it makes me think of my babysitting days. .
‘you’re the worst person ever, I hate you, you can’t make me. Blues clues NOW!’
Edwin Quantrall (reynard) says:
“Skin Horse is a bit like the X-Files in its secrecy, but it operates more like a welfare office; its driving philosophy is that sapient nonhumans are American inhabitants (although most of them are not full citizens per se) with special needs, which Skin Horse exists to meet. It is pathetically underfunded and overworked.”
Kind of like a reverse-BIA* for occult entities?
*Bureau of Indian Affairs.
So It Begins (soitbegins) says:
Isn’t that a bit of a pout?
Rachel S. (masamage) says:
Happy birthday! 😀 I think you and your writing and art are cool.
Also, I feel like kind of a dork making a comment like this, because I’m worried about being insulting or patronizing or something. But just in case, I want to point out that “sapient” doesn’t mean the same thing as “sentient”. It means “wise” or “having good judgement”, rather than simply “capable of thought”, so it’s kind of a subcategory of sentience.
Cat Bascle (mage_cat) says:
Happy birthday!
As a born-and-raised Louisianan I just feel the need to say, mangroves don’t grow in Louisiana. Mangrove swamps are in Florida. Louisiana has bald cypress, mostly. I have fond memories of playing with my cousins in the cypress grove behind our Grandma’s house (when there hasn’t been any rain for a while that is). It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I found out that the Swamp Thing comics were set right there. There was even this cross-over once so, Batman has been to my home town! *hm hm* Sorry, geek girl moment there. Out of my system now.
Rachel S. (masamage) says: Maybe sentient-and-sapient mangroves live in Louisiana. 🙂 This is why they need the project’s help, I suppose.