Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2021-12-13
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2021-12-13

by shaenon on December 13, 2021 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon
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Discussion (49) ¬

  1. Alphaghoul
    December 13, 2021, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Doesn’t the shadow government still belong to Ivan Green?

    • awgiedawgie
      December 13, 2021, 7:39 am | # | Reply

      The shadow government doesn’t belong to anyone. It is, in itself, just another country to be conquered. And Tip aims to do it.

      • Bruce A Munro
        December 13, 2021, 11:25 am | # | Reply

        Doesn’t change the fact that you can’t be promoted to a position already filled without displacing someone, and the top leadership of shadowy conspiratorial organizations generally don’t so much step down as roll out (feet first).

        That being said, I’m not 100% sure that Green is the very top of the shadow government: perhaps there’s yet another curtain with someone behind it. (OZ analogies are somewhat confused by the fact that the Wizard never really was a Bad Guy: as the movie version says, a bad wizard, but a good man.)

        • Robert Nowall
          December 13, 2021, 1:11 pm | # | Reply

          Ivan / Ira insisted he’s not a bad man, but who can rely on his testimony now? (I just the other day realized that Sweetheart-in-the-drone VR adventure was set off by Ira’s “human suit” suggestion, which means Anasigma knew about it all along>)

          • BMunro
            December 13, 2021, 9:29 pm | #

            We have a great deal of _objective evidence_ that Green is a bad person. I can’t recall anything bad Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs did aside from sending off Dorothy and her companions to confront the witch (although admittedly that was sort of a biggie), and in the books he does a lot of heroic stuff later.

        • David B Huber
          December 13, 2021, 4:34 pm | # | Reply

          I wonder if openings keep appearing just as “Chris” needs them? Perhaps a dreadful rash of bee sting allergies?

          • Duane B.
            December 14, 2021, 6:10 pm | #

            Sting operations??

    • Devin Odlum
      December 13, 2021, 3:46 pm | # | Reply

      While the shadow gov. is heavily infiltrated by Anisigma right now, they are in fact just a private company. If there anyone/anything truly in charge it’s not Ira. My bet is currently a web of beauracracy so complex everyone things someone else calls the shots but no one does, but it could be anything. Like maybe a completely normal bust of george wasington sitting on an office chair in a completely unused office

      • Moe Lane
        December 13, 2021, 4:57 pm | # | Reply

        It’d be hysterical if it ended up being, you know, the current US President. Worst day of my life when I discovered that there wasn’t actually any Illuminati, and we were strictly on our own.

        • khn0
          December 13, 2021, 6:36 pm | # | Reply

          I find this utterly interesting? How did you discover there weren’t any Illuminati?

          • Moe Lane
            December 14, 2021, 12:20 am | #

            It was pretty much a revelation. I was on the DC Metro coming back from a tossed-together advisory meeting on the Hill (so tossed-together I had to bring my eldest with me in the stroller) where I had to explain to a bunch of Congressional staffers half my age how to manipulate New Media paradigms that nobody really understood (or still understands), and then the light shone down upon me: it was like this *all the way both up, and down*. There was no hypercompetent cabal of shadowy insiders out there, ready to step in if things got too squirrelly. There was no evil masterminds who went to school for this stuff. There wasn’t even a twenty year strategy. We were all on our f*cking own.

            It’s all right: I don’t expect anybody to believe that, and I’m not even mad if they don’t. If I had the choice, I’d go with the hypercompetent masterminds myself. 🙂

        • BMunro
          December 13, 2021, 9:21 pm | # | Reply

          It’s always easier to believe the government is run by a secret cabal of which the visible politicians are mere puppets than that, yes, the incompetent you voted for is really in charge, and you _own_ what he or she does.

      • David B Huber
        December 13, 2021, 5:19 pm | # | Reply

        It would be fitting if the pinnacle of shadow gov authority was a Genetic Organism Designed Only for Thought.

      • BMunro
        December 13, 2021, 9:31 pm | # | Reply

        The exact relationship between the shadow government and A-Sig has never been made very clear. (Now _we_ need an org chart.)

        • David B Huber
          December 13, 2021, 11:19 pm | # | Reply

          It’s that Military-Industrial Complex you’ve heard tell of. 🙂

          • BMunro
            December 14, 2021, 9:25 pm | #

            Most of that isn’t really shadowy. At all.

  2. DWVR
    December 13, 2021, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    America conquered by Sweetheart, and Tip assisting Tigerlily with her nefarious plans? What is the world coming to?

    • Moe Lane
      December 13, 2021, 12:11 am | # | Reply

      An end.

      • maarvarq
        December 13, 2021, 7:18 am | # | Reply

        Sad but true.

  3. OneUniverse
    December 13, 2021, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    A whole 20 minutes? They must be slacking.

  4. palenoue
    December 13, 2021, 12:21 am | # | Reply

    Don’t forget to bring the frickin’ lasers.

    • Shadowmehr
      December 13, 2021, 1:03 pm | # | Reply

      I’m sure they have upgraded to fracking, or even frocking lasers by now

      • Forrest M Davis
        December 13, 2021, 2:45 pm | # | Reply

        Isn’t the frocking laser one of the big secrets behind Tip’s outfit changes?

        • Shadowmehr
          December 13, 2021, 8:10 pm | # | Reply

          If not, it really, really, should be.

  5. TheWreck
    December 13, 2021, 12:47 am | # | Reply

    Only the unenlightened think that sharks are already weaponized!

  6. Rex+Vivat
    December 13, 2021, 12:47 am | # | Reply

    Sweetheart’s history with authority makes me less enthusiastic than you, Tip

  7. John Campbell
    December 13, 2021, 12:55 am | # | Reply

    You just stick its soul into a kitten.

    • Trivena
      December 13, 2021, 3:59 am | # | Reply

      So what are the other two questions?

  8. John Campbell
    December 13, 2021, 2:00 am | # | Reply

    And for anyone following along at home, I just added the last two months or so of the filename story.

    • Trivena
      December 13, 2021, 4:04 am | # | Reply

      Thankyou, much appreciated!

      I am amused at the proximity of the Department of Precambrian Defence.

    • reverendfiesta
      December 13, 2021, 10:49 am | # | Reply

      John Campbell I’m so glad you’re doing that. Sorry to be behind the curve. Do you have a link?

      • awgiedawgie
        December 13, 2021, 11:20 am | # | Reply

        Here’s the link for John’s copy: http://www.ci-n.com/~jcampbel/skinhorse.txt

      • awgiedawgie
        December 13, 2021, 11:21 am | # | Reply

        I also have an up-to-date copy I’ve been doing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9e62nuzq4gkooz/Skin%20Horse%20filename%20story.txt?dl=0

        • reverendfiesta
          December 13, 2021, 11:34 am | # | Reply

          Thanks so much, awgiedawgie!

    • James R. Baerg
      December 13, 2021, 1:39 pm | # | Reply

      Thanks.
      I have a copy on my hard drive, that I have been keeping up to date myself.
      I will think about whether I should change mine where we disagree about punctuation etc.

    • Robert Nowall
      December 13, 2021, 1:52 pm | # | Reply

      Haven’t been following along, but I’m sure I read some of this somewhere without following along or reading the compilations. Couldn’t find it in my files, though…some earlier link? Or has this story been going on so long I did read part of it years ago?

      • awgiedawgie
        December 13, 2021, 2:32 pm | # | Reply

        The story started with the very first strip back on 12/31/2007 with the words “Tip wore white”. I started doing my copy about 6 years ago when John’s edition had fallen seriously behind. After he caught back up, I just kept on doing mine. I know that bits of the story have been quoted in comments now and then over the years, so maybe that’s where you’ve read it.

        • Robert Nowall
          December 13, 2021, 3:42 pm | # | Reply

          Must be that, then.

  9. Tawdry Quirks
    December 13, 2021, 3:43 am | # | Reply

    Weaponized sharks? Remind me again which volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking has the shark repellent recipe?

    • davidbreslin101
      December 13, 2021, 3:07 pm | # | Reply

      If you’re in a hurry, you can just whip out a can of shark-repellent bat-spray from your bat-utility belt. Um. Not that I’m Batman, or anything. [vanishes]

  10. Robert Nowall
    December 13, 2021, 6:18 am | # | Reply

    If they’re sinister secret operations, do you have to be left-handed?

    • Daibhid+C
      December 13, 2021, 7:19 am | # | Reply

      That could be a problem for Sweetheart…

  11. Robert Nowall
    December 13, 2021, 1:33 pm | # | Reply

    All orgs must have someone, have someone
    Who would have an extra vantage,
    And can handle what’s begun.
    Someone who can command them,
    Sweetheart just could be the one.

    All orgs must have someone, have someone
    Who would be well sycophantic,
    And would go for all or none.
    Someone to stand astride them,
    Sweetheart just could be the one.

    I saw it magnify,
    That Tip had caught your eye.
    He’s offering a try.
    America to conquer at the end,
    And gone around the bend,
    And take it on again.

    All orgs must have someone, have someone
    Who would have an extra vantage,
    And can handle what’s begun.
    Someone who can command them,
    Sweetheart just could be the one.
    Someone to stand astride them,
    Sweetheart just could be the one.

    —from “You Just May Be the One,” sung by the Monkees, written by the late Mike Nesmith.

  12. vincentmuyo
    December 13, 2021, 3:43 pm | # | Reply

    I thought they couldn’t use sharks anymore due to conservation efforts.

    • awgiedawgie
      December 13, 2021, 4:19 pm | # | Reply

      No, that was dolphins. I think. Maybe.

      • David B Huber
        December 13, 2021, 5:24 pm | # | Reply

        The Navy ran out of dolphins depressed enough to undertake suicide missions?

  13. Robert Nowall
    December 13, 2021, 5:26 pm | # | Reply

    He’s leaving it for her to use. The org chart is hers to peruse. She can be the First Minister of secret gov sinister—an offer she cannot refuse.

  14. Frank
    December 13, 2021, 11:12 pm | # | Reply

    d’aww

  15. Altarboy
    February 21, 2022, 1:31 am | # | Reply

    Moe, your advisory meeting required your first born?

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