Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2020-09-05
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2020-09-05

by shaenon on September 5, 2020 at 12:01 am
Chapter: The Lee of the Stone
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Discussion (35) ¬

  1. awgiedawgie
    September 5, 2020, 12:11 am | # | Reply

    “Everybody wants to be a cat…”

    • Joshua Kronengold
      September 5, 2020, 12:20 am | # | Reply

      Everybody wants to be a feline pet.

    • Robert Nowall
      September 5, 2020, 11:27 am | # | Reply

      “Because a cat’s the only cat who knows where it’s at.”

  2. Foradain
    September 5, 2020, 1:43 am | # | Reply

    “I Strut right by with my tail in the air!” – B. Setzer

    • Candace
      September 5, 2020, 1:58 am | # | Reply

      Apropos, Foradain.

      Artie might have been able to get away with pretending to be a pet that had gotten out. Gerbils are often kept as pets, and have furry tails, which makes them look distinctly different from rats and mice. However, Artie did things the hard way, because he apparently lacked the confidence to do things the easy way, by just waltzing through like Cinnamon did. I guess when Artie is in gerbil form, rodent instincts must take over.

      • Polywoky
        September 5, 2020, 4:29 am | # | Reply

        They *know* Artie is a gerbil. If they saw a gerbil walking into the property of the super-intelligent gerbil who can take human form that they’re trying to kill, they’re probably going to assume it’s Artie and kill him.

        Artie knows this. Going in openly, even in gerbil form, would be practically suicide.

        • jdreyfuss
          September 6, 2020, 12:09 pm | # | Reply

          It may not be safe for Artie to assume this, but there’s a very good chance Anasigma keeps things so compartmentalized that the checkpoint guards won’t be notified of a fugitive they’re looking for.

  3. Ken
    September 5, 2020, 1:59 am | # | Reply

    I suppose Cinnamon could have helped Artie get by a checkpoint. As, you know, a cat’s “present”. But it might have hurt a lot.

    • Shadowmehr
      September 5, 2020, 8:49 am | # | Reply

      Plus, well, Cinnamon might be an ally, but there’s a limit to how far you can trust a cat.

  4. Pygar
    September 5, 2020, 2:23 am | # | Reply

    Ruby ring, three gold coins… Reminds me of the early kid-down-a-well Simpsons where they excavated *around* an ancient flying saucer. Or the MAD marginal of the archaeologist’s test holes that *just* miss the artifacts…

    • Frank
      September 5, 2020, 10:02 am | # | Reply

      Triple Doubloons!

  5. Killdozer
    September 5, 2020, 5:42 am | # | Reply

    That’s one annoyed looking rat!

    • Shadowmehr
      September 5, 2020, 8:51 am | # | Reply

      Why not? All these gerbils at invading it’s warren.

    • Frank
      September 5, 2020, 10:01 am | # | Reply

      He knows this is a food source he can’t eat

    • Robert Nowall
      September 5, 2020, 1:56 pm | # | Reply

      He’s neither giant nor enlightened.

      • casimir
        September 5, 2020, 8:07 pm | # | Reply

        …took me a while to unearth that reference from the memory banks.

        • awgiedawgie
          September 5, 2020, 8:14 pm | # | Reply

          Really? It hasn’t been that long since we last saw him.

          • casimir
            September 5, 2020, 9:29 pm | #

            …hmmm, must’ve missed that one.

  6. Daibhid C
    September 5, 2020, 7:17 am | # | Reply

    Tune: Going Underground, The Jam

    Until today my life was in a rut,
    But I was happy with what I’d got,
    Not dragged into danger by Helen or Mell,
    But now everything is going to hell.

    Something’s happening, clear to see,
    A show of strength by the Conspiracy,
    And I’m not happy, the cat’s not kind,
    Suddenly everybody’s gone reality-blind,
    They just see a gerbil and not a great mind.

    And Anasigma gets what Anasigma wants,
    And what they want is nonhumans stopped.

    I’m going underground,
    (Going underground),
    Where the snakes and rats and bugs are found,
    Going underground,
    (Going underground),
    While topside, Cinnamon strolls around,
    Getting scritchies.

    Some people rub against legs at the gate,
    That’s not the response I get from primates,
    Some people cross a checkpoint just with purrs,
    Me, I’m too busy dodging predators,

    What they see is just a desert rat,
    They’ll make a meal of me if I don’t scat,
    I’ll use my gerbil instincts if I must,
    ‘Cos superintelligence is sometimes a bust.

    And Anasigma gets what Anasigma can,
    But I’m the one they’re scared might have a plan.

    I’m going underground,
    (Going underground),
    Where the snakes and rats and bugs are found,
    Going underground,
    (Going underground),
    While topside, Cinnamon strolls around,
    Getting scritchies.

    • Daibhid C
      September 5, 2020, 7:20 am | # | Reply

      Crud, I missed out two lines in the second verse.

      It’s a very complicated song.

      • Robert Nowall
        September 5, 2020, 11:24 am | # | Reply

        ‘Taint as easy as it looks.

  7. Robert Nowall
    September 5, 2020, 7:41 am | # | Reply

    Well, Artie could revert to his other form and rub against them and purr. You never know…

  8. Sleepy John
    September 5, 2020, 10:27 am | # | Reply

    And there weren’t any power-ups, either.

  9. awgiedawgie
    September 5, 2020, 12:03 pm | # | Reply

    Artie appears to have two tails in the last panel.

    • Sheik
      September 5, 2020, 12:18 pm | # | Reply

      Maybe he picked up a friend along the way?
      I was more amused by the breaking of the 4th wall.

      • awgiedawgie
        September 5, 2020, 3:24 pm | # | Reply

        I didn’t even think of it as breaking the 4th wall. I very often will turn my head like that when I say something in disgust, and I don’t have a 4th wall to break.

        • David B Huber
          September 5, 2020, 6:37 pm | # | Reply

          Don’t you, Awgiedawgie? Are you sure? 😉

          • awgiedawgie
            September 5, 2020, 6:44 pm | #

            Maybe I do, and I just don’t realize that I’m actually part of a comic strip myself…

  10. D. Walker
    September 5, 2020, 12:42 pm | # | Reply

    “Being a rodent is just plain unfair!”

    Yes, how unfair of humans to think badly of the animals that would eat their crops in the fields, and get into their granaries and steal and eat some food, and ruin the rest of it by crapping all over it, spreading famine and disease at the same time!

    I just can’t imagine why people would prefer cats!

    I mean, they’re violent, selfish little assholes! They don’t care about humans at all, they just -accidentally- are tremendously useful to humans because they 1) hunt their own food instead of stealing it from humans, 2) hunt things that the humans don’t eat, so there’s no competition for resources, 3) hunt things that DO steal food from humans, and 4) dig little holes and bury their own turds instead of pooping on literally everything, including themselves and their (stolen) food supplies!

    It’s just not fair!

    • awgiedawgie
      September 5, 2020, 3:41 pm | # | Reply

      Apparently you’ve never had a feral cat invade your home. They’re riddled with disease, they do steal food, and they do pee and poop all over everything, plus ralphing up hairballs and half-eaten chipmunks on the hood of your car.

      At least rodent poop is tiny and easy to clean up, and doesn’t make everything reek to high heaven.

      • Robert Nowall
        September 5, 2020, 4:48 pm | # | Reply

        Our current cat is an ex-feral cat. We got him to eat outside…then in the garage…then in the house…and then, after about a year, he was rubbing against us and sitting on laps. You gotta be patient…and, probably, it helps if the cat is young…

        • awgiedawgie
          September 5, 2020, 5:50 pm | # | Reply

          We have an ex-feral cat. He’s been around our place for about 5 years now. Our indoor/outdoor cat brought him home for dinner one night, bless her little innocent heart. We endured two years of him crapping wherever he felt like (mostly in the garage). He’ll actually come up to me and ask to be petted now, although he won’t let me pick him up. He still isn’t domesticated enough to come in the house, but thankfully he at least buries his poop now.

          • Robert Nowall
            September 5, 2020, 6:01 pm | #

            We can’t pick ours up, either. But he loves to sit on my mother’s lap. Mine a couple of times, but he’s not as thrilled by it.

      • David B Huber
        September 5, 2020, 7:03 pm | # | Reply

        Years ago I was sitting on the front stairs of the house converted to apartments down the street from where I worked when a huge grey cat walked up and sat down next to me. We quietly watched cars go by for a while until he remembered better things he had to do and continued on his way.

        Over the next few months I’d see him roaming the neighborhood (occasionally with a bird in his mouth) and came to think of him as “Sir Tom” because he seemed a gallant fellow. He’d sit beside me and eventually let me pet him but never accepted my invitation to come inside.

        The neighborhood bullies would throw rocks at him. When I moved away I called a cat rescue organization who lent me a cage to put him in. Next time he came around I scooped him up (at great cost to my hands!) and tossed him in.

        I asked about him later and they’d had him neutered and put on display in a glass case at a pet store, he was such an elegant cat. I like to think some little girl adopted him and taught him to play dress-up with bonnets.

  11. BMunro
    September 5, 2020, 6:44 pm | # | Reply

    to me that It occurs Cinnamon might have gone the rooftop route and given Artie a lift, but a gerbil riding a cat would be a dead giveaway if spotted.

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