They’ve sort of done it with all three protagonists.
Sweetheart with this moment, Unity with the mass infection gambit, Tip schmoozing his way to the top of A-Sig…
the fact that Tip is merely “chief of office of whatever” and not president? Even if people knew about the shadow government (reality blindness notwithstanding), “cabinet shakeup in one office” is hardly a headliner
Reminds me of the fall of the Berlin Wall. No, really. Nobody was paying attention to the org chart back then, somebody with enough authority to make a decision made it publicly (and by purest accident), and then suddenly every East Berliner in the city was at the checkpoints, politely *insisting* that they had been given permission to visit the rest of the city.
I saw the video of that within the last month. The Italian reporter who posed the question that got the answer that caused the Wall to fall just passed away.
I’m more impressed with Sweetheart’s capacity for chart making.
If it’s paw-written, she has very good pendogship, and if not, she’s got a fairly accessible keyboard. Also, good paw-writing, considering the post-it notes.
Ira doesn’t care what the org chart says. But his minions, who have all been trained to show utter loyalty to Anasigma and to blindly follow all rules no matter how ridiculous, probably do!
I think it’s more a case of pointing out to them that *technically*, according to their own system, during this infiltration Tip has been promoted higher up the food chain than Ira. Meaning that – again, technically – Tip has more authority within their system than Ira does.
Is that an option? That’s the Black Ops org chart where Tip outranks Green; Anasigma was a private company when it was introduced (though I’ll admit I could’ve missed it getting folded into the public sector). If Anasigma is private, Tip has no authority to use it.
That would depend on how the governmental Black Ops contract with Anasigma was worded.
Tip might have no DIRECT authority, as their contract might go through Mr.Green’s office, but his overall position in BO means that he CAN overrule Mr.Green’s orders to them… through proper channels.
Valid point. Technically Chris is at the top of the org chart. Possibly the Man Behind the Man, as Tip has been doing this rapidfire promotion work to pull this off while presumably Chris is chilling as part of the current Unity-gestalt.
You are all missing the point. Everyone at A-sig was recruited and trained to follow the rules exactly and threatened with extirpation for any deviance from said rules. There is no room in the organization for any interpretations. If the rules say Tip is in charge, he IS in charge. Mr. Greed did this to himself.
Well, this seems to be following the Oz scheme well. For those of you who remember Ozma of Oz, he started out as a boy named Tip, and at the end she was revealed to be Princess Ozma, and became the supreme ruler of Oz. Well done again to the authors for the long, long, payoff!
I notice that Ira apparently has more respect for Sweetheart as a sapient than the henchman does. Kind of meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but still notable.
Possible, yes. It could also be that the henchman is just reality-blind–note his calling Sweetheart “it”–whereas Ira knows exactly who she is.
Granted, Ira calls her “the dog” in the second panel, but this could just be because he knows the henchman wouldn’t know who he meant if he called her “Sweetheart” or “Agent Fancy” or what have you.
BTW to anyone else who has been keeping track of the File Name Story. Can your figure out how to punctuate the lasted bit so it makes any sort of even mad science sense?
“The bees asked for his i-9 form. Tip signed it and handed it to the swarm of bees. The i-9 form to the bees and the bees took it the bees took his form with bee legs this would take some getting used”
It looks like there’s a couple redundant phrases after “handed”. One of them appears to be intentional.
“The bees asked for his I-9 form. Tip signed it and handed it to the swarm of bees, and the bees took it. The bees took his form with bee legs. This would take some getting used”
After getting my own copy of the story up to date, I’ve revised my answer. And I quite agree with John Campbell’s answer below.
It’s also relevant to note that not only does the image filename have proper capitalization, but sometimes the page URL doesn’t even match the filename at all (for example, from Sept 8, 2009 to April 1, 2014, the page URL was simply “todays-comic” followed by a number, even though the filenames continued the story as usual).
I’ve gotten my compilation (link in my name) caught up to present.
Tip appears to be narrating in sentence fragments because he’s super-freaked out.
Note that if you pull the words from the actual image filename instead of the page URL, they have proper capitalization, which helps with bits like this.
I’m surprised he’s is so low on the chart. Sure Tip has worked the system and gained authority over him, but apparently there’s other people that have authority over him too.
Ira and Tip will talk later. Part of Ira’s plans as subjugator. But a dog with a chart (who we know as Sweetheart) shows that Tip’s Ira’s subordinator.
To quote chapter 4 way back in the day, “it doesn’t matter what you think about it. All that matters is it’s written down somewhere.” Once again, bureaucracy saves the day.
I am loving today’s strip so much. Sweetheart’s obsession with organization, so often a thorn in everyone else’s side, is precisely what saves the day. Go, Agent Fancy, go.
My brain is now busy speculating about why Mr. Green reacts the way he does in the fourth panel. Does he not yet understand what the org chart implies? Does he understand precisely what it implies, and he’s in denial, grasping at any straw that might debunk it? Is he panicking on the inside but trying to save face in front of the henchman, whom he hopes won’t grasp what’s happening? No doubt the next few days’ strips will tell us–Shaenon and Jeff are good that way–but meanwhile it’s a fun topic to chew on.
Hooray! Sweetheart to the rescue!
“Ignore the dog. Beware of Master!”
Hoist on his own org chart!
I doff my hat to you, sir!
Ira, did you not know Skin Horse well enough to know Sweetheart’s powers and obsessions by now? O_O
Two things:
They found the live feed camera
Sweetheart is freakin’ amazing with org charts
It’s always kind of been a joke about her personality, but leave it to Jeff and Shaenon to turn that into a major strength at a crucial moment.
Also, I love that one tooth over the chart. And I can’t tell for sure, but I’m pretty sure she’s smiling and wagging.
Of course she’s smiling and wagging! Sweetheart just used bureaucracy to save the day. Her entire existence has been justified.
One could make the claim that bureaucracy is the lynchpin of civilization
I’ll bet Gutenberg’s second commission was printing forms!
They’ve sort of done it with all three protagonists.
Sweetheart with this moment, Unity with the mass infection gambit, Tip schmoozing his way to the top of A-Sig…
i did not see this coming but looking back years and years ago, Tigerlily was right, Tip is the The Man.
Okay, but what’s stopping Ira/Mr. Green from staging a coup?
EXCUSE me. There is a FORM for that.
It’s likely a plural! As in forms, in triplicate!
Not to mention getting the Union to sign off on it, AND the Henchman’s Guild!
U.N.I.T.Y is a notaries public. Take that Ira.
Tip should take away his rooftop pass.
the fact that Tip is merely “chief of office of whatever” and not president? Even if people knew about the shadow government (reality blindness notwithstanding), “cabinet shakeup in one office” is hardly a headliner
Reminds me of the fall of the Berlin Wall. No, really. Nobody was paying attention to the org chart back then, somebody with enough authority to make a decision made it publicly (and by purest accident), and then suddenly every East Berliner in the city was at the checkpoints, politely *insisting* that they had been given permission to visit the rest of the city.
God, that was fun to watch.
I saw the video of that within the last month. The Italian reporter who posed the question that got the answer that caused the Wall to fall just passed away.
That was, indeed, a thing of beauty.
“You’re not the boss of me!”
More like his bosses’ bosses’ boss, if I read that org chart correctly. (I might be missing one level yellow-ops’ed by the lower post-it.)
Org charts ONLY have right angles. There’s a bubble there.
I’m more impressed with Sweetheart’s capacity for chart making.
If it’s paw-written, she has very good pendogship, and if not, she’s got a fairly accessible keyboard. Also, good paw-writing, considering the post-it notes.
They share a mind with Unity and all the others
Sweetheart has both the chart app and various voice typing apps hard wired onto her homepage.
“Pendogship”, lol! Kingfisher, you win the internet today!
I knew it! Bureaucracy saves the day!
I love this SO much! It makes so much sense and is just absolutely perfect!
Ira doesn’t care what the org chart says. But his minions, who have all been trained to show utter loyalty to Anasigma and to blindly follow all rules no matter how ridiculous, probably do!
So this chart magically takes away Ari Green’s authority? Huh. If so, that would be the most absurd thing to ever appear in Skin Horse.
I think it’s more a case of pointing out to them that *technically*, according to their own system, during this infiltration Tip has been promoted higher up the food chain than Ira. Meaning that – again, technically – Tip has more authority within their system than Ira does.
The thing about the Black Ops Civil Service; it’s still the Civil Service.
Oh I guess for henchmen, it’s also about who gives the pay
Anasigma isn’t black ops, it’s an independent company that works for black ops. So technically Ira reports to a contract manager somewhere down chain.
In practice, Ira has been manipulating and influencing to the point where he controls things. But, you know, he never got it in writing.
By definition, “black ops” includes any private organizations/contractors involved in carrying out the operations. So yes, Anasigma is black ops.
Ooh, will Tip have the presence of mind to send Mr. Green off for extirpation (complete with walnuts) before the latter recovers?
Is that an option? That’s the Black Ops org chart where Tip outranks Green; Anasigma was a private company when it was introduced (though I’ll admit I could’ve missed it getting folded into the public sector). If Anasigma is private, Tip has no authority to use it.
That would depend on how the governmental Black Ops contract with Anasigma was worded.
Tip might have no DIRECT authority, as their contract might go through Mr.Green’s office, but his overall position in BO means that he CAN overrule Mr.Green’s orders to them… through proper channels.
Or Shoe Polishing Reorientation!
*cackle*
“This had better not be the dog again” excuse me, there is ALWAYS time to look at Sweetheart again.
With the reality blindness machine turned off, I suppose they all can now see her.
May take a while for the reality blindness to dissipate – but soon…
In the meantime, everyone can see her, but as just a dog.
A dog, holding an org chart in her teeth. What could be more adorable! I predict this image will go viral in Skin Horse-verse.
“Red tape sticks on both sides, director.”
Y’know, it’s not Tip at the top of the org chart, it’d be “Dr. Chris Sanders,” his assumed identity.
Valid point. Technically Chris is at the top of the org chart. Possibly the Man Behind the Man, as Tip has been doing this rapidfire promotion work to pull this off while presumably Chris is chilling as part of the current Unity-gestalt.
This is true. It may be that Chris is the one who will ultimately have to put down Mr. Green.
You are all missing the point. Everyone at A-sig was recruited and trained to follow the rules exactly and threatened with extirpation for any deviance from said rules. There is no room in the organization for any interpretations. If the rules say Tip is in charge, he IS in charge. Mr. Greed did this to himself.
That’s true, I forgot that. I just assumed Mr. Green still had some sort of wild card.
Heh. The dog revealed the man behind the curtain.
^ This!
Well, this seems to be following the Oz scheme well. For those of you who remember Ozma of Oz, he started out as a boy named Tip, and at the end she was revealed to be Princess Ozma, and became the supreme ruler of Oz. Well done again to the authors for the long, long, payoff!
Glad you noticed.
It has been decades since I read the series, so thanks for reminding me!
As the old saying goes “It doesn’t matter if it makes sense, all that matters is that’s written down somewhere”.
And now she wrote it down.
And they say mad science is crazy.
I notice that Ira apparently has more respect for Sweetheart as a sapient than the henchman does. Kind of meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but still notable.
Possible, yes. It could also be that the henchman is just reality-blind–note his calling Sweetheart “it”–whereas Ira knows exactly who she is.
Granted, Ira calls her “the dog” in the second panel, but this could just be because he knows the henchman wouldn’t know who he meant if he called her “Sweetheart” or “Agent Fancy” or what have you.
I think Mr. Green has made it quite plain he has no respect for any non-human sapients.
I was wondering if Tip at this point was above Ira in the hierarchy. Hooray for beaurocracy!
Tip’s about to be going bye-bye. His plans to take over awry. But Sweetheart comes on with a sine qua non. He’s in charge now—the org chart’s no lie.
There’s the limerick that wouldn’t post yesterday.
BTW to anyone else who has been keeping track of the File Name Story. Can your figure out how to punctuate the lasted bit so it makes any sort of even mad science sense?
“The bees asked for his i-9 form. Tip signed it and handed it to the swarm of bees. The i-9 form to the bees and the bees took it the bees took his form with bee legs this would take some getting used”
It looks like there’s a couple redundant phrases after “handed”. One of them appears to be intentional.
“The bees asked for his I-9 form. Tip signed it and handed it to the swarm of bees, and the bees took it. The bees took his form with bee legs. This would take some getting used”
After getting my own copy of the story up to date, I’ve revised my answer. And I quite agree with John Campbell’s answer below.
It’s also relevant to note that not only does the image filename have proper capitalization, but sometimes the page URL doesn’t even match the filename at all (for example, from Sept 8, 2009 to April 1, 2014, the page URL was simply “todays-comic” followed by a number, even though the filenames continued the story as usual).
I’ve gotten my compilation (link in my name) caught up to present.
Tip appears to be narrating in sentence fragments because he’s super-freaked out.
Note that if you pull the words from the actual image filename instead of the page URL, they have proper capitalization, which helps with bits like this.
I’ve been trying to find that link for weeks! Thanks for your hard work.
Thanks awgiedawgie & John Campbell
Oh yeah, he is kind of at the Tip of the chart now, huh?
Having no luck posting my limerick today.
The glitch (or whatever) let me post that.
I’ve been trying to find that link for weeks! Thanks for your hard work.
I’m surprised he’s is so low on the chart. Sure Tip has worked the system and gained authority over him, but apparently there’s other people that have authority over him too.
My guess? Those people have no real idea what Ira does. Possibly he regularly sends them reports they don’t read.
Ira and Tip will talk later. Part of Ira’s plans as subjugator. But a dog with a chart (who we know as Sweetheart) shows that Tip’s Ira’s subordinator.
That it let me post! That’s an entirely different limerick than the first one I did! What gives?
It didn’t like your first limerick and thought you could really do better.
To quote chapter 4 way back in the day, “it doesn’t matter what you think about it. All that matters is it’s written down somewhere.” Once again, bureaucracy saves the day.
Ira is unlikely to go along with this, but the goons just might. After all, they know violating The Rules is automatic death.
or rather Extirpation
Which they don’t know what it entails
Except “it involves walniuts!”
I am loving today’s strip so much. Sweetheart’s obsession with organization, so often a thorn in everyone else’s side, is precisely what saves the day. Go, Agent Fancy, go.
My brain is now busy speculating about why Mr. Green reacts the way he does in the fourth panel. Does he not yet understand what the org chart implies? Does he understand precisely what it implies, and he’s in denial, grasping at any straw that might debunk it? Is he panicking on the inside but trying to save face in front of the henchman, whom he hopes won’t grasp what’s happening? No doubt the next few days’ strips will tell us–Shaenon and Jeff are good that way–but meanwhile it’s a fun topic to chew on.
Well, Sweetheart hasn’t saved the day just yet. Mr. Green might just try to overthrow Tip by force. He does already have him detained.
As for Green’s reaction, it strikes me more as being irate that Sweetheart figured out exactly where he actually falls into the pecking order.
thank you Shaenon and Jeff, this made me so happy
“How does she have time to make charts?” It’s all about priorities, Mr. Green.
That’s right, it IS a cute dog!