Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2022-02-03
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2022-02-03

by shaenon on February 3, 2022 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon
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Discussion (76) ¬

  1. Towering Barbarian
    February 3, 2022, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Both sides have a point. 😀

    • skullthetroll
      February 3, 2022, 2:16 pm | # | Reply

      No they don’t. 🙂

    • Robert Nowall
      February 3, 2022, 7:12 pm | # | Reply

      Baron Mistycorn has a point.

  2. Ladon
    February 3, 2022, 12:36 am | # | Reply

    I mean, he do be calling it as he sees it though

  3. sheer_falacy
    February 3, 2022, 12:49 am | # | Reply

    If Ira really wants to survive he’s going to need to embrace the weirdness and ask Tip out. He’s certainly hit on him enough via android.

    Whether he and Tip would be willing and able to mojo their way to safety is another question. Not so likely at this point.

    • Robert Nowall
      February 3, 2022, 7:44 pm | # | Reply

      He spent years pretending to be a guy with dissociative function. He’s already embraced the weirdness.

      • David B Huber
        February 3, 2022, 11:31 pm | # | Reply

        Now YOU’RE on point! 😉

  4. Kyle
    February 3, 2022, 12:51 am | # | Reply

    Contemporary American politics in a nutshell.

    • Sheik
      February 3, 2022, 9:45 am | # | Reply

      Not just American.
      AFAICT it is the human condition.
      Even those who are advantaged beyond all reason, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, seem to go out of their way to abuse those less well off, and the poorer the better.

      • Pcj70
        February 3, 2022, 4:43 pm | # | Reply

        Actually, I’d say you’re missing the point. There have been very rich eccentrics that have been “put down”,by very conformist peasants.

        In this particular case, it’s not about the power structure Of pack pecking order instinct. (I must be the most important, and you exist to serve me)

        This is about the wish for conformity, The urge for regulation, wanting to feel safe because everything is “normal“. And controlled. (They’re not behaving in the way I like, and I’m going to teach them a lesson, for making me uncomfortable)

  5. muhamad Adhi Setiadi
    February 3, 2022, 1:21 am | # | Reply

    I mean, most of the weirds we met in story don’t choose to be weird by their own accord (mad geniuses set aside).
    Its kinda bad to exterminate sapient beings just because they are not regarded as normal and not because what they do.

    • Aname
      February 3, 2022, 1:45 am | # | Reply

      In the end, what actually is “normal”? Some fake data point agreed upon by the majority? In which case, nobody is normal or sane or average because everybody falls on one side or the other of the bogus ideal. Screw normal, fly your freak flag.

      • Candace
        February 3, 2022, 1:59 am | # | Reply

        Hear, hear!

      • Shadowmehr
        February 3, 2022, 1:07 pm | # | Reply

        Normality is a form of insanity embraced by the majority.

        • David B Huber
          February 3, 2022, 11:35 pm | # | Reply

          I’ve always wanted a T-shirt declaring “SANITY – you can’t miss what you’ve never had.” 😉

          • Candace
            February 4, 2022, 1:35 am | #

            I’d wear that T-shirt.

    • Simberto
      February 3, 2022, 3:01 am | # | Reply

      I am not certain mad geniuses choose to be weird, either. They are mad after all. I think that mad directly leads to weirdness. And i don’t think they are mad by choice.

      • RandomFan
        February 3, 2022, 6:18 am | # | Reply

        Mad geniuses *can* choose to un-be weird, these days, but that’s a recent development.

      • awgiedawgie
        February 3, 2022, 5:32 pm | # | Reply

        Pretty sure they were weird long before they broke through into Madness.

        Take Helen for example… other 6-year-old kids ask for soccer balls or Barbie dolls for Christmas. But what does a 6-year-old Helen ask for? “The BioBeam 8000 gamma irradiator with 5-liter containment chamber, Cesium 137 radiation source, optional remote monitoring station, and a thing on the top that tells the time”

  6. Candace
    February 3, 2022, 2:01 am | # | Reply

    They’re going to have to resolve this via hand puppets.

    • Shadowmehr
      February 3, 2022, 1:08 pm | # | Reply

      That’s one way to get the Wizard to jump off the platform.

  7. Zero
    February 3, 2022, 2:08 am | # | Reply

    If by Tip’s ilk he meant other humans helping defend the non-humans, that might make evil sense. But he’s including Tip’s non-human allies, and he can’t figure out why they want to continue being alive.
    He may not have actually tried very hard.

    • Candace
      February 3, 2022, 2:31 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, I think that’s a given. In spite of being an evil genius, Mr. Green doesn’t seem to have much, if any, self-awareness. Tip didn’t used to, but he’s grown. Perhaps he can help Ari Green grow before it’s too late for everyone.

      • Sasha
        February 3, 2022, 9:43 am | # | Reply

        Okay, now I’m imagining an ending where Mr. Green, having had an epiphany and swearing off Evil Masterminding for good, takes up a new job… as a security guard at Skin Horse.
        (bonus: he accidentally falls into one of his own mind-control thingies and has his memory wiped. “Who am I?” “Uh… Ira. Yes, that’s right, you’re Ira.”)

        • Candace
          February 4, 2022, 1:37 am | # | Reply

          That would be fun.

  8. KWills
    February 3, 2022, 2:12 am | # | Reply

    Ouch! “You’re ruining everything by being weird” is the story of my life. And the faux-kind, reasonable tone of Ira’s voice just leaps off the page.

  9. ebonysable
    February 3, 2022, 2:25 am | # | Reply

    So. Ari Green is just a bigot, plain and simple. He can’t accept others who aren’t like him.

  10. Robert Nowall
    February 3, 2022, 2:31 am | # | Reply

    You’ll have to do better than that, Ira.

  11. Jim Janney
    February 3, 2022, 2:50 am | # | Reply

    Anasigma isn’t exactly what I would call normal, what with the axolotls and brain transplants and all. Is Ira repressing his own weirdness?

    • glitterboy2098
      February 3, 2022, 7:05 pm | # | Reply

      “But I don’t want to go among weird people,” Ira remarked.
      “Oh, you can’t help that,” said Tip: “we’re all weird here. I’m weird. You’re weird.”
      “How do you know I’m weird?” said Ira.
      “You must be,” said Tip, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

      • Zero
        February 3, 2022, 8:29 pm | # | Reply

        Hey, that’s not Oz. That’s Wonderland!

        • awgiedawgie
          February 3, 2022, 9:34 pm | # | Reply

          It’s also classic Shaenon (sort of)…

          http://narbonic.com/comic/july-17-22-2006/#comic-strip-image-6

          • Candace
            February 4, 2022, 1:41 am | #

            Thanks for the ref, awgiedawgie! That was a great moment in Narbonic.

          • Forrest M Davis
            February 4, 2022, 2:17 pm | #

            Welp, that link cost me a (very enjoyable) hour of archive-diving…

      • Candace
        February 4, 2022, 1:38 am | # | Reply

        Nice ref, glitterboy2098!

  12. Leslie Piper
    February 3, 2022, 3:35 am | # | Reply

    So much fun in the comments! Thanx!

    • Candace
      February 4, 2022, 1:43 am | # | Reply

      I know, right! I’m going to miss all you guys when this thing finishes!

  13. sietsebb
    February 3, 2022, 3:35 am | # | Reply

    —Help me stop this thing from rising!
    —Look at it down there. It’s so beautiful.

    In another universe there is no Ira Green, and these exact same lines are spoken because of Tip’s mojo.

    • Efogoto
      February 3, 2022, 6:19 am | # | Reply

      When correctly viewed / Everything is lewd / I could tell you things about Peter Pan / And The Wizard of Oz? There’s a dirty old man!

      – Tom Lehrer / Smut

      • sietsebb
        February 3, 2022, 8:57 am | # | Reply

        … I cannot believe how apt that is for Skin Horse

    • Robert Nowall
      February 3, 2022, 9:21 am | # | Reply

      “Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”

      • Candace
        February 4, 2022, 1:45 am | # | Reply

        I loved that show! I still want flying cars to be a normal, everyday thing.

  14. awgiedawgie
    February 3, 2022, 6:41 am | # | Reply

    Just kick the thing. Sometimes that works.

    • Zero
      February 3, 2022, 8:30 pm | # | Reply

      They’d like it to work slowly.

  15. jwghaller
    February 3, 2022, 7:46 am | # | Reply

    Hmm, I wonder if I could get certain other boomers of my acquaintance to go to therapy using this method?

  16. Robert Nowall
    February 3, 2022, 9:26 am | # | Reply

    The damage, Tip can’t override. With Ira, he’s fit to be tied. Activities secret their future looks bleak, it with Ira and sapiocide.

    • Bernerlb
      February 3, 2022, 3:19 pm | # | Reply

      I can’t say just how much I love “sapiocide”.

  17. Ana
    February 3, 2022, 10:10 am | # | Reply

    Green really is the perfect villain for this comic.

  18. Paulagee66
    February 3, 2022, 10:38 am | # | Reply

    Mmm, I always worry if I’m not the weirdest person in the room

    • awgiedawgie
      February 3, 2022, 10:48 am | # | Reply

      Well, you’ve got some pretty stiff competition around here.

    • waynezombie
      February 3, 2022, 11:41 am | # | Reply

      Everybody knows something you don’t.

      Corollary: Everybody is someone else’s weirdo. I pride myself in being several.

      • awgiedawgie
        February 3, 2022, 11:47 am | # | Reply

        And once again, I must ask… you are several weirdos?

        That’s just… um… weird.

        • Dewy
          February 3, 2022, 4:54 pm | # | Reply

          Weirdophobe! Or perhaps a Weirdophile…both?

          • David B Huber
            February 3, 2022, 11:44 pm | #

            I’ve been weird since childhood. I loved dressing up in a suit with vest and carry a briefcase in second grade…

            I wasn’t bullied nearly as much as I deserved.

  19. Robert Nowall
    February 3, 2022, 10:38 am | # | Reply

    “Skin-Horse, Skin-Horse, off the wall. Who is the weirdest of them all?”

  20. jdreyfuss
    February 3, 2022, 10:47 am | # | Reply

    “Your existence, although it doesn’t actually affect me in any meaningful way, threatens my fragile privilege in a way that I can’t articulate. Therefore you are the problem and must be eliminated for the sake of my comfort.”

    • waynezombie
      February 3, 2022, 11:42 am | # | Reply

      Boy, what does that make me think of in this day and age?

      • Robert Horton
        February 3, 2022, 3:55 pm | # | Reply

        Does it rhyme with BLM or Antifa? CRT?

        • Zero
          February 3, 2022, 8:33 pm | # | Reply

          Anti-anti-fa. Fa for short.
          Wait, what’s “fa” short for again?

        • Turovale
          February 5, 2022, 6:17 pm | # | Reply

          Ah yes, african americans, transgender people and people who are against fascists, the most privileged group I can think of.

          • Robert Horton
            February 5, 2022, 8:13 pm | #

            Fascists who fight imaginary fascists, racists who pretend they are fighting racists, and, yes, people in denial of XX and XY chromosomes, are by far the most privileged groups to be seen in the modern world.

  21. blitzgamer210
    February 3, 2022, 2:39 pm | # | Reply

    Ah, conservative logic

    • Robert Horton
      February 3, 2022, 3:57 pm | # | Reply

      But they aren’t today’s oppressors… the Other Guys are.

      • Zero
        February 3, 2022, 8:32 pm | # | Reply

        Stop being so mean to the fascists! =(

  22. Dewy
    February 3, 2022, 5:00 pm | # | Reply

    Please just relax, sit back and enjoy the show. The writers will take us where they intend to go. Until then, please chill with the politics. To a lot of us, this is our escape from all that.

    • awgiedawgie
      February 3, 2022, 5:34 pm | # | Reply

      Seconded.

    • Robert Nowall
      February 3, 2022, 10:05 pm | # | Reply

      Well, strip away the weirdness that Ira complains about, and what have you got? A bureaucratic government agency staffed by people who are trying to do good, but any good they do is in spite of what they’ve done, not because of it. (At least till they went rogue.)

  23. Vincent
    February 3, 2022, 6:07 pm | # | Reply

    But… It’s always been weird.

  24. BMunro
    February 3, 2022, 6:25 pm | # | Reply

    There is an argument to be made for A-Sig. A lot of these people and entities are in fact extremely dangerous. The collective just ate Pennsylvania, which would be an unimaginable atrocity if this wasn’t a comedy. As we know from Narbonic, most Mads are evil and probablyhave only failed to conquer (or destroy) the world by now due to their profound lack of common sense. Unity is a known baby-eater. (Evil babies, sure…) “Curing” Mads and doing an SCP on a lot of the creatures out there is rationally arguable, if not the mass killing Ira seems to be planning. HT really should have been locked away years ago for killing that rhino (?) man.

    The trouble with Ira is that he doesn’t seem to be approaching this from a really rational point of view. He just seems to find the nonhuman and mad science community _personally_ offensive.

    • D. Walker
      February 3, 2022, 8:32 pm | # | Reply

      HUMANS are in fact extremely dangerous. Maybe you’ve heard of Hitler? Mussolini? Stalin? Perhaps you are familiar with human-made nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, etc?

      We’re the species that devised neutron bombs – capable of killing entire cities of people, but leaving the physical structure of the city itself intact and ready for rapid occupation by the people who murdered the original inhabitants.

      We’re the species that invented cobalt bombs – purpose built to poison the earth and render an area uninhabitable for literal centuries, as opposed to the mere weeks of fallout that typical nuclear bombs would produce.

      We’re the species that decided that for the very first physical contact we would ever make with another celestial body, we would just hit moon with a literal “propaganda bomb”, specially designed to litter the moon’s surface with shrapnel prominently emblazoned with Soviet iconography. (Look up the Luna 2 mission! It’s nutty!)

      We’re the species that has caused more extinctions in the past few centuries than there have been in millions in years.

      We’re the species that has set off a now nearly unstoppable chain reaction of global warming that is going to radically transform the planet in ways no one can predict, likely causing even more extinctions and untold suffering for our own species, all purely so that a bunch of oil companies could get obscenely rich.

      If we’re going to judge sapient life on its potential to be dangerous, than the human race is first in line for the guillotine.

      • David B Huber
        February 3, 2022, 11:59 pm | # | Reply

        After the Apocalypse, life goes on as a young boy is walking home from school. His eye catches a spot of color beneath the foundation of an old bridge and, curious, he investigates.

        By some miracle, a dandelion has survived and struggled into the wan sunlight. The last flower in all the world. The boy has never seen such a thing and is wonderstruck by its beauty.

        So he picks it and takes it home to give his mother.

        Evil? I think not.

  25. BMunro
    February 3, 2022, 6:29 pm | # | Reply

    (I mean, parallels to actual real-world oppression only go so far. Most black people aren’t Out to Show Those Fools, and very rarely can shoot death rays from their eyes.)

  26. Alexis West
    February 3, 2022, 6:38 pm | # | Reply

    Oof. Reminds me of interactions with GC folks on twitter.

  27. Mooring
    February 3, 2022, 7:00 pm | # | Reply

    Oh dear. That’s… two explicit Oz quotes in two consecutive strips. Are we… nearing the finale?

    • Mooring
      February 3, 2022, 7:04 pm | # | Reply

      (…wait, hold on, no, I’m wrong. I don’t know why I thought that was a quote from anything.)

  28. Adept+Arcanist
    February 3, 2022, 10:17 pm | # | Reply

    Somehow, it feels poetic that this story ultimately all just comes back around to simple old bigotry. Not some long game plan for accomplishing some massive goal or even using the abnormal as weapons; just Ira wanting the whole world to look just like him.

    Kind of makes me think of the Wizard’s plans in Wicked causing the Animals to all lose their ability to speak, to be honest.

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