Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
  • About Us
  • Cast
  • Store
  • Extras
  • Original Art for Sale
  • Our Patreon
RSS
2019-06-04
‹‹ First ‹ Prev Buy! Comments(29) Next › Last ››

2019-06-04

by shaenon on June 4, 2019 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Green Noah
Comments RSS

Discussion (29) ¬

  1. awgiedawgie
    June 4, 2019, 12:08 am | # | Reply

    Nick, my boy… sometimes pacifism really isn’t the answer.

    War may be an ugly business, but when the legions of evil force your hand, and that hand happens to be attached to a giant walking building, you use that hand to flatten them.

    • Moe Lane
      June 4, 2019, 12:13 am | # | Reply

      What’s that SM Stirling quote? “If nobody fights the bad guys, they *win*”, or something like that?

      • Landis963
        June 4, 2019, 1:01 am | # | Reply

        I don’t recall if this is Stirling or not, but “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

        • awgiedawgie
          June 4, 2019, 1:22 am | # | Reply

          That has most often been attributed to Edmund Burke (JFK used that quote more than once, and he always attributed it to Burke), from a letter he supposedly wrote in 1795.

          No one has been able to produce any document actually proving that, however.

          • Historian
            June 4, 2019, 3:01 am | #

            Burke did write, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Which while addressing similar themes, it is different enough to be its own idea. The earliest really similar expression to Landis’s quote was by John Stuart Mill, during an 1867 graduation address at the University of St. Andrews: ” Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

    • Peter Lewerin
      June 4, 2019, 12:33 am | # | Reply

      Then again, “[it’s an] ugly business” is basically the extent of what he is saying. He’s protesting against the enthusiasm, not the battle.

  2. David B Huber
    June 4, 2019, 12:22 am | # | Reply

    Are you saying, Nick, the robots are somehow “less real” people?

    Admittedly, your POV deserves extra weight. But I must say your sympathy with the aggressors surprises me. Unless you are privy to more complete knowledge of the situation?

    I could see the Lone Ranger siding initially with the rancher whose water supply was being blown up by Indians – until he learned said rancher had dammed up the only river in the region for his exclusive use…

    • Thenardyr
      June 4, 2019, 2:06 am | # | Reply

      I I think it was Virginia’s referring to a deadly battle with a fairy-tale analogy that he objected to. Nick has always been clear that the machines weren’t just people, they were *his* people. Virginia was dehumanizing the A-sig shock troopers. As someone else said, Nick objects to her enthusiasm.

      • Candace
        June 4, 2019, 2:30 am | # | Reply

        This.^ I suspect Nick would also prefer a solution that didn’t involve actually killing the enemy, if at all possible. Disabling their tech would almost certainly at least greatly reduce the A-sig’s troops’ efficacy, and most would probably surrender or retreat at that point, thus minimizing casualties.

        Assuming Nick at some point admits to himself that he loves Virginia, he will also have to accept that she is, technically, evil, and decide if he really wants to be with her after all.

        • David B Huber
          June 4, 2019, 3:06 am | # | Reply

          You’re right. I remember now when Nick made that declaration. Considering he has AI doppelgangers as well as a cybernetic nature his ability to empathize with both life forms is the embodiment of chivalry.

          Ginny knows Nick is too good for her. Nick views Ginny as far above him in every respect. They’re both right!

    • Darael
      June 5, 2019, 6:07 am | # | Reply

      I would suggest that he meant physically-present sapients rather than the remote-controlled drones that were brought up as a possibility. The latter would have been more like the body that would go on to be Bubbles’s was before it had Bubbles in it than an actual person, but these are not.

  3. Barbara K
    June 4, 2019, 9:45 am | # | Reply

    Is Pacifist Nick acknowledging that it would be gratifying to see Karma come around to visit some of his old co-workers?

    • Candace
      June 5, 2019, 2:08 am | # | Reply

      Ah, yes. The jerk knight did indeed deserve some serious shin-kicking.

  4. Ken
    June 4, 2019, 9:46 am | # | Reply

    I dunno, the punch line of today’s comic seems a little off-color given what happened with Virginia Beach recently.

    What? No, I’m not calling Virginia that!

    Well, maybe I am, just a little.

    • Robert Nowall
      June 4, 2019, 11:25 am | # | Reply

      She can’t help that, anymore than you can help using Ken as a handle. Give my regards to Barbie.

  5. Robert Nowall
    June 4, 2019, 11:27 am | # | Reply

    I wonder what Marcie and Aimee-in-Baron-M’s-carcass are talking about. Probably Nick?

    • Shadowmehr
      June 4, 2019, 8:42 pm | # | Reply

      Now, I have semi-terrifying visions of Marcie and Aimee doing a makeover to the Baron’s mechanical carcass. He will probably scream when he gets back in his own body and sees what it was done to it. Actually that makes it much less terrifying. 😀

      • Robert Nowall
        June 4, 2019, 11:26 pm | # | Reply

        If Dr. Lee and Dr. Jones join the conversation, they might be cloning Aimee a meatbody all her own.

        • Candace
          June 5, 2019, 2:12 am | # | Reply

          Dr. Jones is all that is needed for the cloning part. No doubt using her Clone-o-Mat to clone a female version of Nick’s body for Aimee would be child’s play for Dr. Jones.

  6. Nix
    June 4, 2019, 11:49 am | # | Reply

    I’m wondering why on earth an HR director is participating in an attack on a bunch of domestic appliances anyway. It seems like a very odd role to have “participate in strike team” as one of its duties. Is A-Sig that close to running out of people, that they lay down their bosses’ lives?

    • Sheik
      June 4, 2019, 2:40 pm | # | Reply

      Of necessity A-Sig has always been short on personnel just for the sake of secrecy.
      If this is indeed a max effort even the HR Director, being just as brainwashed as the rest, will feel obligated to join in.
      Of course if Mr. Green is like any Bond villain he has a whole other organization as a backup, although it may need a little tuning up.

    • Barking Monkey
      June 4, 2019, 4:24 pm | # | Reply

      It always pays, when being hired, to get some detail on the “other duties as required” clause of the job description…

  7. cloudster
    June 4, 2019, 11:50 am | # | Reply

    I’d have no problem seeing a few of my former HR directors being ground under a building.

    • Barbara K
      June 4, 2019, 7:30 pm | # | Reply

      If their HR department has become involved, and if their HR department is a typical one, we may safely assume that Anasigma will soon be losing.

  8. georgethearchon
    June 4, 2019, 2:23 pm | # | Reply

    I mean, at least Nick’s perspective here seems to suggest that the A-Sig goons are losing badly now?

    • Robert Nowall
      June 4, 2019, 6:07 pm | # | Reply

      Probably what perspective he gets from being up on Annex One’s roof—must look different at ground level.

      • Shadowmehr
        June 4, 2019, 8:45 pm | # | Reply

        Flatter – for example.

  9. Pygar
    June 4, 2019, 8:51 pm | # | Reply

    When did she get the new short ‘do? And when does Toto pull the curtain back?

    • awgiedawgie
      June 4, 2019, 9:31 pm | # | Reply

      They chopped her hair off when they were about to extract her brain for “permanent extirpation”.

Leave a Reply to awgiedawgie Cancel reply

More by Jeff

  • The Scrivnarium

More by Shaenon

  • Horror Every Day
  • Li'l Mell
  • Monster of the Week
  • Narbonic
  • Shaenon.com
Creative Commons License
Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com.

©2007-2022 Skin Horse | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑