Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2014-04-09
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2014-04-09

by shaenon on April 9, 2014 at 12:01 am
Chapter: My Brother Sam Is Dead
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Discussion (24) ¬

  1. Jay Eff
    April 9, 2014, 12:12 am | # | Reply

    Judging by what’s on the corkboard, I suspect these so-called “friend-ships” involve ants.

    Did I type “ants?”
    ‘Cause I meant “ANTS!”

    • oneuniverse2
      April 9, 2014, 9:37 am | # | Reply

      So Artie is fantasizing about ants? The image of Artie and … Ick. Maybe he’s creating an ant army for whomever he’s in the office working for.

      • John B
        April 9, 2014, 9:43 am | # | Reply

        Isn’t Artie an elementary school teacher, among other things? I just figured those were drawings from his class.

        • Michael
          April 9, 2014, 9:45 am | # | Reply

          Or drawings *of* his class…

  2. jdreyfuss
    April 9, 2014, 12:20 am | # | Reply

    They’re perfect for each other. Also ANTS!

  3. fcdesjardins
    April 9, 2014, 12:38 am | # | Reply

    Words fail to convey just how uncomfortable I am with the way Tip’s character has stagnated. There was a time when he was a complicated little man with intellectual interests and a certain sense of professionalism that belied his choice in attire. There was a time when he was learning how to open up to other people and take an interest in them in ways that didn’t have anything to do with sex.

    In short, there was a time when he was something other than a shallow, vapid omnisexual manwhore who contributed nothing but fanservice to the story. It’s really a shame, because he was the reason I took an interest in this comic to begin with.

    • Voyager
      April 9, 2014, 1:07 am | # | Reply

      Characters need conflict to really grow. For the last few arcs that’s mostly been on Zerhakker, Sweetheart and Unity.

      In many respects Tip is currently the most functional of the set right now, which probably means its time for him to have a confusing run-in with Tigerlilly Jones.

      • fcdesjardins
        April 9, 2014, 1:50 am | # | Reply

        I wouldn’t call him functional at all. He’s become the most one-dimensional character in the series. But anyway, I’ve said what I’m going to say here. I’m disappointed, that’s all.

        • Pylgrim
          April 9, 2014, 2:28 pm | # | Reply

          I believe this is intentional. Skin Horse started with a sober, professional -if slightly quirky Tip to be the straight, “normal” man to psychopath trigger-happy unity and cranky talking dog sweetheart, resolving “humanly” the paranormal conflicts that the other two operatives couldn’t due to their nature and personalities. Both Unity and Sweetheart were little more than comic-relief caricatures to our humble, relatable human hero in a world of monsters and madmen.

          Since then, Unity and Sweetheart have grown as a characters while Tip crumbled down following the run-ins with Tigerlily Jones and Artie. Unity and Sweetheart have become more “human”, while Tip’s true nature as a super-natural being (brought to light precisely by it being challenged and/or ignored by Tigerlily and Artie) has become less human and more caricature.

          Tip’s time to return to relevance should come soon, probably after facing Tigerlily again and somehow being forced to face his own demons, as opposed to clown around and pretend they don’t exist..

    • Caelo
      April 9, 2014, 4:57 am | # | Reply

      Characters don’t alway grow some decay. All be it I don’t think that’s whats happening to Tip. The reason Tip could pull off casanova like moves on Marcie and Dr. Lee is argubaly his disintrest in them as people, he doesn’t care to form any long term relationships with them. Only after meeting Tigerlilly and Artie does he begin to desire long term romantic or familial relationships with anyone, that is character growth. Also tip has alway been vapid, shallow, omnisexual (he has had sex with dogs way before men), and over sexed calling someone a whore is pretty sex negative calling someone a man whore is pretty masagonistic.

    • John Smith
      April 9, 2014, 8:44 am | # | Reply

      Your first paragraph was reasonable. Your second one was uncalled for.

      It is true however that while Sweetheart and Unity have been progressing along character arcs, I’ve started to become frustrated with Nick, Tip and Lee.

    • Corye
      April 9, 2014, 9:04 am | # | Reply

      i wonder about this too. i mean, he for sure had nonsexual relationships when he was in the military, and ones that meant enough for him to get medals for saving lives.

      the character i think has lost the most to fanservice has been unity, though. i think i just don’t care for “destined greatness” arcs, perhaps?

    • bergerjacques
      April 9, 2014, 9:10 am | # | Reply

      I have a feeling that when writing a daily comic with the same characters over the course of some five or six years or a hundred years – or longer in the case of the many of longest running comic strips that exist in the universe – that characters are going to have moments of stagnation. In this particular story, I don’t think Tip or Artie were meant to progress all that much. One of the key narrative threads was a small examination of the unrequited relationship between Nick and Dr. Lee – which did move forward. (Tip, in this instance, was needed only for the competing mojos schtick with Artie.) But if you’re part of the creative team committed to coming up with inventive new story lines over, I’d be extremely possessive of the making that “big move” like Nick and Dr. Lee finally professing their love for each other. You’ve got at least five or so years before the entire venture gets tiresome and you direct your creative energies toward an entirely new project.

    • HH7
      April 9, 2014, 11:53 am | # | Reply

      You’ve said what I’ve been thinking for a while better than I could. Tip has been portrayed as one note and entirely self-centered for far too long. He’s not between character growths (and if that were true, he still gets far too much screentime to be awful in), he’s actually declined. In the beginning he cared about his job and how it helped people. It seems that now if he came across a multi-faceted non-human political and survival struggle in the storage space, he’d just try and figure out who to bang.

  4. David McKenney-Barschall
    April 9, 2014, 12:41 am | # | Reply

    #SexyPeopleProblems?

  5. Eddurd
    April 9, 2014, 6:47 am | # | Reply

    (TUNE: “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” War)

    [CHORUS:]
     How do we be friends? How do we be friends?
     Well, it all depends … How do we be friends?

    Once, Captain Wilkin had a naughty date
    With gerbil R-T-five-four-seven-eight!
     [repeat CHORUS]

    Now Artie says, “This situation’s messed …
    I’d like to see you when we’re both still dressed!”
     [repeat CHORUS]

    And Tip agrees, “I know it might seem strange,
    But body fluids we will not exchange!”
     [repeat CHORUS]

    We’ll find some non-erotic things to do!
    Like, maybe, I don’t have a clue! Do you?
     [repeat CHORUS]

  6. daibhidc
    April 9, 2014, 8:37 am | # | Reply

    Artie had a friendship with Dave, although I’m not sure “respectful” would be the right word…

    • Rex Vivat
      April 9, 2014, 3:48 pm | # | Reply

      Dave is sorta like a father figure to Artie…

  7. Frank
    April 9, 2014, 8:43 am | # | Reply

    Is Tip aware Lee can hear him?

    • Stewart C Baker
      April 9, 2014, 11:50 am | # | Reply

      A better question might be: Does Tip care? 😀

  8. vivavic
    April 9, 2014, 4:20 pm | # | Reply

    Aw, Artie’s got the 3-eyed smiley mug! Now I’m all nostalgic.

  9. Saberbeam
    April 9, 2014, 5:42 pm | # | Reply

    Perhaps the reason Tip has become somewhat shallower as a character is because his powers of persuasion (see: seduction) are usually more effective than his attempts at negotiation and rational discussion. The team’s clients are often range anywhere from unpredictable to unstable and attempts at using mediation and therapy puppets are much more liable to fall apart when met with resistance than his just sexing the problem into submission. It doesn’t help that the team got behind the approach of just throwing Tip’s abilities at any character of the feminine persuasion that was giving them trouble.

    If Tip can get this whole “meaningful relationships that don’t involve sex” idea off the ground, maybe he can also figure out “long term solution that don’t involve sex” as well.

    • fcdesjardins
      April 9, 2014, 6:44 pm | # | Reply

      It’s all well and good to talk about the deeper meaning of Tip’s stagnant characterization but the fact of the matter is that there doesn’t have to be some deeper meaning to it. It really can just be a bad decision as to where to have the character go.

  10. Shadowmehr
    April 9, 2014, 6:51 pm | # | Reply

    On the bright side, Tip and Artie are starting off as equals here. Equally clueless, granted, but equality is the first step to a “respectful relationship”.

    I’m sure Tip can find the rest in one of his psychology journals somewhere.

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