Series: Skin Horse

The Series

"Wait. You're a Super-Secret welfare guy?"
"We're more 'Covert Social Services.'"


So the mad scientist has been stopped, his death ray's been shut down, the damsel's been rescued, his hot daughter's been made out with, and everyone's gone back to the pub for drinks. All the loose ends have been tied up, right?

Well, what about his sentient killer robots? His genetically engineered hamster-men? His psionically uplifted leeches? What happens to them? They have to go somewhere... and they can't be arrested for the circumstances of their creation. What's a sane and responsible government to do?

The answer is Skin Horse, a top secret federal agency founded to help out abominations in need.

But this is a comedy series. So the government isn't exactly sane or responsible. The end result is an agency that is so underfunded that it can only afford a handful of employees, and a small office in the same building as other underfunded or forgotten government agencies like the departments of irradiation or jetpack suppression.

And the employees that they have... aren't exactly the most competent. Or sane.

But sanity aside, it's a dangerous job. The agents of Skin Horse regularly have to deal with abandoned monstrosities ranging from the incredibly dangerous to the incredibly adorable to the just plain strange. And if that wasn't enough, they also have to deal with conspiracies, rogue coworkers, and an organization dedicated to making living weapons... that seems to be about as competent as they are.

It's worth noting that Skin Horse takes place in the same universe as the author's previous webcomic, Narbonic. While for the most part reading Narbonic is unnecessary for enjoying Skin Horse, there are a few references (Such as the origins of Unity's brain), and one of Narbonic's main characters has a major role in the "If I Ran the Zoo" story arc.

However, while Narbonic certainly became a great comic during its later years, the first few years of its run were something of a crapshoot, largely due to the author having no idea where she was going with the series until a third of the way through its run. As a result, Skin Horse is far more accessible to a new reader.

Overall, Skin Horse is a comedy, and a rather entertaining one. The art is consistent, the humor is pretty good, the characters are well-written, and the plots are engrossing. And while it's primarily a comedy, it has its serious and even philosophical moments too. After all, it's hard to have a comic with this premise without addressing the question of what it means to be human.

Overall Verdict: Skin Horse isn't the funniest Gag-Per-Day webcomic, but it's certainly one of the best-written, with plot being one of its strong points. I definitely recommend checking it out.