Endtown by Aaron Neathery for January 14, 2013

Well…she could save the cake to show to Mr. Hopper every night, and hope he doesn’t eventually notice the mold?

It’s the gesture of love he was looking for. The cake was incidental?

Uh-Oh, not so good for building up Linda’s confidence or self esteem.

And now hylarity ensues

Now if he had eaten it…. all of it. Then no one else could have tasted it and wondered about the makings of. I feel that her partner in this cafe will be a very dangerous person, will she or nil she. This could open up an entire investigation into diet. Would a chicken eat only beans for so many years appreciate a Quich? Are any of the creatures of the river incognizant? OOOO I love new words. Blessed Be

Next time, they can use dittos.

She could sell it on the brown market.

It was never really about cake…

All Mr. Hopper cares about is that she remembers…

I’ve been going through the old Al and Gustine strips. One thing I noticed is that there’s precedent on mutants discarding self-produced organics in the trash. When Al re-entered Endtown with a bag of bean cans, he disguised himself with a cape and an old fish head. It’s very likely that Cooper, who suffers from fish head leprosy, had shed that head and tossed it into the trash before Al found it. It’s equally plausible that Cooper has done this more than once in the past, so whoever picks up the trash has to be aware of these bio-disposable discards (since fish heads are going to stink pretty quickly). The question becomes “are these self-produced organics (milk, eggs, fish heads) collected by anyone else?”

The memories all are combined in his hopperDistilled into tears as he takes in the sightThe kindly old gentleman dons his old topperFulfilled at long last, he turns back to the night=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown Books

So it was asking for cake, not the getting of it, that was important to him…

Gotta say it…that takes the cake!

He can’t have his cake and eat it too. Somebody had to say it!

I still have my wreath up on my door, too!

Some days the gesture is more important than what you actually receive. This is one of those days.

Another Webcomic I read (much more casually than this one), had an interesting comment from its creator recently. He stated that when he first started his work, he decided to not draw eyebrows, lower teeth, nostrils, cheek bones, or eyelashes. He is proud of the time that saves, and his comic updates only two or three times a week! Compare that to the detail contained in Endtown.. Aaron is a true artist..

TSOJ I have been contemplating the same thing about the discarded products. There may be a stigma associated with doing those functions. I remember Gustine was fearful of turning into a full rhino loosing all her “human” qualities. It may be with the others the same fear. Loosing their “human” qualities and becoming “farm” animals whose products are gathered for consumption. It would take a good deal of “spin” doctoring to get them to accept the new them as useful needed citizens of Endtown. Mr. Hopper may be trying to point that fact out. Untapped resources. You just have to get by the stigma.

And this Hopper character still seems familiar. Very Aaron Marx like. Flamboyant in his entry and his departure. I am suspicious. I had heard that in the past Marx was married. Did anyone know of his wife’s name?

you can bet if I turned into a chicken or a cow I’d be eating what I produced.

All she has to do now is keep it safe for tomorrow.A simple task (Yeah, right!!!)

A thought crossed my mind last night after reading a post by CrookedWolf and I added it to Friday’s thread, maybe a little too late to catch the eye of others:

Endtown greeting cards.

They’d be both a great way to get the word out about this strip AND for Aaron to raise a little money too. $15-20 for a box of 20 perhaps? I don’t think Aaron would even need to do any special drawings because you’d think that after three years of five strips a week, there are enough panels to pick four or five that would work (4 or 5 cards per design in a box).

Just thinking out loud.

Oh! Just noticed that Aaron has a new picture on the Endtown Auction Block. “Messing About in Boats”. Hopefully this means he’s getting better — at least a bit.

Our group wants an Aaron update. Just how is he?

Aaron said at Anthrocon that the fish head scene is now apocryphal and didn’t really happen in this reality. It was done for comedy and should be considered poetic license. Cooper’s head doesn’t really fall off and Al probably didn’t try to disguise himself with a discarded fish head. It might have been just a story he told someone.

How sad for Linda though, after all that hard work! I know that when I bake, it’s the smiles on the face of the tasters that I’m really working for.

Well, I guess in a sense she did get that smile…but if it were me, I would feel as though I hadn’t really earned it unless he tasted it…

Now I begin to suspect more Marx encroachment. Slightly changing the reality spectrum again. He did alter one for Flask? What level has he moved to now? Apocrypha—-Plausible enough to be considered true but still false with the real meaning hidden behind it. Spin doctoring.

Of course Mr. Hopper could be back, each night and every night till whenever, wanting cake. Maybe Linda could put it in a sealed container and pull it out each time…

An update was promised and here it is.. The leg is “mending” insofar as the antibiotics are driving the infection into submission and the leg is no longer hot enough to stir fry vegetables on. It looks as though it has been beaten with a baseball bat, but the swelling is going down steadily. The key problem is that there has been, over the course of three severe infections and a series of allergic reactions to my meds, a certain amount of damage done to the tissues and vascular system. No one can really say for certain whether or not another infection is imminent or even what can be done to best prevent it from happening again short of losing the leg.. and I’m not doing that because I drive a stick. I’m still looking into my options. The first bills haven’t arrived yet and I’m expecting them to be a bit of a shock once they do as the ER visit last time was hugely expensive.. and this time I ended up staying in the hospital for over 30 hours. Tremendous and heartfelt thanks to everyone who has has donated (including my mystery donor in Ft. Myers) or has simply wished me well.. It means a lot to me to know that people care. I promise to do everything I possibly can to keep Endtown running for years to come. There’s a lot of story left to tell. Over a thousand strips in and I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface. Thanks, all.. :-)

Please bid on Aaron’s latest auction drawing, and help him cover his medical bills.

This is the literal meaning of…You can’t have your cake and eat it too. As I see it.

Itried t0o submit a “reply” to Aaron to make a get well comment, but later "replies don’t want to work for me. So, Get Well Quick Aaron. Med allergies can sure be brutal!

I certainly was expecting this… but I didn’t believe it will happen.