Endtown by Aaron Neathery for March 30, 2016

I knew it! Now, REALLY smart bombs would let one do the job and save the rest of them for later.

Then that guy with the groceries was her husband…

Why did the buddy bombs start saying Yay?

“Yay”—that’s creepy. Reminds me of the turrets in the Portal games, with their soft voices (and bullets. Lots of bullets).

There goes the neighborhood… a little bit over there, and a couple of chunks over there… ;-)

By the way, where are Wally & Co? Did they tag along with Holly or are they still back at her house?

NOT child safe!No, NOT child safe.I’m going to write a scathing letter of complaint to Apex right now!Or, rather, as soon as I can get this little white sphere off my wrist. It keeps saying “bad” and it’s annoying.

Honey, I’m ho…

Oh, and if people blame Holly for causing this destruction, keep in mind that Ethel probably had her own Buddibomb in the bedroom, and it was just a matter of time before it discovered her.

Only a short time back, Ethel and her friends sang the buddibomb jingle to Holly as they gave her a dozen of them at Holly’s baby shower. Now that jingle becomes a screaming mockery in her final moments. Creepy indeed.

Indiana Jones quote:

“AH! Snake Surprise!”

Aaron, that explosion looked amazing.Your artwork is fantastic!

Fortunately her husband had no idea that was Ethel before things blew, what would he think if Ethel tried to explain to Him what happened?I’m glad Holly got out before being blown to bits.When she was getting up off the floor was her realizing they were going to go off and Ethel was doomed.

Such a sad expression on Ethel’s face – she knows what’s about to happen. Almost apologetic.

for what those things are supposed to be for shouldn’t they have a MUCH lower yield? Of course I’m guessing their real purpose is to cover up evidence of mutations rather than self defense.

She blowed up real good!

“Who’s got a buddy? You’ve got a buddy! A buddy watching out for yo~ou!”

If I’ve counted right,half of Holly’s bombs are gone. Wonder what the other half will do? Poor Ethel!

I note in passing that the guy with the groceries shops at Publix…

it’s almost like they waited for him to come home and then went boom…..very curious…..

So, did the mutagen use Ethel as a host, so it could grow, and the Buddibombs are being used to aerosolize the mutagen? Links in profile. Lemme know if my most recent posts sound insane. I’ve been running on coffee and adrenaline for too long.

One thought…If the Buddibombs are supposed to be child safe, then maybe they imprint on whoever activates them. This group may have recognized Holly as the one they are to protect, but they’re not interested in protecting ALL humans, in that they didn’t mind killing Ethel’s husband. So, yeah, they may have waited until Holly got to a safe distance, or maybe not (since we don’t know yet if she was injured by the blast or by flying debris). But then again, that’s a BIG blast. It may have taken out one or two neighbors as well… When the pin is pulled, BuddiBombs are no longer your friend.

I believe they are supposed to be deployed one at a time. A half dozen or more and who knows how many Ethel had in her home, yet to be activated; as well as anything else flammable and therefore explosive, such as aerosols, natural gas or heating oil (if they use them), and flour, would combine to create a rather hefty boom. Also, from the looks of the explosion it was thermobaric, intended to destroy the mutagen and its DNA with heat as well as leaving no physical traces. In effect, it is like the bombs we flew into Taliban and alQaeda caves in Afghanistan. Explosion pressure, sucking up all the oxygen and creating sun-like temperatures to destroy all life in the cave.

That’s an unnessessarily big explosion considering those bombs are supposed to be smart and safe..

Buddibombs are a blast!

There were no children anywhere near these buddibombs. Just thought I’d point that out. Any that might have been playing in the front yard, though….

on explosions- What we saw could be one of two things, massive over-kill for (fill in the blank) reasons or Media reality explosions. On media reality explosions- they look really cool, all fire-y and explode-y and all that. But have little to nothing in common with real exploding ordinance. A real hand grenade or RPG goes off and there is a smallish poof of smoke, a brief flash, a little debris is kicked up, hardly any visual clue that high energy mayhem has been loosed on a victim. So the conventions of visual media add a huge fire ball and all kinds of big stuff flying in all directions. Has Arron fallen prey to that deceit? Or are the buddibombs a more nefarious device? I suspect they are being marketed to a select “target” population, and dead men tell no tales about a lack of user-friendly features.

Hubby being dusted really looks like the bombs are small Ames Radiation devices, in which case the neighborhood is about to start a major change.

that is what I think.

Got here late today so all I really want to add is this: Agree with all those who like Aaron’s work. Agree with those who feel that Apex has a hidden agenda. Agree with those who feel this is a great storyline.

Poor Ethel… She wouldn’t have been able to explain this to her husband even if she did have the chance.The question now is, how will Holly be able to explain this to anyone else?

They must have said “yay” when they knew Holly reached a safe distance; that was their cue to explode, they didn’t care about anyone or anything except the obvious threat, and their owner!

Now this is probably going to set off a few car alarms.I am impressed.Leave to APEX to make a friendly group of bombs with the blast radius of a 2000 pound JDAM.YAY!!Guess they like exploding.Their advertisement after this.“Another job well done by the Buddibombs…..Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Now equipped with even better Real Threat Detection.Available at fine stores everywhere and online atAPEX.com.Kids remember to get your parents permission.”And now back to our program……………..

Don’t taunt Happy BuddiBomb.I notice they look a lot like eyeballs.I figured they were waiting for Ethel’s husband to get home, and that’s why they all went “YAY!” Ethel’s husband might have been the target, not Ethel herself. In which case, Ethel’s mutation might have been intentional. Her husband would have been one of the first people she called, and if Holly hadn’t brought bombs with her, other nearby bombs would have got there somehow. Ethel bought the bombs in the first place, so APEX might have thought she still had them instead of giving them as a baby shower gift. Holly’s having them was an unlucky serendipity. Unless it was also intentional…If Ethel was intentionally mutated to assassinate her husband, then Holly may have been intentionally mutated to assassinate Lyn. This would mean APEX is behind the mutations and eliminating witnesses to the attrocities in a way to make it look like the witnesses are responsible for them.

More great Aaron artistry: The clouds look like the flat paintings they’re supposed to be.

What the flippin’ hell? Let me guess, RPG-7s were only the #2 best selling ‘Personal Defense Weapon’ during the Christmas season. Was C4 at #3? Land Mines at #4? Geezus H. Christ on a stick, man.

We’re quite a distance away from the explosion, from our point of view. Keep in mind that all this apparently takes place within the hull of the wrecked and beached ship that might or might not be the “Edmund Fitzgerald,” and we are not certain of the reality of it all…

When you really need to take care of a problem, Buddy Bombs!

Judging from panel 3, the last thing to go through Ethel’s hubby’s mind was his hat brim, the explosion took his head off too.

And some explosions do go all kablooey at times. Ever see a grain silo explosion? That’s how movies do it, blast a fine powder of flour or any relatively “safe” materials into the air, and an ignition source.

If Apex was to go scorched earth on the evidence (you have to hand it to them for one thing, they never do anything halfassed), a supply of improbableonite explosives could do the same thing, a short, very hot blast to make the particles as small as possible, then a second as an ignition source, hence the big bang.

It’s science fiction, with talking animals, a world of Ames radiation produced dust from formerly organic things, and with a guy who occasionally hops dimensions to slum with the “normals” and to mess with their heads. Big unrealistic explosions are allowable.

big boom for a bomb thats supposed to be used for self defense

Considering the resemblance between the Buddibombs’ explosion at Ethel’s, and the airliner that crashed previously, what if the planes were stocked with Buddibombs, and besides the sounds of mutations, the part the FAA can’t explain is why all they hear is “Snarl, groar!”, “Bad”, “Bad bad”, “Yay!”, kablooey.

The pic where the husband looks into his wife’s eyes is chilling…

I’m missing today’s comic.

I gather they immobilized the threat and tracked their owner until she was out of the kill radius. Then — yay — they eliminated the “bad” (perhaps short for “bad actor”).