Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 15, 2016

“As you wish, so let it be.”Kudos to anyone who gets the reference, and the hidden implication.

Either that’s Kirbee or Wally is about to get his wish..

I vote that it is Marx. Beginning to think that Wally is getting the “Flask” treatment?

Certainly looks like a guy in a suit. Wally has had a lot of face time with Marx. It could be him, but I suspect a twist approaches. ;-)

Oh, I take that back. On closer inspection, the figure behind Wally is accompanied by several little spheres/bubbles just like Marx in the “between realities” space. Odds on Marx just went up a tic… ;-)

The artwork looks a little rough today…

Wally looks a little rough today!

It’s not the artwork, Wally’s covered in ash. The “bubbles” are probably puffs of ash as the emerging character walks towards Wally.

That, too, but the shading…

Wow. Just. Wow.

I’d be a bit annoyed as well by now. Seems to be turning from holly to something else.

Looks like the start of another fascinating week! I can hardly wait!

Time to end this cat and mouse game.

This is where the end of a good book begins. Like others have stated, I’m sure that’s Aaron Marx, the adult version. I would guess that Kirbee and Chic are with Holly right now, leaving Wally to find the real reason for our trip down memory lane. Much more has happened than Wally would need to help Holly and Wally knows it. If Wally punched him a good one I don’t think Aaron would really blame him.

This scene needs the Statue of Liberty half buried in the dust. Wally can play the part of Mr. Heston.

I still strongly suspect that the dittos are a manifestation of all of the souls lost in the war. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Marx is their agent. It would involve some kind of consciousness enabled by a form of quantum entanglement.

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My pet theory is that the human brain allows for entamglement of wave functions which can be processed using the brain as a kind of computer using algorithms based on science, art, and philosophy that evolve culturally over the ages. Everyone gets some “inspiration” by capturing unconsciously certain wave forms from the universal wave form, working on it to their natural capacity, then yielding it back to the universal wave form, primarily on death. Some have strong enough connections to capture, develop, and exchange quanta of evolved consciousness with others without dying, like Aaron Marx. A price must be paid for this level of exchange in the form of accepting one’s mortality. Marx is a guide for Wally and the others who are at the edge of being ready and mature enough to understand. Identity is in need of strongly being redefined by necessary circumstances, and this drops the characters into strong existential experiences. This calls for not only Quantum decoherence, releasing the new waveforms back into the ether, bot a necessary severe readjustment to ones sense of self..

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Check out Quantum decoherence in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence) as well as the many YouTube videos and wiki articles on quantum entanglement, Bell’s theorem, and the ongoing developments in quantum theory.

Up until they got to the abandoned ship and lost them; the dittos had clearly bonded(?) with Wally. They responded to his conscious directions, got snarky and played jokes on him, and apparently responded to subconscious need (the boxing ring doppleganger, and saving Holly back in Unity). When the dittos vanished I thought the derelict had grabbed them, and everything following was connected to Holly since she vanished first. But what if these visions were from Holly’s past, but being drawn out by Wally? yeah…and maybe I’m a jet pilot.

Thanks for the early post, Mr. N.!

This was a pretty crazy ride! Didn’t expect for the abrupt ending….like a crash test vehicle into a brick wall! :-)

The approaching figure looks more like they are in a running stance than walking. Head down and both arms at chest level, that would support “Casting fool’s” interpretation that dust clouds are being stirred up by the figure in the background.

I’d WAG it is Wally’s past, come to get him to move forward(?)

My take is this……Wally is about to come face to face with something he has avoided for sometime…….himself.My guess is that this shadow approaching is Wally….back when he was a soldier with APEX….the shadow has a uniform look to it but not quite Topsider.

The figure in panel 4 looks like it has horns. It’s a devilish figure. Maybe this is the shoe stealer, come to take Wally’s sole? “I’m back. I can still show you how she dies.”The “I” in “I” could stand for “intelligence”, as in “artificial intelligence”. A telepathic AI would not be a good thing, if it could control dittos and people’s minds. Or corporations like Apex.

Ashes to Ashes (Endtown version)By JennerBased on Ashes to Ashes by David BowieDo you remember a hero catIn a long-ago story?He learned the secret of Apex Industries.Oh no, don’t say it’s true.He got a message in a ditto film:“Dear Wally, where’s your Holly now?”I’ve lived through Apocalypse once,Now I’ll get paid double time.The end of the world again’s killing me,But I’ll help where it meets my ability,And you really can’t see me, or maybe you know.Live in hope that I’ll wake from this vision of woe, oh…Ashes to ashes, dust to dusty,Amesworth radiation’s nasty.Desert and death on high,Leaving Endtown below.Time and again I tell myself“Don’t dream tonight”But the video nasty’s following me,Oh no, turn it offI’m trapped in a terrible end.“Dear Wally, where’s your Holly now?”One flash of light and it’s all smoke and rubble.I’ve never done good things.I’ve never done bad things.I never intended for Holly to fall. Never asked to take a life,Wanted to spare them all.Ashes to ashes, dust to dusty,Amesworth radiation’s nasty.Desert and death on high,Leaving Endtown below.Fox brother said: “You always shouldDo what you must for the greater good.”Fox brother said: “You always shouldDo what you must for the greater good.”

@Bruno Zeigerts & Coffee-Turtle…Oh, yes! I remember that one. There was also one in which Bugs got a dose of his own medicine. And who was the writer/artist in that one?ELMER FUDD!! He had finally gotten even with that screwy wabbit!

Wow, I love this comic.Wally no doubt feels as sketchy as he looks. That’s about how I feel tonight myself. He has reached his last string and someone’s standing on it. Sometimes you just feel like telling L i f e Take me someplace else. this here life has just about had it, show me something new, preferably something safer and more enjoyable. Talk about a cat with his last nerve twanging like a loose guitar string. I can See his exasperation, feel his anger bubbling up to a boil.

I have been against political commenting here for many years, so this might seem hypocritical, but it’s not. Without taking sides one way or the other, I’d just like to offer an observation: I was reading in the archives last night and came across the strips between the end of the milk trial and Wally & Holly’s exit from Endtown and I was astounded. Aaron, you must be in possession of a functioning crystal ball. Reading through Cooper’s comments on the fall of the Endtown High Council gave me goosebumps. In 2013, Aaron described in scary detail exactly the scenario we see playing out on our national scene 3 years later. Everybody is ticked off and wants to “blow up Washington”. There is a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that goes something like " when passion governs, she never governs wisely." I understand the climate we are living in, but I am concerned about the unintended consequences of what is swirling around us. End of soapbox. ;-)

i just had a funny idea that Wednesday’s page would be a delivery man shows up and hands Wally a letter he was waiting to deliver, ala Back to the Future II. No idea why. Just a random thought.

I’m sure it isn’t, but it sure looks like a woman posing for attention with one hand behind her head and the other on her hip.

Only problem is the current environment makes it a bit hard to “get a room”.

I love Wally’s words in panel 3.“You’ve made your point…whatever it is.”Could the point have been made if Wally doesn’t know what it is?