Endtown by Aaron Neathery for September 21, 2016

Looks like no one knows the how, why, or where it started!

And the Ditto looks like a choreographed dancer! ☺

So, instead of answers, we get questions.

Well, that’s kind of a a letdown. Not a virus, not dittos, just an anomaly, but still apparently contagious.

It is so cute that the Wally’s dittos mimic him. They are really bonded.So we know it is not a virus, and the Lucrainians does’t know. It must be related to this reality only.I bet when we find out the answer it will make total sense.Resource shortages sure applies to our known part of Wally’s existence. Someone mentioned BEANS yesterday. 91 comments!If there is a big part that is not affected, then it seems like the Lucraainians would not even bother with coming there to look for salvage.The plot is thick, the plot is deep.Big Cheers to Mr. Neatherly, the best story teller and artist in the realm of comics and graphic novels.

An alternate reality finding no sign of a virus/disease, and people from alternate realities not being subject to the effects of said disease, does not mean there is no disease. That said, it does suggest something very unique about this particular earth’s inhabitants, who might indeed be the only ones susceptible to said disease.

It’s Aaron. It’s his story and He’ll do what he wants.Either that, or it’s magic.

We did get some answers, about how the Lucrainians know there is no virus, that the nearest parallel worlds died of food shortages.And the Lucrainins don’t know. Remnant to when meeting Jim pre raccoon and Sarah, pre-domineering reptile.

OMG, Mr. Neathery doesn’t know either!!!

Well if this isn’t a major left turn I don’t know what is..\\//_

How unsatisfactory. The answer only leads to a bigger question.My take is that Aaron Marx is doing it. Why? Because it’s fun… and maybe because it somehow benefits humanity in a way which is yet to be revealed.

Dittos got jazz hands!

A question I’d ask would be – was Amesworth tech used on the other earths? If not, then the possiblity of it being a reality-buster is possible. As for who and how it affects- maybe the overall phenomenon requires the individual to be on planet from day one- as the Earth got more reality destabilized. Then, to get the ‘mutation’, required some kind of exposure to an airborne aspect. Since the Lucranians missed the opening act, they were not pre-disposed to the second half of the effect? I’m also wondering how different this Earth was, pre-war, as everything looked kind of retro-future prosperous. Unless there were not yet seen have-not nations?

Actually, there IS a mutagen. It’s just not a virus mutagen.So far, we have bacteria mutagens, nanobot mutagens, string-based mutagens, M-brane mutagens, Kool-aid. To start with. Who wants to begin checking off the remaining options.

We certainly have no reason to even trust the ship’s computer.

So once again we are left with “it’s not a virus”. OK, so it’s not a virus. Like TSOJ said, that only leaves a multitude of alternative possibilities. Big picture remains that there is a mutagenic somethingorother that permanently alters your dress size. Big whoop. Now where’s Holly. ;-)

Not to get picky or anything, but the Endtown summary blurb does actually use the words “mutagenic virus”… just sayin’….;-)

They have let out their inner animal.(Except for politicians, THEY’ve let out their inner slug)

So the cause of this is still a mystery wrapped in an enigma smothered in secret sauce…

Also, it looks like the little ditto guy has some serious hero worship of Wally—-he’s mimicked his gestures in a couple of strips now.

Wally, you’re not really a cat, you’re just drawn that way… ;-)

It still seems to be active whatever they are calling it. We have seen people metamorphose before. Something about this story being told doesn’t sound right. What is this ditto aiming for?

And now, for something completely different.

Regards TSOJ’s comment it does seem to be airborne. Remember Jim and Sarah were aided in their change when Wally cracked the seal and exposed them to unfiltered air!

Reality leaks from discontinued earths?

This is too good!!!Loving it to the max!

Ok, if the Lucrainins have the tech to check an entire planet for hazardous bacteria, viruses and such, how is it they missed the survivors?

maybe its something like DC’s meta gene or Marvel’s X-gene?

Whatever it is, I think the “I” or Eye has something to do with it. And it’s probably because of shoes.

What we’re reasonably sure about:There’s an evil entity threatening this world. Kid Marx says there’s a shoe stealer Wally has to watch out for. Jim was possessed by something. Marx and the Duchess and the Oracle are preparing against something.There’s a fountain of souls that Marx is protecting. He may not control it, but he can give it nudges and guide souls to their next incarnations. Some are more coherent than others and survive with their identities intact, while the less coherent can fragment and mix in with others to become new souls. Schism Syndrome might be one way a soul breaks up, before its body dies. Then something else can move in, like the entity we call “I” is suspected to have done with Jim.The transformations and mutant tree and Oracle and other things seem to defy physics and science, maybe because physics and science aren’t involved. There may be magic and the supernatural at work here. Or, as in real life, some things don’t have an explanation and just are.If I were to make any guesses, it would be that the transformations are intentional. Someone is making people turn into fast-healing cartoon animals. It could be “I” or the shoe stealer or some other threat, or someone fighting against them. It could be to help people survive the End, or the End was engineered to create them for some other purpose. There’s a greater game going on and the players are using the survivors of the End as pawns.We don’t know if the Deadeye agents are part of this story, but if they are, they may be the authority the Lucranians answer to if they’re caught scavenging living worlds. If this world is being invaded by gods and demons with supernatural powers, the Deadeyes would be after them, too. Aaron might have teased us with a Deadeye “filler” to prepare us for their appearance later.In real life, a deadeye is a tool used for securing the rigging of a ship. Deadeye agents may serve a similar purpose, making sure the rigging of the multiverse doesn’t come apart. In some places, things do come apart and the laws of nature behave unnaturally, and the Deadeyes would be the ones to enforce the laws and secure the rigging. The laws of nature seem to be coming apart here, and we may see the Deadeyes come in to fix things.

I wanted to suggest nanomachines, but couldn’t explain how the changes are so rapid. For example, if you’re conscious when the nanos start working on you, it interferes with the transformation and you get a monster. If you’re unconscious or asleep when they ho to work, they’re able to complete the transformation. Nanos can be airborne. Why anthros? Ain’t got a clue.

The supernatural is a very good possibility, of course we could use Clarke’s Law about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic.and substitute sufficiently advanced beings for wizards, gods and what not. It is, of course possible that the computer is lying but I wonder if its somehow related to Wally’s crazy dream, whatever happened to Jim and maybe the reason that Aaron Marx worked to make Jake Jackrabbit ruler of Endtown.Maybe Marx’s plan was to push Wally and Holly out into the waste where they would encounter things and do something, “for the greater good.” Will be interesting to see what develops.

Tales of the Morphing Time… ; )

What everyone KNOWS and the truth are sometime very different

The answer to the mutations is not biological. People are not turning into animals, they’re turning into their concepts of cartoon character animals. I don’t hold with the notion it’s to do with DNA changes or any other matter of biology.The changes are not even obeying the laws of physics (or at least the physics of a closed system). People mutate into forms with lesser or greater mass than they started with.The answer is far more metaphysical – it involves shifting dimensions, influenced by the subjects concept of body image. Because there are some definite patterns as to animal or monster, then it’s not entirely subjective and the circumstances do dictate some of the results. But Flask for example was a cruel, scheming human and she became a cat. Holly was a… well, she was probably timid and agile at heart and she did wish she could eat more cheese. So she became a mouse. I suspect each person who mutates is actually slipping sideways into a dimension where everything else is the same except they are a mutant because they ‘always have been’ (as far as this new reality is concerned).Although the mutations are not caused by a virus, they do behave in the manner of a communicable agent, almost without exception. The change will occur even if the subject is not aware of having been exposed, and even (I think) if there is no observer either. So there must be some independent factor going around and causing it. Neathery has not chickened out from explaining it. I have worked out all the above by myself, and that much is fairly plain. His concept is more science than magic or fantasy. This is Endtown, not Harry Potter. What do you think?

Now I’d like to see Wally and the ditto do a song and dance routine. “Puttin’ in the Ritz”, for example.

So it’s not a mutagenic virus. And, whatever it is, RoboCaptain doesn’t know.So what do we know about it? (1) It causes human beings to mutate into anthropomorphic forms…(2) if they’re unconscious the mutation is relatively benign (though frightening), but if they’re conscious they mutate into out-and-out monsters…(3) the mutations crept up on humanity over a period of time rather than all-at-once…(4) a biosuit, as worn by the topsiders, prevents the mutation from occurring until the suit is breached…and (5) there is a way to immunize against it.

the computer might just be trying to get an emotional response from him as fuel

Something steve gallacci and Jenner both said: Reality itself is mutating, and dragging all of the biologicals along with it. It’s becoming a toon reality with the rapid healing of toons, and the absurd landscapes like upside-down city in the very first storyline.

Nanobots did it (as in Red Dwarf), or possibly it is mass hysteria, placebo effect?

If the transformations are psychological, the Topsider suits could be just placebos. They believe the suits stop the “virus”, so they do. The Lucranians had no preconceptions that they’re supposed to change when exposed to an assumed virus, so they didn’t. There may be a voodoo hypnosis suggestion thing going on, with physical effects.

Some interesting theories posted here. What has made me think is that we have this version of the world stuck between a myriad of dead versions. Almost as if it was hidden among the dead ones so it wouldn’t be noticed when “something” was tormenting the inhabitants with wars and mutagenic plagues.

The animal matching one’s personality is pretty hit and miss in this story. Flask, and some other felines may play into the “cats are cruel” trope but Wally is a fairly nice guy for the most part. I’m not certain I think of pre mutation Holly as “mousy” as much as hardened and pragmatic, she was hardly timid when she argued with Lyn. Then we also have Philo Foxworthy, who is not a clever schemer and Jacob Jackrabbit who is. While we’re at it, how would Professor Mallard fit into any duck tropes? I think people just change for some reason or another and their new form may or may not match their personality.

There are known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns.What we have here is a Rumsfieldian known known – we know what it’s not. And an known unknown – we know that we don’t know what it IS.

The city’s central computer told you? R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!

I get it now! This live Earth isn’t an anomaly, it’s a clerical error. It was just misfiled in the wavelength drawer… ;-)

simple: the dead universes are trying to survive. So they’re templating their attributes over onto the universe at the “peak” of the probability arc…..