Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 28, 2016

It looks like all the missing posters are about pigs. This miss Pig looks uneasy. I would be too if I were her.

looks like the 2 smokers in the night might enjoy some fresh ham or pork chops. But that would be jumping to conclusions.

Here’s hoping that bacon isn’t on these folks menu…

Ham on the Lam?

Lizards aren’t the only ones with unrestricted dietary habits.

What are beans without pork-and- to go with them?

Holly was almost on the menu of some cats who couldn’t stand another bite of beans, when she was introduced. It’s been some time since then, and the temptations have probably intensified, especially after the Milk Trial. Eggs, milk, and other products, however taboo, may have supplemented the beans and kept cravings for meat at bay, but official prohibition may be too much for the less savory people who want more savory people. After seven years, bacon would really be missed, and it’s walking around right in front of bacon lovers, taunting them. Sometimes actually taunting them.

I see the Endtown PD is maintaining its sterling reputation.People are missing in an enclosed city with extremely limited access to the exits. (the river being the exception).

DID THEY ALL DECIDE TO COMMIT SUICIDE BY DROWNING?

Ankle warmers? Check.

Wristbands? Check. .

Headband? Check.

Dainty foot? Check.

Working out? Check.

Jennifer Beals from Flashdance did not mutate well.

Well, I did ask how things are going in Endtown… I’d guess that Jacob is running things and learning that vanquishing the dreaded topsiders, and making food rain from the sky are easier said than done. A conversation that Allie had with the head rat suggested that even beans are getting harder to come by. When she came in with Wally, she had brought in only 1 or two cans of beans. That would suggest that even bean rations may be getting cut. Another reason for this operation.

I am also thinking this butcher operation might be organized. A single anthro swine would have a fair amount of meat on them, enough to feed a couple of carnivores for a month or two. With so many members of Endtown’s pig population missing, this is either a common thing or a group has taken to snatching Endtown’s porcine citizens, butchering them and selling the meat. These two might just be on the front end of that operation.

Is it just me? Endtown wasn’t a nice place when Wally stumbled into it; it wasn’t a nice place when he left. Endtown didn’t seem a nice place when Aaron was singing the ballad of cat, mouse, and lizard. Comments by others have suggested that it was even worse during the “milk” trials. I’m starting to wonder about this place.

Right now, I think I’m with Wally – a wanderer on the open wasteland. Endtown hasn’t looked all that hospitable whenever we’ve looked in upon it.

BACON!

Last and certainly least: I thought Endtown was underground. Why then night and day – and the need for streetlights? Far more logical; unable to replicate sunlight, streetlights need to be on 24/7. Just my two cents worth.

If the pig anthros are being “harvested”, then this was one of the possible outcomes of the Milk Trial. If it’s ok to use “animal products” like milk or eggs, then the line could broaden. We saw the insidious example of Unity next, where they were eating their own offspring (stated) and non—reptilian visitors (hinted). If the jackrabbit is running things, he was inciting violence against non-anthros and anthros who did’t accept their animal nature. It doesn’t seem like a big step to label certain anthros types as less-suitable to support.

This looks like a job for Wonder Warthog!

Now what?!?

Fine swine!

This looks like a case for the police. Who are the police now? *(And a welcome (though obviously not a happy one for those providing the bacon) return to Endtown from the adventures in the wilderness of the last three years…)

I smell bacon.

One could always hope that with all the pig anthro disappearances, Endtown law enforcement is on the case. Maybe the pig is with the police, undercover, working with other cops on a pignapper sting.

When the pig anthromorphs are all gone who will be next? Mice, rabbits, birds, where will it end?

Sorry about the missing pig people, BUT WHO’S IN CHARGE NOW!!!!!! I know Jacob was in favor of using mutant by-products but turning mutants into produce seems a bit much even for him. ;-)

She could be a police lure.Draw out the criminals.

Seems to me she’s dressed for jogging ( note the sweatband ) and in the lats panel she see’s trouble ahead.

Nice to the that the electricity is still running. Humans are the same all over even if they look like anthropomorphic animals.

Why do I get the feeling Endtown has gone a bit … feral … lately.

They’d have to be consumed raw… I don’t think you could hide the cooked meat smell very well down there.

Cannibals. And they eat the pig-morph humans.

I know they look like pigs, but they’re still all humans, including the non-pig mutated humans consuming them, so it’s cannibalism regardless.

Also a type of racism (look up Fantastic Racism on TVTropes) since the differences between different humanoid animal types are just as superficial as the differences between human races; evidence for the superficiality being that all the different humanoid animal types can inter-breed.

If this were a hard-boiled detective novel, the opening paragraph would be: "She was built like a brick house, unlike her two unfortunate sisters (who were built like straw and twig houses respectively). Their pictures were on posters all over town; they’d have been on milk cartons, if this town was anything like towns used to be…but there’s things nice people don’t talk about in this town, and milk is one of them. "

Runs through the street screaming SOYLENT BEAN IS MADE OF BACON!!!

“Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Kill the pig! Bash her in!”

…

Well done Jacob Jack rabbit…

The energy may be hydroelecttric, generated from the river.

.

I foresee a twist to the disappearances, such as rogue pigs themselves being responsible, either to frame the carnivores, or to feed a bacon black market. Somewhere there’s a Swiney Todd.

It should also be noted that cannibals in our reality often called humans “long pig” because we apparently taste like pork.

It is occurring to me right now that perhaps we are in for a lecture on the evils of eating meat. If so, then it is time for me to take a vacation from this strip. // Occasionally, Wiley does the same thing in Non Sequitur, perhaps the least funny of his strips. (Most of the time, I enjoy Wiley – especially those meat eating bears of his) // Vacation means just that; I’ll be back. Often, I need a break from this strip, if for no other reason than to let things happen. // Pace in this strip can be a bit slow – only three installments a week, &c.

Some observations:

Hogs are omnivores.

Hogs can be cannibalistic.

Hogs get big. You don’t mess with a full grown boar or a sow. An anthropomorphic hog should be bear-sized and about as ill tempered. It’s large predators that go for full grown hogs. Smaller predators settle for pigs.

This isn’t the first pig anthropomorph in Endtown. I suspect the author may not have grown up on a farm. No harm there; most people don’t these days. But a “real” hog anthropomorph would probably look more like Hogzilla than Porky Pig.

Pretty sad when people get lost in a sealed box…. ;-)