Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 23, 2017

They left the feet? Clearly we’re not dealing with Cajun wolves, here.

“Any way you slice it,” says Doc with his usual tact and carefully chosen metaphor…

Nothing beats a helpful set of fins!

The fish are unbiased observers here. Maybe they can restore the scales of justice.

They were pro-wolf. Why wouldn’t they underreport this, too?

Thought one: Thank you, Aaron, for finally moving the story forward. At this point, we have at least confirmed the suspicions that first surfaced when the arc began last November.

Thought two: This is now, officially, a horror comic. It began as humor and humorous sci-fi. During Wally/Holly/Kirbee, we had some pretty high drama. But now, we’re into pure blood and guts – with lots of leftover bones!

Ready for the rubber chickens! (Svengoolie fans know what I’m talking about)

I’m noticing the pig cop (flashbacks to Fritz the Cat) has hoof specific gloves. Is… Is there a factory making rubber gloves specific to species? Like dozens of different sizes, numbers of fingers, just warehouses full of rubber gloves. “I’m gonna need several avian number 5s, a box of stumpies, and a gross of ‘Mickeys’.”

If all of the people mutated into animal hybrids, what happened to the insects, the animals and pets? Where are they?

Are there no flowers in Endtown because there are no pollinators?

So when we find out who is responsible for this, will they be labelled as murderers, or butchers?

Chefs

“Short” order cooks.

It should be fairly easy for Doc Chase to work out how many separate individuals are represented by these nine feet and six femurs.

The Feast From 20,000 Fathoms.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it isn’t the wolves, or maybe it isn’t JUST the wolves. Aaron has been known to start us down one path and (logically) change direction in an unexpected way.

Animals and vegetation disappeared in the End. My theory from the beginning has been the missing animals have something to do with people turning into animal hybrids. If the animals were somehow aerosolized, their DNA could have infected the humans, like retroviruses but not actually viruses. The Fitzgerald AI said the mutagen wasn’t a virus, and it would technically be correct, but it might not have recognized ambient animal DNA as viral. Human DNA is already mostly nonhuman DNA assimilated from other species but not expressed. Something in the way the End distributed animal DNA could have enabled its expression in humans. With the possible exceptions of the tree Gustine found in Hillside, and the monster child Sandy, no one appears to have assimilated plant DNA, possibly because it was incompatible.

What if… the remains are from actual pigs and not people? There’s no real food shortage, and there could have been pigs in storage. Whoever is propagandizing a shortage and has access to the surplus could be eating real pork and leaving the remains out as false proof of cannibalism. Doc didn’t identify any hands or say anything was specifically people-shaped.

The one pre-war fish is looking at all of these and getting reminded of Dexter…