Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 22, 2018

Immensely sad. Sob

Not sure about the terrain, but it looks like Marx wants Walt to enjoy his (after)life.

Aaron: “A gentle soul in a not gentle world. Go fishing and enjoy your Rest.”

Not the ending I wanted, but what I suspected.

Poor Walt. Is the fishing rod symbolic? I can’t see any rivers or lakes.

Maybe Flask & Marx have built some ponds and lakes since Flask has been there? Maybe we will be seeing Flask again???

Poor Walt. Consumed by his rage (AND fire).

Sad. Walt was one of my favorite characters in this whole strip.

Sad day. I’ll miss Walt. Made me smile to see Aaron Marx presenting him with that fishing pole, though, so he could continue his favorite pastime.

I’m glad he didn’t live to find out that Portia had died as well. That was a mercy, and he did Endtown a favor by destroying Denise.

Just glad I can finally see the comments again.

If this is the afterlife, I’m surprised they keep the genetic mutation.

An infinite flat landscape of dust and a fishing rod… Irony ?

:(

Are they standing in water? Their feet are covered. Dust, as Brinbrin said?

I’m wondering if Marx is welcoming him to the afterlife or is about to give him a choice

So this is the end of Walt in Endtown. Fish, ho!

If Walt is dead, and it certainly seems to be the case, it raises the question of WHAT is Aaron Marx. He seems to be a god-like entity here. Odd.

For the Greater Good…….all Walt ever wanted to do…..is now his reward. Sit and fish Walt……you deserve it. Portia may be along any minute. Even for her faults……Love was there.

Diat60 started the thought, and it is truly disturbing:

In Endtown, is Aaron Marx god?

We have seen him among the living, particularly a couple years ago when he summed up the Wally, Holly, and Kirbee story for some children.

Children. Something else we don’t see a lot of in this story.

But most of the time, Aaron seems to make his appearances in near death sequences or, as is strongly suggested above, post death sequences.

One bright spot: At least Aaron didn’t drag out the graphic violence of that death scene for yet another day.

I was afraid we were going to be looking at flames for the rest of the week, with the final cliffhanger Friday, still wondering whether either – or neither – had survived!

Oh…crap. Goodbye, Walt. Rest well.

As shown before, Marx is a dimensional traveller; so it would seem that (in Neatherly’s universe at least) death is merely another dimension. That would imply that Portia should be along soon…

I wonder if Denise will show up here as well..for an interview with Marx. We’ve seen Marx interview someone else who had been trying to kill hundreds, and who Marx had called a “villain”. But Marx had feelings for that one.

That is a pretty short pole, unless it’s extendable. But he’s standing in moving water so…

Ok, Flask came here dead, and moved on to a different iteration of Endtown. Wally saw this place in a dream and saw a vision of Armaggedon. Now Walt shows up… curiouser and curiouser.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see if Marks starts another tale, or returns to the previous story. Not much there, so I hope a different story starts.

Welp, He’s been put on the same boat as Holly. How many people want to bet that this comic is building up to the “message” that the world sucks and good people die for nothing. I mean seriously, how many likable characters do we even have left?

Maybe he won’t have to nag the fish into playing along anymore.

Starting to feel like this is the only way out of Endtown. Wally and Holly seem to have been the exceptions. If that’s the case, they may as well all jump in the canals and get it over with. Sad story Aaron. Still, it’s yours to tell.

Reminds me of the death of Mandred in Bernhard Hennen’s “The Elven,” when Mandred was close to death thinking of his own lost son, and he suddenly discovered himself no longer cold, but knee-deep in a river, watching his son fly-fishing and thinking he wasn’t bad at it, for a beginner…

Well, let’s see now…. We’ve culled the wolf mutants and the pig mutants, Flask is gone, Walt is gone, Wally and Holly are gone, Heather is gone, Cooper is gone, Foxworthy is gone, Allgood and the victims of the Milk Trial riot are gone. We seem to be down to Prof Mallard, Doc Chase, Jake and Velda, Al and Gustine, Dottie, the security rats and the remainder of the faceless population. That 5 year food supply is looking more like 6 or 7 years with each passing (day).

He’s not dead…. he’s hibernating. :( :( :(

Not too long ago I had hoped that, if Walt had been arrested, that he would be granted some mercy and have a fishing rod and a bucket in his cell. I had figured that, given his state of mind at the time, that fishing would give him some peace. Then, in the previous strip, since he was engulfed in the flames (and possibly slashed), I had hoped that Aaron would show him some mercy and give him some peace in the afterlife.

Now, while I am sad to see Walt dead, at least Aaron is doing something to make it easier for him.

I hope Aaron has dome something to make things easier for Portia, as well. Perhaps he reunited her with her brother? I’m thinking she and her brother were probably twins, seeing how close they were (according to Portia, anyway…).

Pity… Walt and Portia made for a lovely couple. Perhaps Walt’s new fishing hole will be located near Portia and her brother. The three of them could get together and mingle now and then. Perhaps Portia’s brother likes to fish, too?

At least Walt is looking more like his old, lovable self…

It has been found that just before you die your brain gets a final hurrah, a burst of electrical activity, of consciousness before death. So if you don’t die immediately you will know you are breathing your last.

I had hoped I never saw Aaron Marx again. The only part of Endtown that I don’t like.

I hope the next arc is a little lighter. I like dark, but not sheer black. I just may drop this strip if it gets any worse.

I think this is a sad, but good, resolution for Walt.

Looks like Marx is a psychopomp, showing up in the Bardo when the souls need some guidance.

Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan.

I suspect Marx will let Walt make his cast into a pool or whirlpool of possibilities and whatever, wherever, he snags onto is where he will go. I hope snags a good one. Flask did okay. Maybe Portia will show up, maybe not.

For those who need reminding:

https://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2012/08/16

https://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2012/10/12

https://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2012/10/23

Both Walt and Marx have incomplete, unresolved expressions. I sense an approaching conversation, a fish story perhaps about ‘the one that got away.’

I could see a matrix like scenery, where the last humans live in their own hell.

Is that Denise in Marx’s pocket?

Many thanks to Baslim the Beggar. I found it useful to begin in June 2012 and found myself reading up to about February 2013.

Much is explained in this series. Also, time moved a bit faster in those days – Endtown was five days a week back then.

Loved the Linda story, too. Especially the part where her sympathy for an old man, baking a cake for him, is what launched the Milk Trial episode.

Also, the very strange hint that Mr. Algood may be Aaron Marx!

A truly happy Walt with fishing gear…

https://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2013/02/22

and the day before, when he is trying to get the fish to play along…. not to mention the worm!

We know what Walt’s heaven would be.

Fair winds and following seas Walt.

I have lost my Endtown anchor point with the loss of Walt and Portia. Do we follow Walt to his new reality? Or do we return to find a resolution involving Jacob and Velda? Or… do we spin off into an entirely new direction conducted by Marx???

Might be a dream, might be his death – will have to tell …

Go Fish!

Well, this arc isn’t over yet. Jack and Velda still have to deal with the aftermath.

We don’t know that much about the Fountain of Souls. But, if that’s where Walt and Marx are now, then all that white stuff they’re walking on is unprocessed souls waiting to fly through the fountain into the sky for recycling. That could be what happened to Denise and Portia – they’re going to be reincarnated in another parallel universe, along with the wolves and everyone else. If Walt is in the same situation that Flask was, then he’s going to have to atone for his sins as a bear forever. He has a higher calling.

13-Mar-13 for a glimpse of how truly creepy Velda is.

Even more disturbing is how that series, beginning summer 2012, sets forth the pattern of no good deed goes unpunished!

It was, after all, Linda ‘s first act of kindness which appears to have launched the whole madness that resulted in Walt ‘s final predicament!

When a bad guy needs to be killed, (Flask or Denise), Aaron Marx can not do the killing himself. So Aaron Marx sets up a situation to make a hero kill the villain. Then Aaron Marx disappears until the villain is killed. [I think they are walking on clouds, not dust or water.]

Aaron: Send Walt to Okefenokee Swamp, where he can fish with Pogo, Albert, and some of the other characters. He might need his own boat though. And maybe there would be a Miz Portia for him to charm.

I’ll stick around to see what the next arc is like but if it continues in this vein I’m signing out for a year or two. This Gothic dreariness gives me no pleasure.

Wow, 152 comments so far. I haven’t seen so many in forever.

I’m not crying! YOU’RE crying!!

7:30pm Central and still no update… Hope all is well.