Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 12, 2016

Aw c’mon, what is this, who shot JR?

Wow, this got meta very quickly. I’m going to go over and stay out the 4th wall if anybody needs me.

I’m speechless. This is the best twist.

Fasten your seat belts kids, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

Suckered me in again Neathery. No one’s fault but mine, got so distracted by the emotion of the story that I forgot to watch out for the banana peel. Whatever.

Yeah, but is this the end of Wally as a character?

…not to mention Chic/Irving and Kirby??

Wait..hold on… giant rat?!

I love Aaron Marx’s comment in the last panel, “I’m more of a Flask guy, myself…” Indeed.

Unreal!’

Is that a non-mutated girl in the front?

A story told by someone who was there?!?

The Giant Rat of Sumatra? That dog has ticks! We must flea!

Aaron Marx as the trickster god Loki.

Actually, i believe that Aaron N. is chiding us all for taking things a little too seriously.

Guilty as charged.

I am more interested in the girl at the far left side of the 2nd panel. Looks like Dot from the Animaniacs.

I wonder how much time has passed since Wally and Kirbee exchanged grips and he told her that their midair kiss and the feelings behind them weren’t illusions. Did it just happen? I am willing to believe that drinking of the Oracle would allow Aaron Marx to see what happened and possibly what will happen. Thus, he may have seen enough of the couple’s possible futures to say “…and so they lived happily ever after…with certain major qualifications..” Normally I would assume that years would have to pass for someone to use “…happily ever after…”

Hey, Aaron, as much as a PITA as we sometimes can be, please don’t pull a Brooke McEldowney on us and pull the plug on comments.

I hope this is not too far in the future. I would like to know what happened to Linda and Maude. There is also the question of Jacob Jackrabbit. Did his little dictatorship work as he intended?

And after the giant rat, perhaps talk about the other R.O.U.S.’s of the Fire Swamp.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Message, Mr. Neathery?

This is not the only place folks are discussing Endtown. The majority of comments here are at least considerate towards others in here, even during disagreements. However, I’’ve heard that opinions expressed elsewhere about Endtown are a lot less friendly.

Okay everyone, remember the comments through the past few years. Is this a mirror on ourselves we are looking at?

So we just leave Wally, Kirby, Chic and Irving wandering the Great Waste and Holly flying the Friendly Skies and return to the self-destructing cesspool? Yippee.

The Giant Rat of Sumatra is one of the cases of Sherlock Holmes. The case was mentioned in passing but never chronicled as a story. It was only referred to as “a case for which the world is not yet prepared”. This has intrigued readers ever since then, and many people have tried to speculate. Richard Boyer wrote a pastiche novel in 1974. Even the modern TV series Sherlock has a story involving a ‘rat’ (enemy agent) and a fictitious underground railway station Sumatra Street.The Firesign Theatre played along in this game and came up with their own pastiche built upon The Gian Rat of Sumatra (or Sinatra, depending on who was speaking).

Uhg

Well. Some of you wanted to return to Endtown to see how things were doing. Here we are. Apparently Marx is running the entertainment.

Now that Aaron has “broken the fourth wall” (and done it in a freaky way), where this thing goes is ANYONE’S guess. ;-D

Hee hee, art imitates life. You go, Aaron!

“Kids kids settle down! If it’ll make you all feel better let me tell you the story of Al and Gustine! This one actually has less of a bittersweet ending!”

Okay there’s literally no way I’ll believe that this whole thing has just been a story-within-a-story dealie, so something must be going on here beyond that.

My (admittedy worthless) take: This is a creative and brilliant way to end a story arc. Aaron could just as easily have simply started into a new arc today with no explanation, much like most other comics (both web and print) do. Instead he told us in a very Neatherly way how Wally’s (and Chic’s, and Kirbee’s) story ends. Now we can move on to a new story.

And on that subject: Am I crazy, or are those houses in the background, and the sky very bright? I know buildings exist in Endtown, but these buildings have roofs. Peaked roofs, like one would have on a house to prevent rain from entering. Perhaps we are now leaving the ’underground" Endtown and moving to a later, above ground version of the town?

This has to be far enough in the future for Wally and family or someone who knows them to get back to Endtown to tell their tale, and for a new generation of kids to have been born and grown to adolescence.

Ohhhh, I do so hope that this isn’t the last we see of Wally/Kirbee/Chic in the main spotlight….But either way, I definitely am all for seeing what Endtown’s been up to since Jacob took control. If I was a betting man, I’d wager that whatever happens, by the end Jacob is going to end up knowing how it feels to be a puppet in someone else’s grand scheme.

haaaaaageeeeeeez!

lol

NOW where is this going?

Gotta strap back in…

So did the events we have read for the last two years actually happened or is it all a fictional tale told by Aaron Marx?

Do Wally and Holly now enter the room to ask what’s going on?

Color me confuzzled.

Disappointing. I wanted to follow Wally, not watch kids fighting.

Wait! What just happened here?

This also reminds me of the last Planet of the Apes films first time around when it ends some 100 or more years later in a class of humans and apes learning together instead of as antagonists.

I think that everything we’ve seen as relates to the history of the world, and Holly’s backstory, is mostly true for the continuity of the strip. It wouldn’t make sense to fabricate a false history to share with us when the Endtown-world story is interesting enough.This could be in the same time as Wally’s adventure. Since it’s Marx, he could be aware of the story in real-time and could have been relating it to his audience in installments. If so, then it’s encouraging that there is time to enjoy a story and Endtown hasn’t burned down. It’s also a nice way to allow us to visit Endtown to see how things are.

Wow …! This just keeps getting better!

“I’m more of a Flask guy myself” Oh this is just divine! This strip captures the exact conversation a lot of fans are having about Endtown right at this moment. Aaron knows his audience, whether or not many of us would like to admit it.

Geez, they sound just like us arguing about it all, but less intellectual.

Sorry… I squee’d at the possible Firesign Theatre reference.

Carry on.

Great, the worst character makes another appearance.

Exactly what are the qualifications for Major? I was a Navy man myself and we didn’t have those.

Meanwhile, back at Endtown…

I’m totally with Aaron Marx on the Flask position. I’ve been Flask’s #1 fan since she appeared. I even commissioned Aaron to make a original art piece with Flask, Walley and Holly.

Typical, Chipmunk boy thinks he can dictate what other people chose to do. Bunny boy took the bait unfortunately.

As was trying to recall an appropriate passage from Nietzsche : Thus Spake Zarathustra but my mind seems to be on the blink.

Murray Head’s One Night In Bangkok about a master controller, controlling chess pieces keeps getting tangled up in Harry Haller’s denouement during a “chess game” at the end of Steppenwolf.

Yeah, cancer and leukemia meds are making my brain fuzzy, so maybe by the Spring my brain cobwebs might be swept away.

We can’t forget that Marx himself set the milk trial in motion!

There’s nothing to say that the Wally-Holly-Chic-And-Kirbee Show never happened. This situation is very similar to the end of the Flask arc where Marx watched his alternate self frolicking with Flask in a parallel universe, with the aid of the Oracle. I think the deal is that Marx loves an audience, and he wants to have the last word on how his shenanigans turn out.

Those are definitely peaked roofs, implying above ground or some change in Endtown. But one thing I don’t think’s been mentioned: How the kid uses the term “lizard lover.” That implies some sort of racism along the lines of species is going on, even if the events turn out to have happened in the strip and based on what happened in Kirbee’s colony. And that, regardless of how the Wally-Holly arcs are resolved, has unsettling implications for the mutant community.

Whether or not this is Endtown or another Mutant settlement, this is more kids than I’ve ever seen in Endtown.If that much time has passed, they have been making lots of Kids.It took awhile tort into my brain that it may have been longer, that Wally and co. have become legends.

Questions: 1. Who are these animal-people? 2. Why is Aaron Marx telling/showing them this story? 3. How is Aaron Marx telling/showing them the story? 4. Are there consequences for our major protagonists? 5. If so, what?

Did Aaron Marx edit out all the scenes that were not suitable for children? There were a lot of those.

The world is not ready for the Tale of the Giant Rat of Su—

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

If we shadows have offended,Think but this, and all is mended—That you have but slumbered hereWhile these visions did appear.And this weak and idle theme,No more yielding but a dream,Gentles, do not reprehend.If you pardon, we will mend.

Anyone else get whiplash on that last turn?

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\\//_

Firesign Theatre?! Holy Crap! This is a valuable glimpse into the cluttered and convoluted mind of A. N. And, extra points for gigagrouch for spotting that reference. A nice early Christmas present from Aaron. Speaking of which, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my fellow Endtowners. May the New Year bring us more Shock and Awww.

I debated about whether to call this a “red herring.” On the other hand, what else to call it?

Children: Up to now, the only documented instances of reproduction was Unity – a story that was just erased.

We need a Nick Danger to sort this one out…

It took at last two years to tell the story of Unity. Another reader pointed out that it took at least a year to tell the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This setting seems to erase everything we went through the last several years.

Aaron having a bit of fun at our expense? Point well taken, and sure looks like what’s going on.

Bottom line: Have we been taking this whole thing too seriously? (I’m not privy to these other blogs where Endtown is being discussed) On the other hand, this has been an emotional comic strip, and there has been some emotional investment in the characters.

We have speculated whether Aaron ran out of things for Holly to do. Perhaps he ran out of things for the rest of them to do, too.

A story in a story? Can anyone tell me what’s going on here?Is Wally’s life simply the product of someone’s imagination? Oh, wait.

This installment is similar to this one http://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2013/07/15 Perhaps more detail is forthcoming…as after the last one.

Kirk, Picard, Duck Season, Wabbit Season, I’ve heard this song before.

So Aaron has been visiting the forums, eh?

It’s all I can do to hold onto my desk, that was indeed a very sharp turn. I think need a trip to see a chiropractor after that one.

I don’t think lizards got too good a reputation from this story. I expect there was some backlash against Endtown’s lizards under Jackrabbit’s administration. Humans and lizards may have the same rights as everyone else still, but they would face bigotry because they’re physically like Topsiders and Unity lizards.

I’m testing the comments section here on the beta version for the upgraded GoComics. I notice that the comments already posted to this strip from the current site are not showing up here yet. I hope they do port them over. It would be a shame to lose the history of the GoComics community.

Is the term “lizard lover” an issue because the kids know of the “reptilians” of Unity or just a matter of shape difference? Most of the kids here (and most of the adults I’ve seen in Endtown) are some form of mammal. To many of them, kissing a reptile would seem icky.

Love the Jughead hat!

We 1st. met Wally in 1//17/2011. He’s been the main guy for long time.

I really love this strip. It shows excellent our participation to the comic. By the Way – I loved Flask most of all. But Kirbee and Holly are also great characters. But I hope we will see them again in the future for new adventures.

Whoo suddenly it got all meta in here.

The Giant Rat of Sumatra as in A.C. Doyle?