Endtown by Aaron Neathery for January 10, 2013

Not a bad looking cake!

It’s not going to be like he remembers though…

Even if it tastes like poo, it was made with love, and it’s “how he’ll know she loves him.” =) He will like it, no doubt!

Please don’t let him cry. I hate it when they cry :(

Like the shallow depth of field shot in panel 4. Good photography.

Remember “The Man of La Mancha”: the DonHad visions of dear Dulcinea divineDon Quixote was seeing Alonza full onBut saw “Dulcinea” in his addled mindSo Hopper here, like Don Quixote himselfSees Linda and maybe a not-quite-right cakeBut sees instead pictures like those on his shelfAnd what he will taste might not be a mistake=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown Books

OH btw, LOVE the blurry background on the final panel. Clever!

OH OH! Just realized..Hopper looks a lot like an Otterhound.

I’m so happy today is not Friday!

Yes, Aaron has health problems right now. Yes, he needs help covering his bills. If you want to help out Aaron, you can go to the Endtown Underground and click on the Donate button in the upper left corner of the screen. Or, you can go to his Paypal page directly.UndergroundPaypal Page

I wonder if Linda tasted it first. I think that even if it is lousy that Mr Hopper will love it. Because it is from his Trudy.Age can be very valuable to the memory. Blessed Be

Hm, where does a Topsider know how to bake a cake? Doesn’t seem to me that’s something usual if you’re enclosed in a biosuit all the time, but then it’s also questionable how linda could give birth to a child or even receive one… …yea, I know, I’m a spoilsports

if you stop and think, this speaks much about Linda herself. Going thru such lengths for a mutant

oh yeah, i can still make geman chocolate cake from memory (hold the koala snot)

Yea, sadly don’t have the time to read all the comments all the time. Difficult to image that’s only 7 years since the cataclysm. But then there’s hope that the topsider problem solves itself over time.

Is this going to ‘go south’ when she’s asked where she got the ingredients?

I wondered if this was going to happen a couple of weeks ago – feels good, feels good.

Gentlemen, I give you the last chocolate cake on Earth! Bum bum Bum bum Bum bum BUUUUUUUMMMM!

Plus, this just shows how deeply we all get sucked into Mr. Neathery’s world!

I remember it well. I would just have to remember how much to add. Linda may have been a better receptionist than a cook. Even with a recipe it still takes the ability to adjust contents. That is what makes a chef or even a good cook.

Linda baking a cake. Maybe there’s a promotion in her future. We really don’t know how Meg will respond to this, and that is what might get Linda in her inevitable trouble.

Cake is not quite easy as pie, but it is still a simple recipe: takes sugar, eggs, shortening (butter?) some kind of leavening (soda) a bit of salt and some type of flour.I was wondering about what Linda used for shortening. Most cake recipes don’t call for milk. Maybe she got cream from Maude and churned her own butter.

I hope Mr. Hopper gets to eat it before the other Endtowners find out there’s an actual freshly baked chocolate cake there and riot. And they don’t try to take it out of his hide because they didn’t get any, or try to force Linda to make more.Mallard might have to intervene and have Linda explain herself. And promote her to Chief of Dietary R&D.

I hope you get better Aaron. You did a great job in the blurred last panel.

I agree with Coyoty — if the mere scent of beans caused rioting in the streets, what calamity would the heavenly scent of chocolate wafting on the breeze invite?

…aw man, now I’m craving chocolate!

And the suspense is killing me — is it a good cake, or a bad cake… or is the cake, in fact, a lie?

Oh, and I’ve voted in the TopWebComics today, and am planning on buying the first two Endtown books to take place of honor on my graphic novel shelves. Every little bit counts to help support this awesome web comic — spread the word!

I just hope nobody else comes in and wants a slice.

Now. Are they going to expect it everyday? Now one becomes two, becomes three and now all of Endtown is clamoring for cake. How long can she keep it up before someone catches her taking eggs out of the cans or Maude donating milk? Does Maude know it went to make cake or just gave it to Linda because she asked? If this was a solution to Endtown needing food WHY was it not looked at before? I cannot believe those who run Endtown and look out for its well being would miss this? I am fascinated to see where this goes. I still believe something is up. Like Rango said in the movie. The hero must be tossed into conflict.

Here is a good question about how Linda knows the recipe for cake. How many of you out there make it purely by scratch? No box from the store which is most common but know the exact amount of each required item. Using boxed items to make cake is the most common form. One would have to have a book or computer to get the actual list and amounts needed. I have seen neither book or computer used by Linda to research. She just began to gather what she needed. The bicarbonate of soda to me was the give away she already knew what and how much she needed. Would you have know it? Who knows she might have been a chef before becoming a Topsider receptionist. Schooled in the culinary arts before the war. Topsiders may not require “cooks” per say so the next job available was receptionist.It just that she knew what she needed and gathered it up. Then mixed the ingredients in the correct amount to make a cake. Brilliant.

I still think this could be a major turning point in the Endtown saga. Maybe they don’t have the right number of “properly” mutated folks to constitute a primary food source, but they could certainly provide some long needed variety. Serving the community by providing a supply of milk and eggs would (I think) be preferrable to scavaging trips topside.;-)

Mr. Hopper looks surprised. He must be quite used to bad news by now.

I agree that Linda may have brought to light an issue that endtowners have been dodging for years..that of some inhabitants being able to actually provide food for the rest of them. - When people are hungry, old taboos can go out the window.—— On the “Dark Continent” and in other areas of extreme starvation, people actually ate their children out of desperation. Drinking milk or eating eggs from those who’ve become a newly talented species, is an extremely mild adaptation by comparison. —Perhaps Linda will find her place in the community by becoming another “Betty Crocker”? She might even become a hero of sorts.

True, desperate hunger is a powerful force, one that most, if not all of us, have never experienced. -- I suspect, as one poster suggested, that Topsiders were even driven to eating the Neatherverse’s version of “soylent green”. No wonder Linda gobbled those beans a month or so ago.

Night-Gaunt49I’ve had the opportunity to ask Aaron a few questions over the past year and one of the first things I learned was that Endtown is set in a parallel universe (one of Aaron Marx’s alternate realities if you wish) Thus the world of Endtown is actually an alternative form of the present in which the United States of America didn’t exist but that has city states like Hillside and possibly Bordevia exist in its place.

If this works, then this comment will have a link to:

The Endtown Auction page

If it works, I will leave the comment. If not…I will remove it. In which case, you will not see it. :-)

And I usually donate from this page with the button up on the right.

I was just wondering if by any chance, that Aaron will be putting up another drawing for auction this upcoming week or will be put on hold till hes better. either or, i can wait or just start working on collecting prints

i cant wait for tommorrows cliffhanger

when I first looked at the cake I thought it had come out a bit, runny and was in a bowl but then saw that it even has frosting on top. it’s cute and I be it tastes like heaven to someone who has just had beans for years. Linda did a rather momentius thing!