Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 08, 2014

Where did the blood come from? o-o What does Holly mean? Why did I read this right before going to bed? Poor Chic! He looks absolutely terrified! (and rightfully so, goodness, Jim is gonna be giving me nightmares)

Looking back at the previous strip and now this one … did Holly just gnaw Jim’s paws off?!

I’ve been bitten by a mouse before. It hurt, but it was right on the edge of what I could endure so I just allowed it and did nothing. Mousie and I ended up as pretty good friends.

I’m guessing that JusSayin has it right and Holly used those huge incisors on Jim’s paws. Jim is now handicapped (forgive the pun) and at a disadvantage.

I know this is meant to be family friendly and all, but…Did Holly tie the cord around Jim’s wrists to act as a tourniquet and then bite all his fingers off?………..….

It looks like fingers. Holly could have bitten most of his fingers off.Mice and baby birds are both smaller than raccoons, but Jim always was small for a raccoon. At least he doesn’t seem as scary as before.A rat could easily have bitten off fingers. Their jaws are strong and their teeth are razor sharp. I’ve only been bit bad once in all my years of having rats. I took in a known biter hoping to rehabilitate him. he got me good when I put my hand in his cage. Mice are so much smaller but then Holly is big for a mouse, like someone said, they are all halfling size.She would haave blood on he face if she bit him badly,and to bite off fingers would have to bite thru some arteries.So happy that Holly and Chic are both still relatively OK.I bet she has had to kill before, considering the way she rolledupthat apron.

Did, Holly chew off Jim’s forepaws? I haven’t seen Holly with any tools, but that could be blood on Holly and Chic. I also think Jim has grown a bit larger. I thought Jim was smaller than Holly or Chic, but appeared larger in Friday’s installment. Doc Rat appears to be completely up and running the new website, and it works with Android 4something on a mobile, and by clicking on blue border I can access character profiles, contests, and news and other links on Jenner’s site. I can even navigate the history, so anyone who is a fan, or might wish to examine Jenner’s cartoon works…JusSayin _______________From previous comment thread: Oh yeah, if anyone has a couple of hours to invest, I highly recommend the film

Across The Universe.It is a film I enjoyed on YouTube, and will either rent or buy. Maybe it’s my age. I was born in 1955, so I didn’t really appreciate the Beatles until long after they were gone. I was aware people were fanatics for and against them, and was 10 years old when my town had a good old record burning. I thought John was sort of correct in what he said, but I wasn’t on either bandwagon, either Lennon’s or the detractors, who I thought were kind of responsible for their own lack of popularity. / thread jack over 

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Wow, Aaron really is digging deep into the nightmare zone for these last few strips.

Although, I think that his hands are still attached to his wrists; they don’t look amputated.

I think it’s blood on Holly and Chic’s face. She did a real number on Jim’s fingers. She would have had to hold that rope in his mouth, taut with her hands, and the only weapon she’d have left would be her teeth.

Jim probably looked a good deal larger. When raccoons get ferocious, they can puff themselves up to look twice their size. I rescued one years ago, and once he hit puberty he was a terror. I’d rather face a buzz saw than a testosterone driven, aggressive raccoon

I hope Sarah’s happy with what she’s done. Her disloyalty drove poor Jim off the deep end. VERY bad timing.

Jim: “I’m going to kill you both!”Holly: “Not without your hands you wont!”Jim: “Yes I can! It’s only a flesh wound!”I’m a little surprised to see Holly took the time to cut (gnaw?) off Jim’s hands, when strangling seemed like a better option.Of course this would cut the story short.So while Jim is exsanguinating via his bloody stumps, the look of horror in panel two in Holly’s eyes says it all…“I’ve tasted Raccoon meat! OMG I’m a redneck!”Just kidding folks, why Holly would be a devout supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie is a mystery to me.However, the she did apply the most fundamental of redneck core beliefs to the “sit-u-ayshun”..

Git-R-Done!

No problem. Mutants are quick healers.

Standard procedure for those suffering with SS.

Was a bit disappointed when Chick’s hands were on Jim’s face, and the thumbs didn’t find the eye sockets. That would have made a much shorter story, too.

It may not go this dark, but if it’s headed toward horror . . . well, consider other mutants have suffered SS, and rodents sometimes have unfortunate behavior toward their young.

Looks like she chewed off his hands. Poor Jim, looks like he won’t be coming back from this.

Holly always did have an impressive pair of incisors…

A woodchuck bit off a friend’s finger, long ago. Holly is much bigger than a woodchuck.. As long as she doesn’t go feral now!

Whoa, it took me awhile to figure out what happened. I’m guessing that the quick healing that Jim told Holly and Wally about caused Jim’s stumps to stop bleeding while he still had enough blood to live. I hadn’t expected to see Holly go that far. I’m not certain she would have if it was just her life, but for a kid or someone she cares about…

I wonder if she had enough time to get his feet preventing him from standing and chasing them?We do know Holly is fast, really fast.

Wow, Holly. Wow. Yeah I can’t see Jim coming out of this. And poor Chic looks terrified. At least he knows that, if anything, Holly would protect him. Also magnified I’m sure by Jim mentioning her first kidlet.

And now the gas is coming.

Yes, it appears to me also that Holly chewed off both his hands at the wrists. Ah, fun times in Endtown…

@ Veteran I’ve seen a number of finger amputations ( industrial accidents ) and blood loss is surprising low- the muscles cramp around the vessels in the beginning and provide some short term blood loss control. In truth, if all Holly did was bite thru the tendons on the hands it would be faster and more effective than biting off fingers.

did…did she chew through his hands?

Well, this isn’t the first time she bit Jim’s hands. This time she bit Jim’s hands…off.

I’m going to bet she just bit him severely on the fingers – enough to disable him for the moment but let him heal later.

Mangled them. Look at three you can see hand below cuff. Just looks pretty bloody. A thing about cutting the wrists. Very hard to bleed out those. They constrict too easily. Now the neck, unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes.

What’s going to be interesting to me is where Chic’s loyalties will be if he survives this, Wally and Holly have both taken the hard line between him and the world when his parents ( that he still stands by ) have thrown him to the wolves so to speak ( his mother may yet show up, but just looking at the moment). Even as young as he is he may have enough knowledge of the colony to provide the edge Wally and Holly need to survive & escape.

A promising career as a concert pianist cut short in its prime.

very old rule once you have an enemy down, you don’t stop until they stop moving.

Long way to Wednesday, eh?

At least Jim has his head on straight now.

Voting links in profile.

On a lighter note…well, maybe…so far we’ve heard a lot about Schism Syndrome. Does anybody, well, “get better” from it?

This has never been a particularly happy strip..I have frequently joked that, no matter how bad things get in this strip, not to worry! Things will only get worse..And they have. And yet – even we are aware of things that are going to continue to get worse! As many have mentioned, we have yet to deal with the gas..mr_sherman mentioned something about MUTTS. What are those? Dragoncat: Holly has bit Jim before? When?.In the meantime, we have gone from sci-fi apocalypse, to soap opera, to genocide, to infanticide…now, we’ve moved well past horror and into downright grisly and gruesome..(Which reminds me – right now Dick Tracy is working on Gruesome).Robert Nowall: Fantastic question, and one I was wondering about myself: Is schism syndrome a one-way ticket? Was Jim dead the moment he came down with it?.And just what is schism syndrome in the first place? Is it something only mutants come down with? Is schism syndrome yet another mutation that affects mutants?.Of course, questions like these may actually justify the actions of Topsiders – maybe they realize that becoming a mutant is not the cure to their problems!.Maybe, just maybe, if schism syndrome is a fate presumed to be suffered by all mutants, Topsiders are actually involved in “mercy killing”?.Aaron’s world may be far more complicated than we have assumed (Mutants = good guys and Topsiders = bad guys). Mutants as good guys is getting messed up by goings on in Endtown (remember Endtown? There was a comic strip about Endtown – apologies to Arlo Guthrie), not to mention Lizard Land..As for the nature of Topsiders: We do know that when Sarah crossed over, Jim felt obliged to cross over with her. Not exactly the characteristics of a typical bad guy..Of course, for the time being, for Jim, it sure looks like no good deed goes unpunished!

Cheapskate0,If there is one thing you can rely on in this strip, it is that Aaron doesn’t do simple, particularly when it comes to characters. It isn’t just a question of “good guys” or “bad guys”. This is a world of loss where everybody has lost things that were very dear to them, homes, prized possessions, their jobs, loved ones and in many cases their human appearance. Different people deal with these losses in different ways. Some lash out in pain and anger, others find purpose in helping others. Many just find a way to keep going on in the hope that they’ll find something that makes their lives worth living.The Topsiders are stuck in those biosuits 24/7, they may take them off for some hygienic activities but that is about it. They have been told that the only way to be able to get out of those suits without mutating is to eliminate the virus. They have also been told that the only way to eliminate the virus is to KILL ALL MUTANTS. They have put most of their resources into doing this. I imagine there are some who had trouble with this stance but were wise enough to keep their mouths shut.Many of the other antagonists, like Sparkplug, and Flask were shown to be driven by their suffering and losses. In Flask’s case, the decision to release a condemned man led to love, mutation, abandonment, capture and torture. This led her to be the kind of security captain (in Endtown) who could shoot her own subordinates in cold blood. One could argue that even the “good” guys have their problems. Wally can be passive to the point of laziness, and never REALLY worked at blending into Endtown. Walt was an alcoholic who shunned conflict. Prof Mallard is egotistical and sometimes not as interested in Endtown’s well being as he should be. One of the things I like about this strip is that the characters aren’t simple or black in life and have many nuances.

Does the rapid healing of mutants include regeneration? Finish off Jim now if he starts to grow new hands.

It’s possible that Schism Syndrome is treatable and recoverable from, but the resources and time to do so have been, er, sorely lacking.#Ah, well. Maybe Jim’s fingers will heal up quickly with that remarkable mutant healing power he once found so interesting…

I have no idea what happened to Jim’s hands. Kinda confusing >.<