Endtown by Aaron Neathery for July 31, 2015

Yup, female. Could use some mascara though, to bring out the eyelashes. The indignities of siege.

I am guessing those are people, melting. Now I wonder if the airpower is supporting Marianne and the républicains. Or, it still could be Joan of Arc. It would be helpful to be Joan so she can hear voices and see visions. “I saw a cat man, floating on the wind, and he will guide us to victory”. Joan of Arc ~ Leonard Cohen

End of month TopWebComics links in my profile. Thanks, JusSayin

So, are they riding INTO the destruction?

“Half a league, half a league / Half a league onward / All in the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred. / ‘Forward, the Light Brigade! / Charge for the guns!’ he said: / Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.”

A pre-mutant Flask?

This registers about a 10 on my weird-stuff-o-meter.

Okay Comic, at some… any point I’d love an explanation of what is going on.

If we are in Wally’s head, and this is a vision, then the images could be fiurative…representations. Eye on string =some kind of “spirit guide”. Red humanoid blobs perhaps victims of some kind of infection (moral?); and the riders are people fighting the infection. Maybe? Not “good against evil”…just people against “that which would consume them”. Maybe? We will eventually find out.

Those look like lizard people.

To me it looks like figures rising UP from the red murk (lava?) possibly an army of some kind? So are the horse riders deliberately going into battle or have they been caught by surprise? Also, does the color red signify that Wally is still in a dream sequence?

“I” is going to the heart of the blood bath, while the big bombs are still going off behind the horse woman. This may be the full 6 minutes of The End.

Are those tears on the rider’s face in panel one?

…so it’s a fly-over. Neat concept, Aaron (N.)!

…and I would say not female, but androgynous.

Yes, exactly, the Lizards. Will they be led by a raccoon god?

Seems like a metaphor of the past.

I’m lost as the proverbial Easter egg…

I see a big Aaron Marx-type bow tie on the rider.

LOVE the shadows of the horses in panel 4.

The rider does seem to be female and has the kind of facial features I would have imagined a premutation Flask as having and she is wearing a long coat and bow similar to the one Aaron Marx used to wear. That’s why I suspect that she may be the daughter of the Dutchess and the Marx of her world. Those do seem to be tears in her eyes in panel 1, suggesting that she is grieved by something. It could be the destruction of her world, possibly the loss of her parents (though I have trouble believing that Aaron Marx wouldn’t have an out) or perhaps sadness at what she knows she has to do. I’m looking forward to learning what the heck’s going on.

I came upon Endtown fairly late (during the trail) and have heard people talk about different story threads. Is the strip following one continuous timeline or does it go back and forth in time and/or characters? Thanks.

The bloody figures look lizardy and apparently have children among them. I’m guessing the woman is Sarah, heading toward confrontation with the people she betrayed, leading the Topsiders to them for her own ambitions. She hasn’t had enough time to accept herself as a lizard so her self image is still human. This may be Sarah’s moment of self-judgment where she decides what to do with her afterlife, with Wally as her examiner, like we saw with Flask and Marx when she died.

Wally’s confrontation with Flask just before she died may have prepared him for the role of examiner, and Marx may be grooming Wally to be one and help in the fight against the shoe thief.

Well that’s a tad creepy.

I notice that the figures in frame three have the light beams moving through them, and are starting to fragment. (meaning?)Yes, the horse shadows in frame four are very cool.

I like Coyote’s explanation but…Shoe thief??

is is that flask?

Does it really matter if the warrior is male or female?

Heck, could be a new character for all we know…

I’d love to comment on this…, but God forgive me…, I still can’t make sense of what’s going on.…He’s dreaming, right?

HUH???

I’m going to just say that the occasional splash of colour in this otherwise b&w cartoon is really effective.

If this is an alternate reality from the Endtown universe, is this what happens when one is shot with a zero gun? Does that mean the Teddy Bear girl Flask killed is living here?

I’m having flashbacks to The Tingler with all this red in my otherwise black and white story.

Maybe those are what’s left of the reptiles?

“But you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendAh, you don’t believeWe’re on the eveof destruction.” Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction.”

I re-read the whole of this sequence from the start. It is a brilliant piece of writing and vision, indeed a masterpiece. Neathery has (once again) transformed the comic strip medium into a form of art. It is delectable. Here’s my theory: The kid is not Aaron Marx but a humanised form of Wally. He may be what Wally looked like as a child, or maybe not. He certainly has cat-Wally’s hairstyle exactly. And cat-Wally says to the kid “…the teacher you killed.”So I think he is talking to his past self, or recognising that the kid represents his past life. The telephone that sticks into his ear, the caller “who always calls collect” is the self-harm that comes from holding on to bitter memories. In other words, a voice of wisdom, maybe with Marx as its driver or may even some higher power behind it, is counselling Wally that nursing old regrets will draw the life out of you. That is certainly true. Wally’s ‘pacifism’ has a pathological edge to it. He can never see justice served to those Apex guards who arranged for him to kill the teacher, so he is forever compelled to be obstructive to people in uniform, as a sort of repentance. It’s an unhealthy pacifism, and that explains why there is such rage just below its surface.And now, we have him witnessing… what? the desperate retreat for safety of a guerrilla force, who are fleeing for a the shelter of a melting forest, maybe. The spikes look a lot like the spiky terrain they were crossing at the beginning of their trek. But then they also look like the lizard folk in red wax. I plan to just let this unfold.My only worry is how much work this is taking from Aaron Neathery, the human being. We can’t afford to see him worn out. But, Endtown fans, every time you see any contest or awards for comic strip excellence, please nominate and vote Endtown. Every bit helps.

Whatever’s going on at ground level, Wally is above it all.

Jenner,I just went through the beginning of the new story and while I get what you’re saying about the kid’s hairstyle, I don’t think he’s Wally. He doesn’t seem to talk like Wally does.“Why you? Because your end chose your beginning. That’s why..”That’s a very indirect, cryptic and a little playful; sort of what I might expect of Marx. Wally tends to be very direct when he speaks. He says what’s on his mind in a way that you don’t have to guess what he’s saying. I would imagine a younger Wally answering the older Wally with something like. “Why you? Because its your job mister.”or“This is your chance to make up for the teacher.”Something like that. Besides “your end chose your beginning” doesn’t sound very child like. Though if that child were Aaron Marx…

No doubt about it, that’s definitely not Sarah’s hair on the rider. More likely some version of Flask, quite probably someone else.

I bet this is little Marx ’s mom. She must be in trouble and he knew somehow that Wally could help her.this is the only thing that makes sense to me.

I’m still wondering…is that lava or blood?