Endtown by Aaron Neathery for June 03, 2016

This helps us understand and respect Holly. She shows great perseverance when others would have just crumbled.

And Aaron’s artwork never ceases to amaze me.

What may have saved her is she saved her remaining family.

Answers my question yesterday – Doc didn’t recognize her as Holly, he was just saving another human being.

She does blame herself. Not “Lyn died”, or “the baby drowned”; but “I lost Lyn and the baby”. The weight that Holly has carried since then.

Doc’s turn to have a WTF moment.I was concerned Holly was headed for a schizm….

Who wants to bet Holly will come to the conclusion that this entire thing is her fault for failing to aid her friend Ethel when she had the chance?This is why she tries so hard to help others. By helping others, she is also helping herself (in dealing with her issues).

Now it makes sense that Doc Chase didn’t know about what Holly meant by losing the baby. By this time Holly may have been near term in her pregnancy and since she said Lyn was dead, but didn’t specify how she lost the baby, Doc Chase may have suspected another outcome.

I am wondering how Wally, Kirbee and Chic are taking this.

It’s time for “Catatonic Mouse”!A whiff of cheese may bring her around..

This is one of the many reasons that Endtown is among my very favorite strips. And I’ve read a grunch of comics over my many years.

And while the Doc may not recognize Holly, he isn’t aware of how he himself has changed. When you are unconscious during the change, you don’t seem to be immediately aware that you have changed, unlike those like Lyn who change into monsters and realize what’s happening.

I’m fascinated by the relatively subtle usage of scale here. If I’m not wrong, they’re being drawn a fair bit smaller than they normally are, which reflects how small they must have felt in that moment.

Quite a few Lost posters drifting in the wind there. Wonder if they are a sign of some mutations surviving off of what they can find….

Doc doesn’t know he’s changed yet. He’s in for a shock. This is all a new experience for him. And I agree – Neathery’s art, writing and production are superb. Better than just about any comic out there. Please, dear readers, do what you can to let more people know about Endtown. Aaron relies on Patreon for an income to allow him to keep creating it. I gather also that the complexity of the production in these past many weeks has stretched his output to its physical maximum. We’re getting a superhuman virtuoso performance from one person and expecting him to keep going at it. PLEASE make it worthwhile for him.

While there could be some really exotic physics handwaving to make Aimsworth radiation work, I would simply go with the flow and not think too hard about the potential physics questions with mutation.

Chase: “Listen, Holly, I know you may be in shock or something, but I need you to focus. Answer me – did you see any BuddiBombs crossing the street with us?”

Can they shower now, please.

Ok. I haven’t read any comments, this is just me. So Doc come to with a very large mouse pulling him from a bad car wreck and through a door where 3 chefs are fighting a monster and heading toward a hole at which point she drops his had and throws herself into said hole.He follows and sees her running and screaming into busy traffic. So he try to protect her, whoever she is. He may not realize he has changed so the mouse seems really gigantic to his supposed human size. She mentions Lyn and the baby and realizes it is Holly.I bet his next question will be “What Happened to You?? You are an enormous mouse.”

Well…Doc Chase and Holly have mutated…so how do they get out of Hillside and into Endtown?

Also…we know this to be some sort of illusion. We know Holly is around, somewhere…but we also know Doc Chase isn’t around…at last report he was still in Endtown…

If the Mutagen wasn’t airborne, the many thousands of mutants that were aerosolized by BuddiBombs may have helped.

“I agree with what you said regarding playing with in one’s rules.”It’s called “internal consistency.”Really, all this gabbing about “hard” and “soft” science fiction misses the point. SF is a framework that you hang the story on. The “science” part is irrelevant, in that it’s not why people read SF. The futuristic technology, the gadgets and all that, are props that allow the author to say what they want to say. As with any sword and sorcery, or fantasy story, it’s not “how does this work and is it a realistic assumption?” as it is “Is the story internally consistent? Does it set up the rules and then follow them?” And Endtown does that. All of the other gabbing just insults the author and the other readers.

Well, here’s one thing about this story is for absolute certain…Holly is going through one major guilt trip, and here’s hoping Doc Chase will be able to help ease her troubled mind.And I, for one, can’t wait to hear what Wally and Company have to say about what they’ve seen so far.

Hm, yeah, they might be smaller than I’m remembering. Still, there’s definitely a lot of contrast between them and the human-sized surroundings.