Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 30, 2011

I thought that might be the case.

Another nice Friday cliffhanger.

“What is it worth to you?”

“Gee, and what about all our Endtown babies?

“But I’ve got an idea. We’ll save your baby. After all, if we’ve got room for a mama koala, we can sure make room for a little BABY koala! Won’t that be FUN?”

Flask proving to Linda that all Topsider Propaganda to be true..

The Endtown mini-comic that I produced for Comicpalooza 2011 is now available to YOU for the offensively low price of $2.50 (price includes s&h, international add $1 for each copy ordered ). Besides sporting a snazzy full color cover, it contains an all-new 22 page story that is available nowhere else. And just because I feel like doing it, I’ll sign and personalize (if desired) each and every copy I mail out. Simply pay via PayPal using my email address, aaronneathery@gmail.com, and be sure to include your mailing address. If you can’t pay with PayPal, send payment to:Aaron NeatheryPO Box 920558Houston, TX 77292And, just so you know, I’m completely open to donations. The cat and mouse that live in my head will thank you. :-).. and original Endtown art is still for sale. Contact me for details @ aaronneathery@gmail.com

It might be that this cry “Let my baby live!” Is tied to just why Flask was ready to give All that death and destruction And as Prof said: “Revenge” With so little compunction That she seems quite unhinged For Linda’s entreaty Might just hit home For the brain known as Petey In that metal dome Is that of Flask’s child (I think she’s that old) Revenge drove her wild But this might stop her cold For she’s been defined By her role as a mother It might change her mind To find that another Would share her own fate At the loss of a son If it isn’t too late That line might be the one =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum

I think we all pretty much figured this was going to happen, but what will Flask do? Obviously her mind has been twisted by hatred but will the others, (Petey incl) be able to touch her heart? Destroying the rocket might make the TSers angry but destroying their city would mean all-out war. I think that Flask’s the only one who can change anything but what will Linda’s plea do?

I think linda should tell them everything about the reason of why that the topsiders are so mean to the people that are so different then they are.

don’t annoy the cat Linda. she bites.

…..the way flask looked yesterday do you think flask was on Linda place before?

i was thinking about all topsiders weve seen

what would they do to one of their own if he/she dared to speak agaisnt killing mutants?

This is amazing. Aaron started setting this scene way back with the Sandy incident. Holly was forced to watch Flask kill Sandy, will she stand by now and see it happen again? Wally’s on the borderline, but there’s little doubt he’ll support Holly. The mutts may be “mind numbed robots” but both Petey and the current transporter are perfect examples of how their brains still retain their freewill and reasoning ability in spite of the fact their memories are wiped. They are still very much “persons”. I sense the makings of a mutiny. Capt Flask’s(Bligh’s) command hangs by a thread…

BTW, I forgot to mention: Here’s the Flask we all know and love again. The weepy, wistful Flask was a bit creepy.

I think Wally and Holly will step up somehow and divert the rocket.

SO…Will Flask decide to order Wally and Holly to take our new little koala friend into the topsider outpost to “steal” the baby away and bring it back??

What did I tell ya about a year-end cliffhanger?? :) The situation is extremely difficult, yes. Endtown had to react, probably being the closest to the rocket (didn’t another mutant town detect it and told Endtown security?). If all they did was destroy the rocket by firing it in the desert, kind of a “leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone”, remove only the threat, it might (might!) have shown a few topsiders that they could have sent the rocket to the dome but didn’t… but we’re wired to respond to what we see, not what we don’t see. If the dome is kerboomed, all the other topsiders will see is escalation… and since they already have the superior weaponry and military capabilities, it would not bode well. I think there’s a reason this story is told “now” in their timeline; for six years there was a stalemate of sorts, a “routine” (forage, find beans, lose a few people, topsiders lose a few). Now tensions are reaching a boiling point, both inside mutant towns (Jackrabbit being a symptom) and in topsiders cities (building the rocket to “finish them once and for all”). It’s a game of ultimatums. Who’s right no longer matters, it’s who wins. (It’s getting more and more difficult to find if anyone is right. What do you do when a gun is against you? Wally himself felt forced to take a life.)I’m feeling these kinds of looks at End Of The World scenarios (with very realistic emotions fueling them here, considering the lively debates) are mostly about avoiding it by learning what gets us there and trying to avoid it. History will tell.

For amusement, go back and read the August strips again. This time, keep in mind that Aaron was drawing Endtown roughly 50 strips ahead of what was being published. So, when we were reading the August strips, Aaron was drawing the ones that appeared this week. Then look at the comments to see how much he was giggling at us at the time.

Flask is just giving Petey more and more reasons to love her.

The writing is amazing. Even characters you might think were one dimensional [the Topsiders in this case], turn out to be fully realized and developed individuals once you get to know them.

That’s exactly how it is in life. We usually only see the surface of another person. It can take a while [and some effort] to plumb the depths.

Linda, the arrogant Topsider. Ready to harvest brains like some White Supremacist Zombie. Secure in her imagined superiority. Showing courage [or more accurately, defiance] in the hands of her enemies. Watching all her defenses crumble when she realizes just how helpless she [and more importantly, her son] really are. Ready to do anything out of pure desperation.

Man, we’ve got to wait until next YEAR to see how this turns out! ;)

OK Aaron,this is a brand new year. Can’t you take “Pity” on us and slip in a couple of additional “cheerable” or maybe “encouraging” segments. Here I am with my jaw dropped. What if it were my kid. How far would I go, How much would I scream. Sigh. Please.????

I’m not convinced that Petey, Wally and Holly will go along with Flask’s plan. With Linda’s help, they might be able to warn the Topsider’s.

Did Linda have any pity when she harvested Endtowner’s brains to run mutt bodies? Remind her of how the two were laughing and cracking jokes then…is it STILL funny?This is how you treated others…KARMA IS A B I T C H !!!

Happy New Year to y’all! Hope Santa was nice to you.

You’re right. towards the end of the Al and Gustine story, the Topsiders nuked the spot they were sure Endtown was located. The Endtowners were sitting pretty, with the Topsiders thinking they were all dead. (Granted, there are other colonies.) But it will be very difficult to maintain existence, let alone negotiate peace at all, so long as there remains this shoot-on-sight attitude.

Factor in one more thing. Flask may not have the same mental stability as she had before she mutated. Mutants seem to take on some of the animal’s (purported) characteristics – cat, rhino, rooster, etc. – and the cat essence in Blackie may be one of the things that is making her cruel.

Great job today, Aaron.Very thought provoking.KUTGW,Noreen

So the short ex-topsider would do anything, likely die, to keep her kid alive. The only thing that will stop that rocket is someone getting close enough to blast it. That might not be a survivable action. Maybe it would be if the rocket was blasted from the flying machine. Maybe not. In any case the short ts is tied up. But I do not think that Flask has the whole situation in hand. There are ways to out vote her, including a stun shot.

linda looks like she has a beak?

I love to imagine myself in their situation… To truly consider how I’d feel if I were them… In this case especially, I wanted to do that because I found myself suddenly caught in the snare of the cute koala’s tear-filled plea for mercy…

I know, I know,…my wording there makes it seem as if I have some feelings of disgust for her and her current state of despair, and I do, not because I have no heart (after all, she apparently IS a mother to some child back in the Topsider Colony, and I can certainly understand the bond between a parent and child, or any other loved one for that matter), but because I am forced to consider what led to this moment for her, and for Flask and the rest…

Flask is certainly mentally unhinged, and dangerous, and sometimes monstrous, but she has apparently been driven there by years and years of suffering under the constant threat of torture, murder, and ultimate destruction at the hands of the Topsiders. Everyone in Endtown has, and she’s apparently one of the main people responsible for all their safety. That’s got to take a heavy toll… Far gentler folks have no-doubt become more ruthless and merciless under lesser circumstances…

And as for the cute koala weeping for her potentially doomed child? Less than an hour before the pleas for mercy of the captured Endtowners fell directly on her deaf ears as she prepared to slaughter them and strip them of their brains to be forever enslaved as tools of the Topsiders…

Let’s put this into perspective, as terrible as the instant genocide Flask is proposing might seem, and as mad as she appears to be, it most likely pales in comparison to the years upon years of death, torture, mayhem, and destruction visited upon the mutated former humans of Endtown by the very Topsiders she wants to obliterate.

One might say that the primary difference between the Endtowners and the Topsiders (regardless of the excuses either side might use to justify their heinous actions against one another) is that the Endtowners have been DRIVEN to this by the Topsiders themselves. Had the remaining non-mutated humans merely adopted a policy to leave the non-monstrous mutated humans in peace, then none of Flask’s madness or her heinous actions would have ever necessarily manifested. And so, REAL difference between both groups, is that one side (generally content to keep to itself and let others live in peace) is merely fighting to survive and make a life for itself in a blasted wasteland, as compared to the other side (who appears not only discontent with even allowing the mutants to live peacefully, but driven to destroy and subjugate them in the most inhuman of ways), who has systematically developed a cultural mindset of genocide toward the mutants that it not only disgustingly justifies, it happily participates in. The perfect example of this abhorrent cultural ideology is the existence of poor Petey… We have seen NOTHING like that come from Endtown’s ideals, even at their worst…

Since, less than an hour before, this “cute” koala was a proactive member in this hideous Topsider sham of a “culture”, I’m afraid that I am unmoved by her tear-filled pleas, ESPECIALLY if her baby has even the slightest chance of becoming yet another follower of the horrific culture of the Topsiders, like its mother…

Ha ha! It took me a second to realize your comment was directed at Time Traveler…