Endtown by Aaron Neathery for February 06, 2012

Video monsters

Yes!

Also, First!

HOPE!

Ya know, I had a suspicion this was going to be part of it. I think this means good news for Wally and Holly! Yay!

dittos to the resuce nice!

im sure someone mentioned ttheyll show up days ago

if they are here does it mean sparplug is here too?

Ok, we know about such monsters, but in a sense, what is that? The general/usual monster has only one mouth. Is that the result of cracked doggie cases?And Flask gets arrested not disintegrated on sight?

Well, I was second, but at least I called the dittos’ involvement, (among others who did likewise, I won’t take sole credit :)

remember the topsiders wanted flask alive

dittos are countless little monsters able to read people minds and create copies or whatever they want (using what they learn by mind reading)

The dittos are clever They’re mind-readers, too Old Sparkplug could never Tell when they were through Tormenting his living With macabre dance Are these pixels giving The good guys a chance? =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum

Congrats TSOJ! I think maybe I will take you up on those lottery picks! YEE HAW!

It’s DITTO TIME!

Never thought I’d be so happy to see the Dittos again! There may well be a brightening ray of hope after all.

was he the one who predicted the dittos comming?

I still don’t know why, but at this point, who cares!

“The cat and mouse that live in my head will thank you. " has not been seen lately. Reminds me of Nat. Lampoon’s ‘buy this issue or we will shoot this dog’ cover. Next issue had report of the dead dog — after all someone somewhere did not buy that issue.And Linda has not been answering questions. And most of the tension in that direction has gone through most of the denial phase.

Next best thing to old Harry’s cloak!

And now we can realize That views from within Can be just for eyes In the transporter’s skin For dittos may cover The glass with mirage Outside could be different You might see three … dodge So where are the hiding We shortly will learn Topsider’s deciding He’ll have a bad turn But this implication That dittos are aiding… Some implementation Of communicating? =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum

i think the dittos were trying to ‘talk’ to sparkplug and didnt want to harm him

and even saved his life later

Now, can you tell me why the Topsiders couldn’t see Flask and Wally’s WTF? And what the key element was that required Petey and Wally-Holly-Linda to all go down at roughly the same time?

So… does this mean Al and Gustine are leading the rescue party, or did these critters extend their territory since last we saw them?

This creates an interesting question: We know that personal transporters freak out when dittos get inside of them. There is no freakout here.

Did the Topsiders surround a trap?

I love these guys. If I ever get a flexible thin-film video screen, I’m going to sew it onto my shirt and walk around with animated dittos on myself.

they cant see them because the dittos are probably all over their bodies hiding them

Dittos! To be honest, I was waiting for that or either Prof. Mallard with some kind of sudden gadget to save the day.

do you think the dittos will be used to show everyone flask past? it would make sense because i doubt she well talk anyone about it

Well, I knew we would all be here early!30 posts in 15 minutes!( ok, I’m done with numbers now)Vote and send feedback to GoComics ( link on homepage)

i wonder if anyone else thinks that the living pixels somewhat resemble the Replicators of Stargate. Did they absorb Sparkplug’s memory and intelligence? He seemed remorseful when he let go of the rope and was swallowed up by them..

Off to bed for a few hrs. There will probably be over 100 comments by the time I get back. Enjoy!

So where’s the “real” Flask? Or was she a ditto all along?

I for one am so relieved. After all, Mr Neathery has shown in the past that he will kill likable characters if it furthers the plot. I was just reeeeaaaallllyy hoping that was not the case this time.

oh thank god! So worried over the weekend… but where did the dittos come from? Was that what she saw? a cloud of dittos?

You know, I think there’s a reason Petey called the dittos vermin, something tells me that they have something against the topsiders…and they programmed their vehicles to usually take care of it. Makes you wonder why the transporter right now isn’t responding to this, doesn’t it? And oh, that Topsider may have a mask, but you can still FEEL his utter terror, methinks we found the one enemy that the topsiders feel legitimately threatened by.

THANKS, MISTER NEATHERY, by Jenner, to the tune “Thanks for the memory” by Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin.As initially performed by Bob Hope and Shirley RossThanks, Mister Neathery,For stolen heart and brain,Poetry and painAnd sunny sky and shining sand when all we had was rain.How lovely it wasThanks, Mister Neathery,That little wind-up gunAnd monsters on the run.The plague of funny animals mutating everyone.How crazy it was.Many a humorous chapterAnd many a harrowing caper.But, shucks, they’re all just lines on paper.A phoney deal. Not really real.Thanks, Mister Neathery,Romance that wouldn’t quit,A ring that wouldn’t fit,A rhino on a gondola. We wondered where she’d sit.How lovely it was.Thanks, Mister Neathery,For streets of silent dreams,A stadium of screams,A tractor motor spouting out disintegrating beams.How spooky that was.Thanks, Mister Neathery,Fianceé with a hide, A city on its side,A paramour who struggled for her ‘til the day he died…(She brought him back.) (Yes, that was beautiful.)We got so het up about ’emThat somebody started a forum.Apparently, now there’s a quorum.Who cares but us? Well, someone does.Thanks, Mister Neathery,For cat and mouse delight,Revival rally fight,Her sitting guard upon the ward and by his side all night.How lovely that was.Thanks, Mister Neathery,The giant elastic sling,The suitcase and the sting,A frantic swim to save the crim who’d just lost everything.I thank you so much.Thanks, Mister Neathery,A rocket to destroy,A dupe and a decoy.The captain’s plot she never got to properly enjoy.I thank you so much.We said goodbye to our heroes,All laughing and crying like Pierrots.It clocked up a one and two zeroes.Of things to say? Yes, every day.(Thanks, Mist…)I wish they weren’t all gone.But things, well, they move on.And so we must, unless I’m just ridiculously wrong…(It’s been great.) (Wait, lets… wait.)(Thank you, Aaron.) (Thank you.)(… in anticipation)

Ha! Psyche!

innnnnterestink!

A-ha! As many suspected……

But DAMN am I glad to see this. Oh yah.

There were two people in the party who knew about the dittos: Petey and Flask. Petey encountered them first-hand, and Flask only knew of them from Al and Gustine’s reports. Flask looked totally surprised by their arrival, so I’m assuming Petey managed to dump the mutts and scoot over to Sparkplug’s neighborhood to get the dittos’ help.

Since the ditos display whatever image they desire, a person, or group of people, could be surrounded by a cylinder of dittos and be completely invisible to anyone nearby. Essentially an Endtown Cloak of Invisibility.

So. Flask, Wally, Holly, and Linda are still hiding in the back of the Transporter, right? No-one has been killed at all, right? Except maybe Petey, but I think he can be repaired.

I stayed up till 11:00 last night and gave it up. When I got here at 5:00 this morning there were already 46 comments. And I came here first instead of reading Annie, like I usually do. That shows how this story has really captivated us.

Oh boy, there’s a nightmare and a half.

Although a cloak wouldn’t cover tracks… Those would have to be dealt with seperately.

So, at what point did the ditti take over?Just after Wally’s WTF exclamation?

the dittos can make the topsiders kill each other too by making them to look like mutants

Well, i guess the nightmare’s pretty much over. We’re starting a new week. Hmmm, think I’ll go to breakfast. Have a good week all.Oh BTW, Aaron, thanks so much. You hung us over the edge, but never let go. I’ll be glad to see the cat and mouse again….just to be sure. Wow, that was great!

I’ve never found scary eyes and teeth so reassuring!

I honestly couldn’t think of any way out. I discounted the dittos for two reasons: They hadn’t been mentioned since the Al & Gustine story, and so awareness of what they are hadn’t been ‘set up’ for newer readers: there was a risk they would look like an invented-on-the-spot plot device. Also, Wally and co were prepared to run outside, guns blazing, and that’s what they did. To have come up with a sneaky subterfuge would have been a sudden change in direction of their intentions. However, having said that, I am cataloguing my own weakness and none on the part of the writer. Bringing in the dittos in this way opens so many new permutations in this showdown. Are they friendly, or even cooperative. Do they have an agenda to side with the mutants? Can they kill of their own accord, or just mislead? Did they take the initiative and tell our heroes what they planned to do? Did they ‘invisibility cloak’ Wally, Holly, Linda and Flask, who are now just silently standing in the corner?Have they likewise helped the other mutant strike teams that we had given up for dead? Will they continue to help the mutants? Will they provide a permanent background noise of dummy mutants wandering back and forth over the desert, thereby totally and permanently confusing the hell out the Topsider surveillances of all kinds?Whoa! This has gone from zero to hero in a day. Aaron, I never doubted you for a minute!

I stil fear for Petey. It’s not as plausible that the body flying through the sky to their rescue before being shot down was a replica as well. Somehow, if the rest of the crew are saved and he (Flask’s father? husband?) dies before we get to know him, I’d find that profoundly sad, notwithstanding the sadness we’ve endured in the past weeks.

Dare we hope that Wally, Holly (and even Linda) still live?

Sadly, I think Petey is kaput no matter what. :(

I agree, Petey was a victim of the Dittos’ subterfuge. :( Joy in sadness, sadness in joy… and SO MUCH to explain still.

By the way, who’s new to the dittos? :)

WWWWHAAAAAAA?

Sweet!!!! I have been hoping beyond hope that the dittos would make an appearance.

suddenly my heart feels lighter with hope

Huge, huge SIGHHHH of relief! Giddiness! Anticipation for the TS comeuppance!

but wait: don’t the PTs clean themselves of things like that?

Panel 4 is just so cool.Dittos look vicious, but I think it’s just a form of mimicry.

DITOS! WOW! thank goodnes! WOW!

I suspect that the dittos have set up some sort of partition to separate the TS crew from our heroes, but to what end?The dittos seem to have a crude hive intelligence. If they have been evolving by absorbing the minds of those they trapped, then they probably have been consuming the subterranean sand monsters that got too close to Hillside. That level of awareness would have been sufficient for their own self-protection. They will become much more dangerous if they have absorbed Sparkplug’s knowledge and abilities. Then the question becomes their susceptibility to moral reasoning. That concern begs the question of how the dittos came to be, and both their innate and evolutionary capabilities.Even if the TS crew is annihilated, our heroes could still be in trouble.I suspect these concepts will be worked into the plot lines somehow, and the story will continue to be quite a ride.

Hmm, dittos remind me of Gibbering Mouthers (a monster in D&D). . .in appearance anyway. They apparently don’t make the mind numbing cacophony however. Anyway, cheers to the dittos. Can’t wait for the TSers to get what’s coming to them.

I don’t remember the dittos actually communicating with anybody in the Al and Gustine arc. Am I forgetting some bit of important information? If they don’t communicate directly, how did our heroes know in a minute (maybe two) of story time that the dittos were friendly or at least trying to be helpful by shielding them? Flask appeared rather out of it before Wally’s preparation to make a run for it and the ditto intervention. So even if she had somehow formed that intel from Al and Gustine’s interrogations, she probably wouldn’t have been capable of passing it on. And there was no need to pass it on before the arrival of the dittos. Have I or we missed a communication capability on the part of the dittos?

While I am also relieved to see the dittos, past experience has taught me to remain cautiously optimistic. The fact that this manifestation of Flask was a ditto doesn’t necessarily mean our heroes are all alive nor that they will remain so. (I certainly hope they will, but I’m avoiding getting too emotionally involved this time.)

I still have to wonder why this new transport hasn’t reacted the same way to the dittos that Petey did. (His reaction was quite involuntary. Could it be that this new transport is (currently) just a mass of dittos as well?)

As far as what Wally and Flask saw, might we surmise it was something like cracks in the sky?

Are the dittos here to help the mutants? Are they a third enemy just here to stir up trouble for both sides? Has there been communication with them? or do they just “sense” some need to intervene? The dittos seemed quite antagonistic at Hillside. Are they still so? Are these the same type of dittos? or is this some sort of Ditto Nest 2.0 ala Mallard? (That would be kind of cool — Mallard with homemade Endtown-controlled dittos!) Did everything at Hillside get destroyed, or is there more there than meets the eye?

What Is this?? Did some little monsters consumer her? Are they friends of mutants? Or did she just come down with a disease?? I’ve never seen anything like This.

They’re back! Man, I completely forgot about them!

Shoggie! So the Video Shoggoth’s have possessed her. Now here’s a backstory we need to see.

What are dittos? Are they good or bad? I haven’t heard about them, except these few recent references. I’ve been following this for about 14 months.

The entire Endtown saga is available at the Calendar link above the strip.

thank you Bill, for the help! I will go back to that link. Oh if only I didn’t have to do other things today! It is so helpful to have a spot to go back to. One time I went back 6 months hoping to find out more, and that wasn’t back far enough. I don’t remember what I had looked for now.

For those curious about dittos, see Jul 20. 2009 through Aug 28, 2009 (Al & Gustine discover dittos), Jan 4, 2010 through Mar 1, 2010 (dittos tell Sparky’s story), and Jun 30, 2010 through Jul 7 2010 (escape from the dittos).

My word, Flask…! What interesting inner demons you have.

I knew it was the dittos. I guessed it few days ago.

I said I was done with numbers but103 comments by lunch has to be a record!!

The whole story is archived here and starts in Jan 2009. PT is capable of self decontamination but the function is not automatic. I got the impression that Petey had a bit of a phobia when it came to “vermin”. The process was designed “it would seem” to eliminate mutagens during the docking procedure (as we saw in this arc). He recognized Gustine as a mutant but responded to her as a person. A bit of a flaw in the TS practice of using human brains in their technology ( individuality vs standardization). Al is one of the few who are immune to the mutagens.

some people are just immune to the mutagen (of course, that counts as a mutation, in the topsider’s book, so they’re in with the mutants as well) and as for why the PTs don’t sterilize themselves of the mutants, is probably because of the mutant brains they handle on a regular basis, as well as the fact that some of the PTs don’t seem to be equipped with the portable brain-remover that this particular one has, so prisoners must be taken to other locations for their brains to be harvested.

Hey all, I posted a request for original art info on Endtown Underground. Aaron replied this a.m. and gave a price/specifics for how he’s selling his stuff. As I expected, it’s very reasonable for what you’re getting. Take a look if you’re interested. . .just look for the post on Topside under the name Finder. Looks like I’ll be lightening my wallet this evening.

You know, Linda was sending a blaster beacon straight up while stunned before her mutation. This could have been what the dittos homed in on.

It would be nice to find out that the diitos took the side of our heroes and came to their rescue when they found out about Holly’s act of compassion towards Sandy the frightened little underground monster-girl. Maybe they’re just waiting to find someone worthy to support.

This was the only thing I could think of that could have saved this strip. The only thing I could imagine that could have descended from the sky that they had ‘noticed’… and thankfully I was right. I was about to remove this strip from my reading if it had been otherwise… but I do wonder how the Dittos managed to properly emulate a disintegration beam hitting Heroes instead of Dittos.

Ah, the old ditto/hologram while we scram, trick. Works every time.

When Flask shot the mutts in the fake rocket control center their bodies remained intact but the brains within were cooked. Alas, I fear Petey may have met this same fate.As for the dittos and how they got there, I wonder if Sparkplug may be making an entrance into this arc? Perhaps he made peace with the dittos that were tormenting him? And if so, I wonder if he is somehow connected to the pre-apocalypse Flask?

Can barely wait ’til tomorrow!Again! happy

Egad! Them’s a lot of comments! Lots more to come, folks.. Lots more.. And Jan, although I like the idea, let’s hold off on the digital collection for now. I’ve just spent the past several weeks working on artwork and tweaking files for the two Endtown volumes due out from Jarlidium Press in a couple of months. They’ll be available on Amazon and elsewhere (including Anthrocon, where I’ll be signing copies). If sales are good, there will be more to follow.. Hang tight, gang..

Aaron Neathery, on behalf of all the readers of Endtown, I’d just like to say that you, sir, are a complete, total and utter legend.

Oh my Gawd they where all Dittos!!!???

Showtime!

The last comic strip that held my interest like ‘Endtown’ was the late Milton Caniff’s ‘Steve Canyon’. Bravo, Aaron Neathery!

…once again,I can’t wait until tomorrow..

Aha! Of course! I can see now why the transporter didn’t clear all the dittos out of its system, as Petey did long ago (when he imself was a transporter). The Topsider army was closing in. Wally, Holly and Linda were preparing to charge out to their inevitable deaths, while Flask was catatonic. Suddenly, the dittos appeared, cloaked the entire transporter (explaining somehow what they were doing) and gave it the chance to drive away invisbly. They also created the illusion of an entire transporter, complete with the mutant crew, and left it parked there. So, the transporter itself is a ditto construct, as are/were the apparent Wally, Holly, Linda and Flask. Yes, that works. No last moment re-planning of tactics as they were about to rush out of the door, no arguments, no flashes of inspiration. They were just given the chance to go invisible and put their foot to the floor. The dittos did the rest of the decoy work, as they do best.That is sheer, bloody brilliance. Genius, but also so obvious once it’s explained.Unfortunately, it doesn’t sufficiently reassure me that the robot Petey who got shot wasn’t the REAL robot Petey.

Now this makes more sense. I didn’t think Wally was that poor of a shot.And as previously noted – I find it hard to believe that the topsiders were that good of a shot. – considering previous shoot outs. I didn’t consider dittos – since previously they seemed adverse to everyone. Perhaps some have been riding with Petey since he ran through them when he was a transport and decided that mutants weren’t all bad. Or the topsiders have just made themselves as special enemy to Dittos. Old saying- if you are an enemy of our enemy, we will tolerate and help you for now.

Told you guys Aaron hadn’t written himself into a corner.

Me thinks the mystery is a foot!!

Dittos are creepy enough on their own, but dittos in the shape of Flask – THAT’S scary!

Vote Endtown

Vote Doc Rat

I never would have imagined THAT!!!

I’ve never been so happy to see cronenbergian horrors.

YES!!! They’re freaking alive!!!!!!!