Endtown by Aaron Neathery for April 19, 2012

By the looks of it, Marx isn’t too keen on Wally’s plan.

That is definitely NOT the reason he exposed these to you. Wally, you are doing this all wrong!!! Holly, correct him!!! Make him understand that all this occured as a lesson. From the expression on her face, I wonder if she gets it all either?And then he says " and why stop there.!! Extension of a usless war is not the way to win it. Found an interesting mag today. Mind Floss. It talks about the civil war army required to wear metal armor, and carry pikes, because previous armys did. It immediately struck me that here was a useless method of war. Proven. Why extend it? Come on AM I would have expected this response from Flask, not Wally, not the grin on Holly’s face. I am wondering if all the “jokes” he showed that dittos can do has not hit the right celebreal spot on the two.Blessed Be

i doubt wally meant to use dittos as a weapon it would be out of character for him

but about the turning the endtowners invis when they go out foraging is something we all thought it could happen

now we are about to find out why it wont

I don’t think what Wally’s suggesting to Holly is what Aaron Marx had in mind at all. Has Wally totally forgotten what he just revisited? And how does he figure AM will do HIS bidding? Wrong buttons to be pushing, Wally…

Well, folks.. The time has come.. The first two Endtown collections are now available for pre-order from Jarlidium Press! Until midnight of May 1st, you can order both books together for only $18 plus shipping.. I’ll be posting details about how to get signed bookplates within the next couple of days.. Stay tooned, gang..

http://www.jarlidium.com/preorder.html

PS: Good sales = Future Endtown Collections.. :-)

.. and, as always:

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. :-)PS: Original art is still for sale. Contact me at aaronneathery@gmail.com for details

Easy answers, easy favors… You can’t play the game if no one will explain the rules to you.

Over the weekend I happened to do some digging to learn about Aaron Marx. Under the Endtown Wikipedia entry Aaron Marx is sort of Aaron Neathery’s Tom Bombadil from Tolkien. Having been the mid-70s since I read The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion(sp?), I had to dig a bit. Now that I remember him, he was the only one the “Ring to Bind the All” could not effect, for various speculative reasons.

If he were based on Tom, he could have control over nature, bringing up some unpleasant commercials about shower mold and other molds, yeasts and bacteria and a connection between those cartoon critters and the dittoes.

AMarx’s calling the dittoball “My Precioussssss, yessssss” may be just a tip of the hat to Tolkien. But in Panel3 he is shown walking off after Wally suggests using the for defensive weapons purposes. “And why stop there” suggests weaponising dittoes, and AMarx looks disinterested at best.

In retrospective, AMarx does serve a similar purpose to Tom B. He provides unexpected explanations, sort of a Literary Deus ex Machina, which in Greek Plays, was sometimes lowered to the stage using levers, pulleys and string, who also tied up all the loose threads. Interesting.I am working my way through Albert at Aaronneathery.com, which is good, so maybe other newbies may wish to read the comics until the books come out. Al, Gustine, Aaron Marx and his wife Melody are introduced, as well as Sparkplug Sanderson, the World’s greatest scientist who happens to be a High School shop teacher.

ever since i first saw AM, i suspected he may have been timelord-inspired. he even sorta looks a bit like bits and pieces of several of the doctor’s incarnations.

@Dirtyoldlady1 : One of the truisms of war is that every army, on starting the next war, is trained and equipped to fight the last war. Hence the Polish Cavalry of 1939. One thing about a pole arm or a machete is that it doesn’t need reloading, though

Wally’s deliberately taking things too far to get Marx wound up.

I seriously doubt Wally’s train of thought is headed toward weaponizing dittos. As was pointed out, it is totally out of character and would completely invalidate what we just witnessed. I sense AM’s look in the last panel has more to do with his attitude toward the dittos (“my preciousssss”) than with Wally’s intentions. Do his powers of persuasion extend to all dittos, or are the one’s in this ball a highly trained group of “pets” that he would not be willing to part with? Tomorrow’s yet another Friday…..

I would wager Wally’s idea might be to utilize the dittos to conceal mutant activities aside from foraging, say farming for instance. The question I would have though is about sound. We know the dittos don’t produce any, but would they be able to conceal noises as well as appearances from passers by?

I agree with Coyoty! Wally is playing with AMs mind now. A mind game for a mind game!!

I’ll bet AM is thinking, “She just said they need to figure it out for themselves. Now they want my pets to fix it for them? They really don’t get it.”

Deception to avoid a fight Does not seem a weapon use Wally’s idea: Keep out of sight Avoid Topsider abuse We know he’s not inclined to kill The Topsiders (those fools) don’t care He’s using engineering skill And dittos here are tools. That’s fair. =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum And don’t forget to vote for both For Ursa Major awards!

Are you implying some sort of “Prime Directive”? Even the Federation only adhered to that as long as it was in their own best interest. AM does what he wants, when he wants to. Fortunately for our heros, he doesn’t seem to have a malicious bone in his body. Even his attitude toward the TSers was mostly one of amusement. Call him a “kinder, gentler” Q, if you will. (Disclaimer: I freely acknowledge at this point, that my understanding of that particular TNG character is somewhat sketchy. Being a devoted TOS junkie I was one of those who initially thought TNG to be heresy of the highest order and only came to an appreciation of it’s quality after the show ended. So please, TNG enthusiasts, if I am way off base, I beg your indulgence and forgiveness as a heel dragging convert who came late to the party!) ;-)

Not going to happen. AM looks as if he’s really against the idea.

For anyone interested in ordering more than ONE copy of the Endtown books, use the Contact option to email Jarlidium. He’s very willing to work out a rate for you. I got a buddy that I think would like the strips but doesn’t like reading comics online (WTF?!) so he’s getting the books as a gift. I’m really excited about these! Been holding off rereading from the start so I can kick back and enjoy the whole story in glorious hardcover! Yay!

I absolutely agree! Which is why I’m so happy that we will soon be graced with Endtown in a physical form!

Only trouble Wally is no matter how logical your plan is, your dealing with a raving lunatic.

@BronksterI love the look and feel of a good book as well, I own hundreds. I also read in bed – with my Kindle Fire or iPad.Ebooks are just so convenient.By the way, I have an indulgent wife.

greed, right?

Whether Aaron Marx will agree with Wally’s idea remains to be seen, still using deception via the dittos to avoid needless abuse from the Topsiders is a sensible idea. That’s what I like about reading the comments for this comic strip, we like to guess what’ll happen next in the Endtown story. Still, I leave it up to Aaron Neathery to tell the story.

Nice Gollum reference.