Endtown by Aaron Neathery for March 17, 2017

Whoah! This is getting weiiiird! There are some things we weren’t meant to imagine!

Looks like they been making bacon!!! She thinks being a pig is rough……how about worm guy……Right now Walt is a bare bear while Portia is a poked porker.

Makes me wonder… The ship Fitzgerald’s AI said there was no mutagenic virus. What if the plague was more of a hypnotic one or even one more on a psychic level. Forcing the viewer to see that persons persona, their inner self, or something along that nature.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course

Or would you rather be a pig?

So we think we know that it isn’t a virus. I’m not sure that it could be something internal either. Wouldn’t we have run into someone who didn’t see what others were seeing if that was the case. Individuals are being seen as the same form (animal) consistently. I’m a bit more inclined to think that it has something to do with the dittos and something that they are doing. Not that it works out with that theory either. Dittos don’t seem to be able to change someone’s size. I guess if they can hide things from view they could alter the perception of where someone was reaching or touching as well but it seems a bit of a stretch (no pun intended).

Walt’s a bear for punishment.

If having an animal form is an illusion, what about the lizards and the eggs they laid, ate and sometimes hatched? Where did the milk and eggs come from to make the cake that started the trial? Those could have all been illusions as well, similar to the Holly sequences where Wally and crew thought they ate. Maybe it’s the Matrix and they’re all hooked up to machines and providing power for something or someone. OR the ship (Marx) was just messing with us since he’s one who told the story to the kids we don’t really know if any of that happened to Wally and Holly.

All I know is… This is the start of something good.

@WTFRANK: Other than Doc, Holly’s adopted father (or something like that), how do we know that Wally and/or Holly ever existed at all?

@MICHAEL WALDEN: How do we know that Marx sees them as animals? (In answer to, “Wouldn’t we have run into someone who didn’t see what others were seeing…”)

In a way, I’m thinking that the “revelation” that there is no mutagenic virus kind of blows this whole strip apart. That people have changed in appearance (and sometimes behavior) into animals has continued, but taken away is the vehicle by which we were originally told it happened. This is a cartoon, so conformity with the basic laws of science and physics is, of course, optional. But for now, we no longer have any rules of science or physics, cartoon or otherwise.

Other than destruction of evidence (cleaning up Portia’s apartment after the vandalism), we just don’t seem to be seeing much of whoever is supposed to be the villain in this series. Which kind of makes me wonder, what is the point of this series? Interracial marriage (via interspecies marriage), or something like that? It’s getting kind of difficult to see where Aaron is going with this story.

This is getting very personal. 50 shades of pink, Portia?

Body shaming is murder.

Pigs are very close to humans in many ways. Strangely they are in ways that the apes are not. Though who would want hooves for hands?

She made a decision to accept her body, and wants Walt to help her not just accept it, but embrace it. Like Jackrabbit has been trying to convince people to do. The phone calls may have been coming from Jackrabbit’s people, browbeating her to be a pig, not a human. Those who did not accept their pigness may have schismed, because being a pig is harder to accept than other animal times. Instead of being hateful, the graffiti and harassment could be intended to be tough love, a form of species conversion therapy.

It isn´t how you look that is an issue but how you act. She may look like a pig, but that doesn´t make her one.

I miss the topsiders. This has been like rowing a boat with one oar.

Let’s see if I can remember everything I wanted to say!

THREE STEPS OVER JAPAN Amen, and Amen!

I’m going to admit that the change being caused by a virus was my thought because of how viruses affect the cells into changing what they are to DNA factories for the viruses. My reasoning being that the original intent was to probably make animals into soldiers and the experiments were first used on rats. The virus somehow got out and into the local animal population, then into the human population. The DNA from the animals mixed with the humans and the result was what we have now. Unfortunately, the human mind gets very upset with changes, even expected ones (remember when puberty first hit?). the result of that being the monsters that many became.

Here’s another possibility:

It is a side effect of the Amesworth radiation. In very small exposure, the bodies of the inhabitants of Endtown Earth mutate. Because of some difference in DNA or chemical makeup, the ones from different universes aren’t affected, or the background radiation is so low, their difference doesn’t cause the mutation except in the native population. The “cure” sparkplug created may simply been a type of mineral supplement.

Walt and Portia — a moment of kindness and respect amid a sea of turmoil. A person wants to protect those two. Good job, Mr Neathery. Your story is important.

I no sooner sat down to write comments when I was interrupted for several hours. Oh, well, try, try again.

THREE STEPS OVER JAPAN: Amen and amen! This has reference to your comment that “Body shaming is murder.” And no greater example has to be some of the “pig” jokes found in many comments since this arc began.

Tue Elung-Jensen: “She may look like a pig, but that doesn´t make her one.” I like the sentiment, but part of “body shaming” is that he/she/we are “offended” by the sight of a “pig.” Still, I think your heart is in the right place.

COYOTY: “She made a decision to accept her body, and wants Walt to help her not just accept it, but embrace it.” The best comment in reference to this situation, in my opinion. I note, however, that you note that this was Jack Rabbit’s message, which may be how and why some of the “animals” have become villains in this arc, i.e., the “wolves,” if they are the ones terrorizing the pigs.

By having chosen “pigs” as the victims in this arc, Neathery has exposed the terror and horror that fat people face in this society. My only question remains: Did Aaron go there wittingly or unwittingly?

MXY: “I miss the topsiders. This has been like rowing a boat with one oar.” I agree. About two years ago, about midway in the previous arc (which ended just before Christmas), I thought Neathery was going to give us a better look at the topsiders in the Sarah and Jim subplot. However, in a relatively short time, he allowed both to become villains even though they had voluntarily given up their human form and had joined Wally and Holly.

Granted, Jim became a villain due to a mental illness commonly referred to in this strip as “schism syndrome”; however, at no point was Sarah anything other than a villain.

Which is why, at this point in the current arc, I am disappointed: We didn’t get a look at what makes topsiders “tick”; moreover, we didn’t learn as to whether there are topsiders who are “good guys” simply trapped in a very bad world of their own. To this day, all we know is that those who remain in human form are, as a rule, really bad people. My disappointment: Right now, it looks as if the animals are becoming just as bad as the topsiders.

To me, “rowing with one oar” has come to mean the general lack of anything good to look forward to, animal or human, in the general story line. We might have brief, touching moments, such as the budding romance between Wally and Kirbee, abruptly cut off by the end of that arc. This budding romance between bear and pig may well be abruptly cut off, as well.

That’s a risk we take by reading Endtown.

I think the intent is to give us a replacement for so abruptly stopping the Wally story.No-one expected THAT! It had been a great story line although it was sad that Holly just couldn’t adjust to the horrible turn of events with loosing her husband and baby. Since we realized that one of our favorites would not like be seen again, then just a few days were won’t be seeing Wally and family either, that was a big shock.So my opinion is that he felt obligated to make another cute couple to love.