YES!…. I was a little bit worried this would turn into a Mr and Mrs Smith esque shoot out against all odds ! My optimism is probably misplaced though, something else might be going on.
You know… I knew not everyone was getting out of this, or I doubted it, anyway. But I figured the loss would be Petey, Flask (even though she’s my favorite, I just figured she’d die in a blazing fight or in some final act of redemption) or maybe Linda. Never did I think it’d be Wally or Holly, much less both. So much for plot armor. ;O; Now please excuse me while I pick my heart back up off the ground.
Well either the writer wrote himself into a corner or what? Our heroes are dead, right? But at that point, what else could be expected? Now only Flask lives, and only for a moment, I suspect. And Endtown is likely in trouble. Not what we hoped for.
I have no idea where this is going. The only possible turnarounds I can think of involve Deus ex Machina style ret-conning and ‘it was all a dream’ scenarios, and both of those seem below the level storytelling on display so far. If it’s some kind of technological illusion, then I can’t think of a setup that allows the audience to think that was possible the way the world has been established..
If they really are dead in this continuity, then I’m struggling to understand what the whole controlling idea of the story is, and how their actual death serves that purpose. So far, I believed it was that love triumphs when grief and bitterness are abandoned. Not sure what comes next.
Wait, everybody. Sit down! Don’t leave the cinema yet!I know it seems ridiculous, but even if everybody else is gone, I’m still going to sit in the front row, with my bag of popcorn in my lap. I still trust Neathery. I do.He loves Wally, and he loves Holly, and he’s not too bad about Linda, too. For a hint that Linda is not dead, go to the Endtown Underground site. http://s4.zetaboards.com/Endtown/topic/9348385/1/If Linda lives, surely somehow Wally and Holly do.I still don’t know how it’s going to happen, but Aaron has promised that the Endtown story will continue. It’s gotta. It’s just gotta.
Now, one thing I keep hearing is that there’s still a lot more of Endtown’s story to tell (which seems to imply that Wally and Holly have to be alive for this). Don’t forget…the entire first arc of Endtown was about Al and Gustine. The story could very well continue as Endtown 3.0 with a different main cast.
I think I could be fine with the deaths of the leads, if I could see how that kind of event would serve the overall theme of the story. Someone mentioned Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and that is a true classic, but the theme of that film revolved around the leads spending their lives only ever running from the inevitable, never facing up to it, and the climax with their death made sense, because they finally faced it head on instead of running from it. That was the turning point, and so their death is acceptable. In Serenity, two of the cast regulars die in service to the motivation and resolution of the lead’s story arc, and to raise the stakes for the remainder of the cast, but there doesn’t seem to be a similar necessity for these characters to die in the service of this particular story, from what I can tell. The fact that they believed they were likely going to die would seem to be enough.
And I thought about the ditto creatures myself, but they haven’t been played up as as even a potential factor in this plotline so far, and I think it’s too late for them to be introduced as one now, especially given that of these characters, only Petey has been made aware of their presence.
This is a harsh reality show and Neathery isn’t out to pull punches. You are looking at the end of THIS story folks! We will be able to see what happens to Flask and Im sure It wouldn’t be a pretty picture . . . Why do you think its called “ENDtown”?
For certain there are many more good story reasons for leads to die, but looking back through what we do know, there was the one longing glance she gave the pair as they embraced almost as if she recognized something she once had that no longer is. Seeing that representation (in her mind) of her positive past relationship (possibly with Petey) vaporized doesn’t seem likely to inspire a change of heart, but to reinforce her current stance.
I keep scanning what we do know in my mind now, because whatever happens next has to be supported by what has already come to pass.
I don’t know, maybe it is the ditto creatures casting an illusion, and last Friday’s reaction shot was in response to a tidal wave of the bugs about to converge on the area.
Well…is it GOOP? Or is it disintegration?The best stories are those which are closest to Real Life. And the hard thing about Real Life is that you don’t always get a happy ending. We want to see characters survive and thrive in spite of overwhelming odds, but realistically they don’t always.There was a Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos story where the Nazis captured them and a bunch of other soldiers, lined them up in rows of four and proceeded to execute them, firing sqwuad style. The Howlers were in the back row and every single one of them survived, but none of the other soldiers did. TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE! Still, it might be goop. And we still don’t know what it was that Flask and Wally were looking up at on Friday.
@Aaron – this many comments this early and the general AAAAAGH over what would appear to be the “dusting” of a favourite pair of characters….Sir, it’s a tribute that you make ink and paper inspire such emotions – but PLEASE don’t disintegrate Hol & Wal….. ;-(
Well. That’s all I can find to say. I want to be angry, but I’ve no one to be angry at but myself. I got on this roller coaster and if I don’t like the ride, then the solution is simple, don’t ride it again. How someone can craft characters capable of capturing the heart of an audience to the degree that these have, and then just erase them like this is inconceivable to me. But then I’m a scientist, not a writer. Well played, Mr Neathery, we now understand that the envelope has no bounds. Short of a Dallas dream sequence, or Petey spinning time backwards a la Superman I, it seems our “friends” are gone. It’s your party Aaron, and it’s been an enjoyable one so far. But if today’s strip is the price of admission, I don’t think I can afford it much longer. This little flight of fantasy feels too much like real life right now. Until tomorrow, I suppose.
Congrats to Aaron on achieving high art by evoking so much emotion! Don’t forget that Aaron promised to explain Wally’s badge and the rest of his backstory. That would not be as effective if the character were dead.
I for one don’t know what to say…..just stunned. Wow. Nice job Aaron. Guess I’ll just keep the faith for now and wait to see how it comes out. I just hope that Aaron loves the cat and mouse in his head enough that they don’t go out in a blaze without any real glory.
Hang on to your hats, everybody. If there is anything that I have learned about Aaron since I started following Endtown, it is that Aaron LOVES a good storyline and REALLY LOVES a good cliff-hanger. We are just going to have to wait this one out to its conclusion.
You know, Friday is only three strips away. Aaron can certainly maintain the suspense that long. One day will probably be Petey’s reaction, one will be Flask’s reaction. We may have here the longest cliffhanger yet!
That definently looks like a new weapon, Z guns usually take out the target and anything behind the target. These hits aren’t going past the targets. The topsiders might take them alive to make Flask a little more coopertive, maybe, I don’t know…
Okay, now I really can’t wait to see where the writer takes this! All but two of the squad are gone by what appears to be a zero gun. But Wally and Flask looked outside in surprise before running outside, so all is not as it appears.
Excellent work. I only recently discovered this comic and I spent all weekend enjoying playing catch up.
Oh ye of little faith! If they’re gone they gone and we’re better off for reading about them. Weather here or gone, the story goes on. Aaron, ya had to enjoy reading all these comments!
The name of the strip is Endtown, not Wally & Holly. The world these characters live in is full of death, and it appears they died. Just as we moved on from Al and Gustine, we will move on from Wally & Holly. RIP
If it’s any joy from this, no doubt Allie (remember her?) is probably happy now that Wally has met his demise since sheblames him (which was the alcohol talking, not her) forthe lost of her three friends after Wally lost it and violently scratched her in that diner brawl a year (or two) ago. Butthen she’ll die from alcohol poisoning after hearing her best friend Holly bought the farm along with him (and end up joining them). Sorry if I painted a dark picture, Arron, but that’s how you like things like this to be….
Hey gang, whadda ya say we send good old Wally and Holly off to that big dustbin in the sky with a proper wake! We’re up to 80 comments and it’s still only 4pm Central US. We can make 100 easy. This revoltin’ development has brought most everyone out of the woodwork anyway, so why be content with half measures? Let’s start the COUNTDOWN to 100 comments! 20….
From what Aaron has written in his comments here and elsewhere, Holly and Wally are far too dear to his heart for them to be (pardon the expression) “dusted…”
The GOOD thing is that it’s only Tuesday, so we don’t have a nail-biting weekend to fret over until we see what happens next.
I will only add, that if there is any sense of triumph at the end of this arc that is as deep as the sense of loss here, I will jump out of my chair, fist-pump the air, while screaming “YES!”
As Dadof3 mentioned above, yes, it is true that I exchange emails with Aaron once a week. He refuses to give me spoilers regardless of how much I cry, plead or beg (which is a good thing, because now I have enough material for my editors on my “Crying, Pleading and Begging for Complete Dummies” book.Aaron had mentioned a while ago that GoComics rewards artists (a little bit) based on comment count. He then asked (what I had thought at the time was a rhetorical question) – “What do I have to do to break 100 comments, kill someone?”Just 14 more comments and you all will have hit the big time.
Wow. Just… wow. Wasn’t expecting this. I read this at 6:30AM Atlantic time this morning and can only now , at 7:30PM Atlantic time, bring myself to comment on it. I’ve been thinking about Holly & Wally all day, trying to imagine ways out of it. I just can’t. Once again I’d like to congratulate Aaron on his masterful storytelling – to make an imaginary mouse & cat have such a profound emotional impact on so many people (the comments here sound as though they refer to real death, not comic strip death) is just creative genius…
I just finished a first draft of a fantasy novel where I kill off a minor, but helpful, character during the Climax. My mom wailed when I told her. Now I know why…and these are not minor characters, but those we have become deeply invested in.Except, for my part, Flask.
That 100 comment remark was made completely tongue in cheek, as I have spent most of my day trying to come to grips with the fact that I was actually grieving the demise of two imaginary characters in a comic strip. Now you tell me it was all a publicity stunt! Look, I’ll gladly kick in 15 or 20 comments a day, just stop slashing the heart from your storyline!
There was something else we didn’t ask And for that, we’ll be taken to task From the Topsider’s jive They had wanted alive The not-currently-talkative Flask We know they’ve got high tech out the ears And that “ray” isn’t how death appears Since they planned to take Blackie Our gang (and their lackey) Still live, which should calm down our fears But that beam or that powerful squirt Came in fast, and it seems to have hurt They’re weren’t shot by the cat Angle’s too wrong for that But I don’t think they’re turned into dirt. =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum
If nothing else, today has exposed the full extent of the spectrum of feelings this unparalleled work has engendered. The sad part for me is the realization that participation has it’s price, and it would appear that I am very susceptable to the storytellers spell. If the best and brightest in this fascinating world are subject to instantaneous non-existence around any corner, then the price is too high for my emotional budget. That just mirrors reality a bit too much. Reality is all around us. I come here to get away from that, if only momentarily. I was quite frankly shocked by how much today’s strip affected me. In a way it was much like an auto accident, you don’t want to see carnage, but you can’t help but look anyway.
Well I expect that I will get up tonight and find out what next. Almost the best for Endtown that could happen is that the rocket is returning and wipes out the command center. Wally might be firing disabling shots, the endtowners will not.
This story is affecting me, too, quite profoundly. I simply cannot see where this is going to go, but I can ASSURE everyone that it’s going to turn out better than it looks, at the moment. But be warned: the glimmer of hope is unlikely to happen this week. Friday is still probably going to be a soul-testing cliff-hanger.As with Three Steps, I correspond directly with Aaron Neathery on an infrequent basis, when both he and I can find the time. And as with Three Steps, I am told almost nothing about the future. But I am told broad movements, and one thing Mr Neathery stressed is that things will not turn out as badly as they seem. (Admittedly, he DID say that to me before he had his three main characters apparently gunned down in cold blood.) And in fact, I have strongly pleaded with him NOT to give me any spoilers. All I needed to know from him is what I know now: it is worth holding on. That’s all I need. Neathery says none of us will be betrayed.No spoilers. Once spoiled, the magic can never be re-made. Because the best frame of mind to experince this is one of ignorace. Take it as it happens, no more, no less. As much as this story is causing me distress, I see myself, indeed all of us, as existing in a special moment in history. It will be talked about, for years to come: The Endtown Crisis,or whatever fans in the future will call it. We readers are part of a select, privileged group who AT THIS VERY POINT OF TIME are enduring the exquisite agony of total doubt weighed against total faith, in the absence of any foreknowledge other than the soothing message from its creator that optimism will be repaid.No reader of Endtown in the future will ever experience the full piquancy of the uncertainty that we are braving this week. Younger fans, later on, will ask us what it was like to see the characters die and not know, REALLY not know, what was going to happen next. After us, no-one will ever have the bitterness and the sweetness of this present-centered moment that will live in out memory and in history.Mr Neathery is about to accomplish something not just clever, not just amazing, but legendary. I have no idea what. Literally, I cannot conceive of the solution, try as I may. With all of our collective thoughts, none of us can. Mr Neathery – if he delivers on this mammoth promise, and I can only take it by his track record that he will – will create an event in the history of comics of the 21st century that will be an occasion of legend. You and I, my friends, the daily readers, the dogged followers, the five-past-the-hour refreshers, will be able to say: “I was there. You know The Endtown Crisis? Well, I was there, reading it when it happened. None of us knew what to do. We didn’t even know what to say. and then, when it finally turned out that [XXXXX happened], well it was so awesome that… we’ve never seen anything like it. and we probably never will again!” Yes, thank you one and all, my talkative fellow travellers on this long road to the legend: It IS worth it. Just a few more steps. Hold the faith. Push through the pain. Swallow the bitterness. Remember History. Remember Legend. Remember the days we but no-one else will have. Keep reading Endtown, and have faith.One more thing, just one. Aaorn Neathery is not made of stone. For what is happening to Wally, Holly, Linda, Petey and even Flask, if the emotion is hurting us, you can be sure it has hurt him even more. Whatever distress we are feeling, take it, double it and that’s what the writer/artist dosed himself with in order to create this tale for us. Sometimes a medicine is severe. If Neathery says the pain was worth it in the end, then please take it from someone who categorically is in the position to know.These are amzing times. Awesome times. Legendary times.
If there was such a thing as a reintergration ray, it would have been used to bring back the rest of civilization. And I suspect, that alive or not, Linda is counted as effectively killed by mutants, making those mutants liable criminally for her death.
Looking at panel 2 again I see an accumulation of material beside and engulfing Kowalinda. This MUST be a capture material. 1-1/2 hours to go. Won’t sleep before midnight posting!
The Topsiders wanted Flask alive, so they can torture her for information on how to locate and wipe out Endtown. Maybe the guns are set on stun, so that the mutants can be immobilised, while they have their brains cut out. But the Topsiders won’t get to cut out the brains if the crashing rocket lands on them all first.No, it still doesn’t work. I’ll keep thinking.
Whew, I can’t believe how many comments exploded on this page today haha! It’s quite a testament to how powerful today’s strip was. I know there’s been a lot of hysteria over the (possible) deaths of Wally and Holly (and boy did my heart drop as well). But regardless of how it goes, and I know some of you disagree, one thing I do like about Endtown is the fact that the threat of death/loss is real. Characters can die and the heroes can lose. What I mean is that I’ve watched/read stories where you just know that no main character is ever going to die and everyone will win 100% in the end. For stories directed at younger viewers, that’s fine. However, in a story that is supposed to be serious, it weakens the sense of danger to the point that you can’t really take the villains seriously as a threat. There was a series I’ve read where you’d have everything you need in a death scene without the actual death (some deus ex machina would save the day, or it’d be just a dream, etc.) and once that’s been done a few times, then I stop taking that story seriously and the sense of danger is gone. It becomes Adam West’s Batman where the heroes are tied up over a giant pot of acid but we all know it’s not a matter of “if” they’ll get out of it, just “how”. For Endtown, even if Wally, Holly and Linda survive here somehow, I do get that sense of danger and attachment to the characters. The Topsiders are a serious threat, as is the threat of insanity within Endtown itself (Flask, Jackrabbit). The worry of “if” they’ll make it combined with the curiosity of “how” they’ll make it (because as much as I see this strip having a ‘sense of danger’, I also don’t see Endtown as being one of those ‘and then everyone died! The end!’ type of comics, either. I anticipate – and hope – that it won’t be a hoaky type of happy ending, but an optimistic ending nonetheless)
Oh no oh no don’t do that!1 they are main characters, I like Holly and Wally and even like Linda! The main characters don’t die! What did Linda and Wally see? Is the ground soft? maybe it blew them into the surface??
SapphireDragonStudios about 12 years ago
D:
Ida No about 12 years ago
And the gnashing of the teeth begins…
DarkDain about 12 years ago
YES!…. I was a little bit worried this would turn into a Mr and Mrs Smith esque shoot out against all odds ! My optimism is probably misplaced though, something else might be going on.
dirtyoldlady1 about 12 years ago
Goop? Is that what we get. Goop? Well I suppose it would keep them alive and brainy worth saving. HUH?Blessed BE
SapphireDragonStudios about 12 years ago
You know… I knew not everyone was getting out of this, or I doubted it, anyway. But I figured the loss would be Petey, Flask (even though she’s my favorite, I just figured she’d die in a blazing fight or in some final act of redemption) or maybe Linda. Never did I think it’d be Wally or Holly, much less both. So much for plot armor. ;O; Now please excuse me while I pick my heart back up off the ground.
OdderOtter about 12 years ago
Well either the writer wrote himself into a corner or what? Our heroes are dead, right? But at that point, what else could be expected? Now only Flask lives, and only for a moment, I suspect. And Endtown is likely in trouble. Not what we hoped for.
Bronkster Premium Member about 12 years ago
O.O I’m not sure what to say …
chireef about 12 years ago
maybe its a dream like when that J.R. guy from the TV show Dallas got shot
vburke about 12 years ago
“Into the valley of death rode the 600 …”
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
Captured, frozen, encased, GOOPED, NOT DEAD, anything but dead! Please, anything but dead.
PhycoKrusk about 12 years ago
Well! That was, um……http://bit.ly/wCdPIn
jerseycajun about 12 years ago
I have no idea where this is going. The only possible turnarounds I can think of involve Deus ex Machina style ret-conning and ‘it was all a dream’ scenarios, and both of those seem below the level storytelling on display so far. If it’s some kind of technological illusion, then I can’t think of a setup that allows the audience to think that was possible the way the world has been established..
If they really are dead in this continuity, then I’m struggling to understand what the whole controlling idea of the story is, and how their actual death serves that purpose. So far, I believed it was that love triumphs when grief and bitterness are abandoned. Not sure what comes next.
Jenner Premium Member about 12 years ago
Wait, everybody. Sit down! Don’t leave the cinema yet!I know it seems ridiculous, but even if everybody else is gone, I’m still going to sit in the front row, with my bag of popcorn in my lap. I still trust Neathery. I do.He loves Wally, and he loves Holly, and he’s not too bad about Linda, too. For a hint that Linda is not dead, go to the Endtown Underground site. http://s4.zetaboards.com/Endtown/topic/9348385/1/If Linda lives, surely somehow Wally and Holly do.I still don’t know how it’s going to happen, but Aaron has promised that the Endtown story will continue. It’s gotta. It’s just gotta.
farflungfloyd about 12 years ago
HOLY S#!T
SapphireDragonStudios about 12 years ago
Now, one thing I keep hearing is that there’s still a lot more of Endtown’s story to tell (which seems to imply that Wally and Holly have to be alive for this). Don’t forget…the entire first arc of Endtown was about Al and Gustine. The story could very well continue as Endtown 3.0 with a different main cast.
jerseycajun about 12 years ago
I think I could be fine with the deaths of the leads, if I could see how that kind of event would serve the overall theme of the story. Someone mentioned Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and that is a true classic, but the theme of that film revolved around the leads spending their lives only ever running from the inevitable, never facing up to it, and the climax with their death made sense, because they finally faced it head on instead of running from it. That was the turning point, and so their death is acceptable. In Serenity, two of the cast regulars die in service to the motivation and resolution of the lead’s story arc, and to raise the stakes for the remainder of the cast, but there doesn’t seem to be a similar necessity for these characters to die in the service of this particular story, from what I can tell. The fact that they believed they were likely going to die would seem to be enough.
And I thought about the ditto creatures myself, but they haven’t been played up as as even a potential factor in this plotline so far, and I think it’s too late for them to be introduced as one now, especially given that of these characters, only Petey has been made aware of their presence.
knudtzon about 12 years ago
This is a harsh reality show and Neathery isn’t out to pull punches. You are looking at the end of THIS story folks! We will be able to see what happens to Flask and Im sure It wouldn’t be a pretty picture . . . Why do you think its called “ENDtown”?
knudtzon about 12 years ago
Romeo & Juliet story . . .
GreyAcumen about 12 years ago
It’s not Friday. Ergo, a cliffhanger moment like my two favorite characters dying like that just isn’t going to happen.
RHJunior about 12 years ago
that begs the question:what were Wally and Flask looking at two days ago?Something VERY peculiar is going on that we haven’t seen yet.
spamster about 12 years ago
The only things I know of that could provide this effect without it being a reality are the nano video bugs from Sparky’s town
Rennjack about 12 years ago
Hopefully its a movement restricting goo or they have been stunned. I thought the TSs wanted to use their brains.
jerseycajun about 12 years ago
For certain there are many more good story reasons for leads to die, but looking back through what we do know, there was the one longing glance she gave the pair as they embraced almost as if she recognized something she once had that no longer is. Seeing that representation (in her mind) of her positive past relationship (possibly with Petey) vaporized doesn’t seem likely to inspire a change of heart, but to reinforce her current stance.
I keep scanning what we do know in my mind now, because whatever happens next has to be supported by what has already come to pass.
I don’t know, maybe it is the ditto creatures casting an illusion, and last Friday’s reaction shot was in response to a tidal wave of the bugs about to converge on the area.
FENRISULFR about 12 years ago
Well…is it GOOP? Or is it disintegration?The best stories are those which are closest to Real Life. And the hard thing about Real Life is that you don’t always get a happy ending. We want to see characters survive and thrive in spite of overwhelming odds, but realistically they don’t always.There was a Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos story where the Nazis captured them and a bunch of other soldiers, lined them up in rows of four and proceeded to execute them, firing sqwuad style. The Howlers were in the back row and every single one of them survived, but none of the other soldiers did. TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE! Still, it might be goop. And we still don’t know what it was that Flask and Wally were looking up at on Friday.
aneathery about 12 years ago
Don’t make me spoil things, folks.. I haven’t written myself into a corner yet. :-)
Coyoty Premium Member about 12 years ago
I wonder if they got their disintegrator guns from a Professor Farnsworth.
Arcaton about 12 years ago
@Aaron – this many comments this early and the general AAAAAGH over what would appear to be the “dusting” of a favourite pair of characters….Sir, it’s a tribute that you make ink and paper inspire such emotions – but PLEASE don’t disintegrate Hol & Wal….. ;-(
Dkram about 12 years ago
This brings to mind the ending of “Farscape”..\\//_
lbatik about 12 years ago
NOOOOOOOOOooooooooo
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
Well. That’s all I can find to say. I want to be angry, but I’ve no one to be angry at but myself. I got on this roller coaster and if I don’t like the ride, then the solution is simple, don’t ride it again. How someone can craft characters capable of capturing the heart of an audience to the degree that these have, and then just erase them like this is inconceivable to me. But then I’m a scientist, not a writer. Well played, Mr Neathery, we now understand that the envelope has no bounds. Short of a Dallas dream sequence, or Petey spinning time backwards a la Superman I, it seems our “friends” are gone. It’s your party Aaron, and it’s been an enjoyable one so far. But if today’s strip is the price of admission, I don’t think I can afford it much longer. This little flight of fantasy feels too much like real life right now. Until tomorrow, I suppose.
3hourtour Premium Member about 12 years ago
…WoW!…
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
Congrats to Aaron on achieving high art by evoking so much emotion! Don’t forget that Aaron promised to explain Wally’s badge and the rest of his backstory. That would not be as effective if the character were dead.
ToborRedrum about 12 years ago
If Holly and Wally are dead, then as far as I’m concerned so is this strip and its author. :(
crookedwolf Premium Member about 12 years ago
I’ll always have Holly’s little face smiling at me from my mini-comic. Yeep…
Jml58 about 12 years ago
It is not over before the fat lady sings, and I don´t see any fat lady.
davidf42 about 12 years ago
Ya gotta admit, this is one heckava comic strip!
finder10030 about 12 years ago
I for one don’t know what to say…..just stunned. Wow. Nice job Aaron. Guess I’ll just keep the faith for now and wait to see how it comes out. I just hope that Aaron loves the cat and mouse in his head enough that they don’t go out in a blaze without any real glory.
nerdhoof about 12 years ago
Maybe somebody was trolling, or didn’t remember, but in Dallas it was Bobby’s death that was a dream. J.R. was really shot, but not fatally.
Ron about 12 years ago
Hang on to your hats, everybody. If there is anything that I have learned about Aaron since I started following Endtown, it is that Aaron LOVES a good storyline and REALLY LOVES a good cliff-hanger. We are just going to have to wait this one out to its conclusion.
shelly about 12 years ago
all I can say is – at least it’s not Friday!
andrew_c about 12 years ago
Well, if capture and coring by the Topsiders is the only alternative, they are better off dead.
APersonOfInterest about 12 years ago
Oops!
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
You know, Friday is only three strips away. Aaron can certainly maintain the suspense that long. One day will probably be Petey’s reaction, one will be Flask’s reaction. We may have here the longest cliffhanger yet!
Ida No about 12 years ago
As Jenner pointed out above, for those of you losing faith, there is a hint of a light at the end of the tunnel, at the Endtown Underground.
Mapper2 about 12 years ago
That definently looks like a new weapon, Z guns usually take out the target and anything behind the target. These hits aren’t going past the targets. The topsiders might take them alive to make Flask a little more coopertive, maybe, I don’t know…
shockwave77598 about 12 years ago
Okay, now I really can’t wait to see where the writer takes this! All but two of the squad are gone by what appears to be a zero gun. But Wally and Flask looked outside in surprise before running outside, so all is not as it appears.
Excellent work. I only recently discovered this comic and I spent all weekend enjoying playing catch up.
boreas2 about 12 years ago
O_O!
is so good isnt friday
now im more curious about what the topsiders need from flask to keep her alive
Paul Gabbard Premium Member about 12 years ago
ACK!!! just ACK!!!
gary wolner about 12 years ago
Oh ye of little faith! If they’re gone they gone and we’re better off for reading about them. Weather here or gone, the story goes on. Aaron, ya had to enjoy reading all these comments!
Demonick about 12 years ago
and we never even found out what the deal is with that button Wally wears.
Dragoncat about 12 years ago
OK, Jenner. I’ll play along for now. But still…Neathery… YOU’VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO! GOSHDARNIT!!!
twcowdery about 12 years ago
The name of the strip is Endtown, not Wally & Holly. The world these characters live in is full of death, and it appears they died. Just as we moved on from Al and Gustine, we will move on from Wally & Holly. RIP
Reldn about 12 years ago
I’m really gonna miss those two, even Linda… because, unless there’s some serious Deus Ex Machina coming down the pipe, they’re gone.
I was afraid they’d not survive this, but, kept hoping that somehow they would.
Lyons Group, Inc. about 12 years ago
If it’s any joy from this, no doubt Allie (remember her?) is probably happy now that Wally has met his demise since sheblames him (which was the alcohol talking, not her) forthe lost of her three friends after Wally lost it and violently scratched her in that diner brawl a year (or two) ago. Butthen she’ll die from alcohol poisoning after hearing her best friend Holly bought the farm along with him (and end up joining them). Sorry if I painted a dark picture, Arron, but that’s how you like things like this to be….
awesome person about 12 years ago
)-=)-=)-=)-=)-=)-=)-=
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
Hey gang, whadda ya say we send good old Wally and Holly off to that big dustbin in the sky with a proper wake! We’re up to 80 comments and it’s still only 4pm Central US. We can make 100 easy. This revoltin’ development has brought most everyone out of the woodwork anyway, so why be content with half measures? Let’s start the COUNTDOWN to 100 comments! 20….
Proxima Premium Member about 12 years ago
From what Aaron has written in his comments here and elsewhere, Holly and Wally are far too dear to his heart for them to be (pardon the expression) “dusted…”
The GOOD thing is that it’s only Tuesday, so we don’t have a nail-biting weekend to fret over until we see what happens next.
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
We just have to wait for the dust to clear. . .
jerseycajun about 12 years ago
I will only add, that if there is any sense of triumph at the end of this arc that is as deep as the sense of loss here, I will jump out of my chair, fist-pump the air, while screaming “YES!”
starlilies about 12 years ago
MAYBE, MAYBE…. they went DOWN! :O Maybe they got pulled by the baby “octopus” from earlier into the underground! :D
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! :P
Rocky Premium Member about 12 years ago
Well THAT sucked!
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
So help me, if even one of those TS sticks their head into the transporter and says “Welcome home, Philomena.” …..
Ida No about 12 years ago
As Dadof3 mentioned above, yes, it is true that I exchange emails with Aaron once a week. He refuses to give me spoilers regardless of how much I cry, plead or beg (which is a good thing, because now I have enough material for my editors on my “Crying, Pleading and Begging for Complete Dummies” book.Aaron had mentioned a while ago that GoComics rewards artists (a little bit) based on comment count. He then asked (what I had thought at the time was a rhetorical question) – “What do I have to do to break 100 comments, kill someone?”Just 14 more comments and you all will have hit the big time.
up2trixx about 12 years ago
Wow. Just… wow. Wasn’t expecting this. I read this at 6:30AM Atlantic time this morning and can only now , at 7:30PM Atlantic time, bring myself to comment on it. I’ve been thinking about Holly & Wally all day, trying to imagine ways out of it. I just can’t. Once again I’d like to congratulate Aaron on his masterful storytelling – to make an imaginary mouse & cat have such a profound emotional impact on so many people (the comments here sound as though they refer to real death, not comic strip death) is just creative genius…
crookedwolf Premium Member about 12 years ago
I just finished a first draft of a fantasy novel where I kill off a minor, but helpful, character during the Climax. My mom wailed when I told her. Now I know why…and these are not minor characters, but those we have become deeply invested in.Except, for my part, Flask.
Karma, baby.
vburke about 12 years ago
“There is but one task for all-One life for each to give.What stands if Freedom fall?”― Rudyard Kipling
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
That 100 comment remark was made completely tongue in cheek, as I have spent most of my day trying to come to grips with the fact that I was actually grieving the demise of two imaginary characters in a comic strip. Now you tell me it was all a publicity stunt! Look, I’ll gladly kick in 15 or 20 comments a day, just stop slashing the heart from your storyline!
Level_Head about 12 years ago
There was something else we didn’t ask And for that, we’ll be taken to task From the Topsider’s jive They had wanted alive The not-currently-talkative Flask We know they’ve got high tech out the ears And that “ray” isn’t how death appears Since they planned to take Blackie Our gang (and their lackey) Still live, which should calm down our fears But that beam or that powerful squirt Came in fast, and it seems to have hurt They’re weren’t shot by the cat Angle’s too wrong for that But I don’t think they’re turned into dirt. =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum
calvinballer07 about 12 years ago
Well, With Al and Gustine they had a fruit that can bring you back to life, so maybe.. Time travel or something? SOMETHING!! Save them!
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
Well, here’s No. 101. Cheers.
noreenklose about 12 years ago
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!Aaron, have mercy! Some of us have bad hearts!Great story, but I’m trusting you that this isn’t the end…
KUTGW,
Noreen
Sabreur about 12 years ago
Welp, looks like we just barbequed a couple main characters. That, or the Dittos came back. Either way, fun times ahead!
DADOF3 about 12 years ago
If nothing else, today has exposed the full extent of the spectrum of feelings this unparalleled work has engendered. The sad part for me is the realization that participation has it’s price, and it would appear that I am very susceptable to the storytellers spell. If the best and brightest in this fascinating world are subject to instantaneous non-existence around any corner, then the price is too high for my emotional budget. That just mirrors reality a bit too much. Reality is all around us. I come here to get away from that, if only momentarily. I was quite frankly shocked by how much today’s strip affected me. In a way it was much like an auto accident, you don’t want to see carnage, but you can’t help but look anyway.
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
They did not have the opportunity to work out those emotions through imagination. Aaron’s world is our catharsis and i for one welcome whatever comes.
OdderOtter about 12 years ago
Well I expect that I will get up tonight and find out what next. Almost the best for Endtown that could happen is that the rocket is returning and wipes out the command center. Wally might be firing disabling shots, the endtowners will not.
Jenner Premium Member about 12 years ago
This story is affecting me, too, quite profoundly. I simply cannot see where this is going to go, but I can ASSURE everyone that it’s going to turn out better than it looks, at the moment. But be warned: the glimmer of hope is unlikely to happen this week. Friday is still probably going to be a soul-testing cliff-hanger.As with Three Steps, I correspond directly with Aaron Neathery on an infrequent basis, when both he and I can find the time. And as with Three Steps, I am told almost nothing about the future. But I am told broad movements, and one thing Mr Neathery stressed is that things will not turn out as badly as they seem. (Admittedly, he DID say that to me before he had his three main characters apparently gunned down in cold blood.) And in fact, I have strongly pleaded with him NOT to give me any spoilers. All I needed to know from him is what I know now: it is worth holding on. That’s all I need. Neathery says none of us will be betrayed.No spoilers. Once spoiled, the magic can never be re-made. Because the best frame of mind to experince this is one of ignorace. Take it as it happens, no more, no less. As much as this story is causing me distress, I see myself, indeed all of us, as existing in a special moment in history. It will be talked about, for years to come: The Endtown Crisis,or whatever fans in the future will call it. We readers are part of a select, privileged group who AT THIS VERY POINT OF TIME are enduring the exquisite agony of total doubt weighed against total faith, in the absence of any foreknowledge other than the soothing message from its creator that optimism will be repaid.No reader of Endtown in the future will ever experience the full piquancy of the uncertainty that we are braving this week. Younger fans, later on, will ask us what it was like to see the characters die and not know, REALLY not know, what was going to happen next. After us, no-one will ever have the bitterness and the sweetness of this present-centered moment that will live in out memory and in history.Mr Neathery is about to accomplish something not just clever, not just amazing, but legendary. I have no idea what. Literally, I cannot conceive of the solution, try as I may. With all of our collective thoughts, none of us can. Mr Neathery – if he delivers on this mammoth promise, and I can only take it by his track record that he will – will create an event in the history of comics of the 21st century that will be an occasion of legend. You and I, my friends, the daily readers, the dogged followers, the five-past-the-hour refreshers, will be able to say: “I was there. You know The Endtown Crisis? Well, I was there, reading it when it happened. None of us knew what to do. We didn’t even know what to say. and then, when it finally turned out that [XXXXX happened], well it was so awesome that… we’ve never seen anything like it. and we probably never will again!” Yes, thank you one and all, my talkative fellow travellers on this long road to the legend: It IS worth it. Just a few more steps. Hold the faith. Push through the pain. Swallow the bitterness. Remember History. Remember Legend. Remember the days we but no-one else will have. Keep reading Endtown, and have faith.One more thing, just one. Aaorn Neathery is not made of stone. For what is happening to Wally, Holly, Linda, Petey and even Flask, if the emotion is hurting us, you can be sure it has hurt him even more. Whatever distress we are feeling, take it, double it and that’s what the writer/artist dosed himself with in order to create this tale for us. Sometimes a medicine is severe. If Neathery says the pain was worth it in the end, then please take it from someone who categorically is in the position to know.These are amzing times. Awesome times. Legendary times.
OdderOtter about 12 years ago
If there was such a thing as a reintergration ray, it would have been used to bring back the rest of civilization. And I suspect, that alive or not, Linda is counted as effectively killed by mutants, making those mutants liable criminally for her death.
boreas2 about 12 years ago
i hope it isnt a dream nor a oracle vision
JanBic Premium Member about 12 years ago
Looking at panel 2 again I see an accumulation of material beside and engulfing Kowalinda. This MUST be a capture material. 1-1/2 hours to go. Won’t sleep before midnight posting!
Jenner Premium Member about 12 years ago
The Topsiders wanted Flask alive, so they can torture her for information on how to locate and wipe out Endtown. Maybe the guns are set on stun, so that the mutants can be immobilised, while they have their brains cut out. But the Topsiders won’t get to cut out the brains if the crashing rocket lands on them all first.No, it still doesn’t work. I’ll keep thinking.
SapphireDragonStudios about 12 years ago
Whew, I can’t believe how many comments exploded on this page today haha! It’s quite a testament to how powerful today’s strip was. I know there’s been a lot of hysteria over the (possible) deaths of Wally and Holly (and boy did my heart drop as well). But regardless of how it goes, and I know some of you disagree, one thing I do like about Endtown is the fact that the threat of death/loss is real. Characters can die and the heroes can lose. What I mean is that I’ve watched/read stories where you just know that no main character is ever going to die and everyone will win 100% in the end. For stories directed at younger viewers, that’s fine. However, in a story that is supposed to be serious, it weakens the sense of danger to the point that you can’t really take the villains seriously as a threat. There was a series I’ve read where you’d have everything you need in a death scene without the actual death (some deus ex machina would save the day, or it’d be just a dream, etc.) and once that’s been done a few times, then I stop taking that story seriously and the sense of danger is gone. It becomes Adam West’s Batman where the heroes are tied up over a giant pot of acid but we all know it’s not a matter of “if” they’ll get out of it, just “how”. For Endtown, even if Wally, Holly and Linda survive here somehow, I do get that sense of danger and attachment to the characters. The Topsiders are a serious threat, as is the threat of insanity within Endtown itself (Flask, Jackrabbit). The worry of “if” they’ll make it combined with the curiosity of “how” they’ll make it (because as much as I see this strip having a ‘sense of danger’, I also don’t see Endtown as being one of those ‘and then everyone died! The end!’ type of comics, either. I anticipate – and hope – that it won’t be a hoaky type of happy ending, but an optimistic ending nonetheless)
Jenner Premium Member about 12 years ago
Thirty minutes to go…
Jenner Premium Member about 12 years ago
Ten minutes to go…
pam Miner about 12 years ago
Surely this didn’t just happen. well I guess it happened, but can it be undone?? I hope?
pam Miner about 12 years ago
Oh no oh no don’t do that!1 they are main characters, I like Holly and Wally and even like Linda! The main characters don’t die! What did Linda and Wally see? Is the ground soft? maybe it blew them into the surface??