FAQ and Background Information




Intro
Aaron scatters some information for the Endtown story throughout the strips, while leaving little hints in the online comments to his readers. Since I'm unaware of an online database for this information, I'm collecting it here. If I missed something, or made a mistake, let me know.

Comments
Reader: Wow, in competition with your former self - that's a tough one! Sympathies for Gustine.
Aaron: It's called "Schism Syndrome". All of the mutants suffer from it to various degrees. More on that later...

Aaron: Rule of thumb.. Topsiders use disintegration technology that has no recoil. Endtowners use rayguns and "blasters" that do.

Reader: Is it just me or do you think Professor Mallard would sound like Ludwig von Drake?
Aaron: He has the voice of Hans Conried.

Aaron: Ultimately, I want Endtown to outstrip Ziggy in popularity. That's right, Tom Wilson. This town ain't big enough for the both of us...

Aaron: Honestly, I've never figured out how it's [Gustine] pronounced.. I pronounce the first syllable ggusth, as in ga gust of windh, rather than gjusth. For the record, I got the name from a street in Shreveport, LA, a few blocks down from where a relative lived.

Reader: One thing I've noticed is there doesn't seem to be any feral animals around. Did they all die, or are there mutant animals, too? Apparently plants mutated, unless the mutant tree in the Modern Times strip was once human, too.
Aaron: There is a story behind that. I'll get around to it in time.

Aaron: Allie is indeed smoking a cigarette.. Endtown has a lucrative black market for that kind of thing (we'll be exploring that topic shortly).. :-)

Aaron: They (mutants and Topsiders alike) have started over again from Year Zero. At this point in the story, it has been six years since The End of Civilization As We Know It.

Aaron: Doc Chase is kind of a caricature of Milburn Stone (Doc Adams) from Gunsmoke, but, yeah.. he does look rather like Deacon Mushrat now that you mention it.. He is a badger.

Reader: The chair [in Doc Chase's clinic] has had so much to do that I think we should give it a name.
Aaron: The chair's name is Todd L. Geyer III.

Aaron: Wally's got much more of an acceptance curve than Holly. I'm kinda patterning him after Mickey Rooney in pictures like The Big Wheel.. It's all about personal growth.

Reader: I thought that the bean issue had been solved?
Aaron: Mallard's partial solution was the aforementioned vitamin cake. The combination of both prevents people from starving, but the lack of variety (and, frankly, vitamin cake sounds truly vile) is driving some folk around the bend.

Aaron: Endtown has an entire series of canals (which you can see in the March 29th strip). These provide power, supply drinking water, give aquatic Endtowners a place to live.. and where they come from and where they go are mysteries.. much like Endtown itself.. Time will tell.. :-)

Aaron: Holly is over 30.. several years older than Wally, in fact.. Their respective natures belie their true ages.. polar opposites.. [She is] Not Flo of gkiss mah gritsh fame!! I will deny her as an influence to my dying day.. I love the name, tho (a coincidence). I had actually initially considered gPollyh as my character's name but nixed it because of Connie Booth's character in Fawlty Towers.

Reader: Got dark fast. This is all underground, so what does Endtown use for central lighting? And in a place that has no sun, what constitutes "late"?
Aaron: Endtown has a series of huge light panels embedded in its ceiling. The lights simply switch on in the morning and off at night. I imagine it's rather jarring.. There's room for improvement, and that's just around the corner.. :-)


FAQs
About the comic
Why is Endtown only in black and white and not color?
Aaron doesn't have assistants and doesn't have time to add coloring himself.

Will Endtown get into the newspapers?
Depends on the offer. But not if it requires restrictions to what can be in the storylines.

Is there an Endtown graphic novel?
Not yet, but talks are ongoing.

Why is the language used in Endtown so offensive?
Aaron follows the FCC code. If the language offends you, he apologizes and hopes that you will find a different comic you enjoy more.

What happened with the "aaron neathery" domain name?
Squatters. Aaron has moved to aaronneathery.org.

How far ahead are the comics drawn out?
55-56 strips, about 3 months worth.

What's your background?
Check out the interview here.

Will you be at xxx convention?
Aaron recently attended Comicpalooza and is planning on being at next year's Anthrocon. That's it for the moment, but if you're concom he's open to requests.


About Endtown and Topside
What happened to the feral animals after the War?
Can mutants have cross-species children?
Where are the children?
This will be explained in time.

How does the mutagenic virus work?
Answer 1) "The mutagenic virus hits everyone differently, but there are certain grulesh.. and we'll be exploring that subject within the next couple of months as well. About the question of the Topsiders' vulnerability, there's a big risk that, were you to allow a Topsider to mutate, you'd end up with something even more dangerous to contend with (there's a specific law governing mutations that make it unlikely that you'd end up with anything harmless.. and we'll be discussing that within the next month)."
Answer 2) As given in the Aug. 10, 2011, strip, mutations depend on one's conscious state at the time of exposure to the mutagen. Those who turned into "anthros" (humanoid animals) were unconscious or unborn (in the womb). If you're wide awake you become a monster, and if you're under the influence, you become something weird.

Why don't they grow their own food in Endtown?
In the Aug., 2011, arc we're told that they're trying to, but are several years away from being self-sufficient.


Some information on Endtown
The story takes place 6 years after the War (AKA: The End of Civilization As We Know It).
The introduction film Wally watches was made in Year 3.
As of Year 3, the population of Endtown was roughly 7,000.

Known community and location names
Endtown: The most well-known enclave within the comic, it is 1 mile underground, and is protected by dustcrawlers. There are 4 security perimeters on the surface. When Al and Gustine were pursued by Topsiders, they were detected and redirected after reaching only the outermost perimeter.
Zone One: This may be one of the closest locations to Endtown. It's mostly been picked over. It's also the location where Petey, Al and Gustine tried to evade their Topside pursurers. It's approximately a half-day walk.
Epsilon 2: This is the place that Al and Hank visited in "A Fistful of Beans". Mallard refers to it as Community Epsilon's turf
Westchester Park: One of the Topsiders mentions having fought here. Nothing else is known about it.
Hillside: Referred by the Oracle as being at the edge of the Great Waste, Hillside is one of the biggest ruins known so far. It's the home of Apex Industries, the company that produced Amesworth radiation-based disintegrator weapons, including the Mark 2 - a mobile base station designed to eliminate hundreds of mutants at a time. According to Sparkplug, mutants and/or humans lived in the ruins for the first 3 years after The End. Eventually it gets trashed and is overrun by pixel creatures (AKA: "dittos", and "vermin"). (Technically, though, Hillside was a massive, sprawling complex prior to The End, and most of the ruins now are just bits and pieces of the original Hillside.)
Zone Six: Mentioned by the Mayor as the place he visited the last time he went topside. He lost 2 partners in that mission.
Epsilon Beta and New Persia: When Al and Gustine are trapped in Zone One and convinced that they've led the Topsiders to Endtown, Al mentions these two places as possible options that might take them in. All that's known about them is that Epsilon Beta is "to the west". In the Aug. 12, 2011 strip, New Persia is the only one of the above communities listed on Prof. Mallard's alarm box.
Alpha Seven, Albion West, Beta Theta and Deep City: Other communities that appear only as names on Prof. Mallard's alarm box. Nothing is known about them yet.

About the characters
What is the timeline for Al and Wally?
The story arc for Wally and Holly takes place at roughly the same time as that for Al and Gustine. However, Al and Gustine are back in Endtown by the time Holly and Wally visit Jackrabbit's "self-acceptance seminar".

What are the names of the story arcs?
"A Fistful of Beans" (Jan. 18, 2009 to Mar. 27, 2009)
"Gustine's Quest" (Mar. 30, 2009 to Jan. 14, 2011)
"The Ballad of Holly and Wally" (Jan. 17, 2011 to July 15, 2011)
The new arc starting in July is as-yet unnamed (July 18, 2011 to ?)

Will we see Al & Gustine again?
Will we see Flask and Petey again?
What's Petey's backstory?
Everyone in the "Quest" arc will reappear later. Petey's origins and Flask's past will be explored in detail eventually.

What's the badge Wally is wearing?
This will be explained later.

What's the full name for each of the characters?
Miscellaneous Character Information
Louie Lynx: The catnip addict that fights with Wally in Holly's cafe.
Terry and Cliff: Petty thieves trying to find topside food.
Petey: From PT - Personnel Transporter. Serial number is 31715. Real name unknown.
The Topsider robot dogs are called Multi-Use Terrestrial Trackers ("mutts").

Why do certain characters have animal-based last names?
According to Jack Jackrabbit's "self-acceptance" seminar, taking on a last name that relates to the animal type you've become is one step towards accepting one's "mutanity". It's also by extension an indicator that you are part of Jack's growing "anti-human/anti-Topsider" campaign.

Topsiders identified by name:

Links
Personas
Comicpalooza poster
Doc Rat dedication, from Jenner
Wally, by Jenner Aaron's Website



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