When you think about the post-apocalyptic genre, what do you generally think of? A man against the world fight for survival, a mass of impromptu weapons and sci-fi guns, diverse and dangerous enemies that our heroes have to face to survive, human animal hybrid protagonists who live in a subterranean town who survive wholly on beans…Yeah, Endtown, in and of itself isn’t that much of a standard post-apocalyptic tale. It leaves the standard smoking cars and broken cities for a more “uplifting” kind of story line.
However, before we move onto more detail about Endtown, we must first know what it is and what it is about. Endtown is a webcomic made by one, Aaron Neathery. Endtown focuses on the life and times of certain members of the town as they travel in and out of the wastelands. The wasteland being created by a strike of Mutagenic bombs, which pretty much transformed most humans into either mutants that resemble animals, mutated monsters that resemble something Godzilla spat out, genetically modified humans that retain the human form (which is pretty rare in the long run), and finally what the Endtowners call “topsiders” who are quarantined humans who roam the dessert in specially designed suits who pretty much kill any mutated human, whether animal or not. We follow two different groups (one in the beginning of the comic, and the other in the current storyline).
The first focusing on one Albert Anderson and one Gustine Greene and the other focusing on Wally Wallechinsky and Holly Hollister. The last three being mutated humans taking the forms of a rhino, cat and mouse respectively. The characters are diverse and overall likeable, the world is pretty diverse with the civilization that lies under ground, a lost city (at one point), the vast dessert and…crazy enough…a floating ship.
This premise may seem more silly than it actually is, but honestly it really focuses on several themes that work within the story, such as failure to comply with identity, survivor’s guilt, racism, whether or not your physical appearance actually matters to who you are and many other themes that are both entertaining and interesting. However, there may be a few questions springing from the audience, like “what the f#$% is with this plot, floating ship, what, why are they animals, what?” However, it’s how they use these themes that really tackle preconceptions and make you engrossed in this world.
Taking an example (WARNING SPOILERS) from the beginning of the piece, Gustine and Al are going on a date (I know still a bit weird, but hey), and Al essentially buys a gondola for them to roam around in, most likely due to preconceptions of who she was before the event, and event after event causes Gustine to question what Al is truly feeling, and makes her uncomfortable about herself, which actually starts the first few events in the story (end spoilers).
There are some things wrong with the series, the whiplash from one story to the next may confuse a person not in the know (like I was), there are some elements of the piece that remain unexplained. For example, the mutations how does the bomb change humans to animals, why does it turn some people into monsters and others just into koala bears, and why does the mutation persist through the wasteland even though (most likely) the cause would have dissipated. However, these questions are rather superfluous to the overall story, which will engross you and amaze you to no extent (not to put words in your mouth). Either way, check it out at http://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2009/01/19#.UjuAF8asiSo