The Ends
The Ends is a Science Fiction Web Comic/graphic novel by Brian Allen. Running from February 2009 to December 2009, it tells the story of the "survivors" in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, living in a town named "The Ends". The town seems caught in some kind of Groundhog Day Loop caused by a nuclear explosion, as every person who dies is reborn within hours as an apparently identical clone, but with Identity Amnesia. Mutated creatures haunt the wasteland, and there is an ongoing conflict between winged humans called "angyls" and ordinary humans, given the derogatory label "landwalkers".
The protagonist is a man named Jason who has managed to recover some of his memories after being reborn, most especially his love for a woman named Isabella. He also has, for some reason, a mouth embedded in his left shoulder that dispenses helpful advice. Jason's memories may be key to unraveling the time loop.
The comic is fairly violent and there are graphic scenes of gore and mutated creatures, including humans.
- After the End
- Artificial Limbs: Jason gets a robotic arm after his original is torn off by a monster.
- Companion Cube: The priest of The Ends is a tad overfamiliar with his nuclear bomb.
- Gorn: May cross this line for some people.
- Groundhog Day Loop
- Heroic Sacrifice
- I Am Who?: Jason is an angyl. And so is everyone else.
- Identity Amnesia: Every "rebirth" is accompanied by an apparent wipe of the person's memories, though some remain: Jason remembers partially Isabella and one throwaway character remembers his family (but his wife refuses to admit that the clone is him).
- Mind Screw
- Ontological Mystery: Do the inhabitants of The Ends really exist, or is their endless loop simply the Hell created when they blew themselves up?
- Quest for Identity
- Tomato Surprise
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: "Angyls" as a supposedly superior form of human life, the creepy "rebirths", a priest worshipping a nuclear bomb...
- Winged Humanoid: The Angyls.