Ethan

Let's explore! -Ethan's last sentence from The World is Magical
I magically turn my pencils into bosses! -Ethan, from the august 18 show.
Ethan is the main protagonist of Ethan and Tom. He is highly intelligent, though without any self-discipline or concentration, a four-year old boy with a vivid imagination and a habit of getting into trouble and adventure. The comic centers around Ethan's life, his troubles, and his adventures, with Tom alongside as his companion. Ethan is characterized by his imagination, philosophy, extensive vocabulary, social awkwardness, and mischievous behavior. Ethan is very cynical and usually gets annoyed with Tom. His first piece of dialogue was the first line of the strip and his last line of dialogue was also the strip's final line. Ethan and/or his alter egos appeared in almost every strip of the series ever printed and published, however, there are several strips he does not appear in, those being where his mother or other side characters reflect on Ethan or recent events.

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

His closest and only stable friend is Tom. The occasional dispute aside, they never never question their friendship. Tom's special status owes to his animal nature: Ethan has confessed to Tom that he prefers animals over people, and his friend has a source of comfort to him after unpleasant experiences with his schoolmates, particularly Moe. Ethan fails to recognize his mother's effort and care toward him and acts rudely around her. He struggles when told to take his bath, ignores his bedtime, and loudly protests the meals he is served for dinner. The only efforts he acknowledges are those that he doesn't require yet he likes, such as when he is served hot chocolate after a long day outside in winter. One time Ethan was seen about to slugs in a bet with Lincy, however, Ethan's mother arrived, and stopped him from eating the slugs. Later, Ethan was relieved and thanked his mother for stopping him. Ethan's behavior around neighbor and classmate Lincy Morrow is bipolar; although he goes to great lengths to set up mean-spirited pranks (it was Lincy's arrival that spurred him into creating G.R.O.G.). But he onced joined Tom at Lincy's birthday party, got her a gift and managed to enjoy her company. On Valentine's Day, shortly after their first encounter, he sent Lincy a hate-mail valentine card; later, he was pleased to observe that Lincy had noticed his efforts. But Moe is Ethan's arch-nemesis and also his bully. Defenseless against Moe's brute force, Ethan has little choice but to give in to the bully's demands. These include the dispensing of money, the requisition of facilities that Moe wants access to, and joining the baseball team for fear of humiliation and beatings. Even if Ethan told a trusted grown-up, he's still not safe from Moe's terror. Moe's speech bubbles also have a different font style. Ethan, being naturally hostile to all babysitters, antagonizes Roz. She is perhaps the only person he genuinely fears. His initiatives to postpone his bedtime under her rule (Roz invariably makes Ethan go to bed before 6:45) are mischievous and unsafe, such as locking Roz out of the house and threatening her by stealing her science notes. Only once did he manifest the maturity not to oppose her, and this was in Roz's last appearance. Ethan is often extremely sneaky with an extremely nasty sense of humor. He often targets Lincy, his mom and Tom in such nasty pranks as hitting them with exceptionally hard snowballs, spraying them with pools or water guns, and stealing Lincy's doll and holding it for ransom. He's also stated numerous times that he hates being good, especially around Valentine's day. Ethan's thoughts will on many occasions wander to an "alternative reality," or an exaggerated world. Things that happen in the real world, such as his teacher yelling at him, often affect what happens in his imagination.

For example, during his daydreaming, Ethan often turns into Space Spiff, while his mom or his teacher pose as the monsters.

These alleged adventures, such as traveling back in time to the Triassic period and photographing Smilodons, are seen to be imaginary by Ethan's mom and peers, whilst believed by himself. This goes to show that his imagination is overactive, yet he and Tom believe that they actually occurred. Many occasions, things that would have been part of Ethan's imagination happen in real life. For example, Tom is a plain stuffed animal to anyone but Ethan, but his actions are real. One time, when Tom tied up Ethan during his attempt to be the next Houdini, his mother disregards the fact that Tom tied Ethan up, yet he couldn't have tied himself up without the help of Tom. Also, the Duplicator, an imaginative invention of Ethan's, creates a duplicate that acts exactly like him, yet a simple cardboard box couldn't have done something to a great technological advance. His imagination, in these cases, caused real things to occur, though it has stirred controversy. Ethan occasionally makes machines usually made out of a cardboard box (but with some exceptions), which normally leads to disaster. Here is a list of his inventions: