Chapter 2, Page 8

Femur has now been renamed Amorous Thighfish, thanks to commenter Shade on the previous page. The best way to deal with Amorous Thighfish is clearly “don’t look at Amorous Thighfish.”

Sorry about the late page. Over the past week I’ve gone from 1.5 working computers to 0 computers to like… .75 computer. Many hours of fiddling and $120 bucks of RAM later, here I am on my older comp working on a legacy version of Photoshop because CC can’t get it’s shit together X[___] Gonna be at least 3 weeks before I get non-defective optimal computer back :/ Kind of upset about all the waste of time and everything, but what can you do. If there are delays it is because I’m trying to keep the quality consistent despite not having some functions working for me at the moment… Gonna do my damndest to push past all the blockers; sorry in advance for unforeseen Things!

Oh yeah, I found some cute fanarts here and here :] MI isn’t the most likely fanart subject so it’s always a nice surprise to see some XD *EDIT* and another one I missed! (Prerequisite trigger warning for suicide imagery). Thank you to readers who took time to make stuff, that was very nice of you :]

Today’s bonus art: Early 2014 concepting of this scene (it bored me a lot, so I scrapped it)

62 Comments

  • DukeBG

    By the way, you might’ve missed this from a russian reader back in the day, when you were super-busy with the work crunch…

    • shingworks

      Oh shoot! I can’t believe I missed it. I’ll add it up there too.

      But this is exactly why fanart is so hard to make for this comic, haha…

      • DukeBG

        Author is Igor “Morbas” Solomka , forgot to add.

  • Draug

    Out of all the webcomics I’m reading right now (there aren’t a lot, but still…) this one is the only one I keep feeling anticipation for again and again when I know a page is on its way.

    It’s like coming across a book that’s the first part of a great series. Not only do you fall in love with the book more and more with each page turned, but you find yourself eagerly awaiting the next spare moment you have to read more–on top of the anticipation for the moment the next book will come out.

    Um, in short: I love this comic.

    • shingworks

      Thank you! We’re headed into the meat of the story very soon so I’m excited to show it to you guys :]

      • Draug

        It’s already so raw and meaty! haha Can’t wait to sink my teeth in.

      • Emblin

        I’m still waiting for the alien life to be confirmed.. I mean, a cave full of WATER, and OXYGEN, and some glow-ey plants a few pages ago? Clearly building up for it, and I can’t wait :D.

        Maybe the only way that he survives this is because the alien life is intelligent and they heal him?

        • Varflock

          Well, healing him would mean that alien life is actually pretty dumb, not intelligent. Who’d heal a possibly dangerous creature from another planet?

          • Emblin

            For science? For benevolence? Who knows

      • Kittenears

        Oooh i can’t wait to pick the feels out of my teeth.

        • 7thSatellite

          Best out of context comment, like, ever. Of all time.

          • Kittenears

            :3

  • DukeBG

    Interesting note that he says “been better” rather than “seen worse”. Why are you comparing this to a good thing, Mike?

    • Huh. That reads as appropriate colloquialism to me. “How are you doing?” “Eh, been better.”

      • Aidan903

        Also, he probably HASN’T seen worse.

        • shingworks

          WELL *glances at interlude*

  • Mad

    Man I get so excited whenever you update <3 I'm so glad you get to do it on a regular basis!

  • KYLE

    Sorry if this has been answered already… what’s up with the burst blood vessels in his eyes? Is that from the physical trauma, or air pressure changes? It looked like he had the popped vessels before he took off his helmet.

    • it’s covered in the comments on previous pages.
      something someting small vessel burst due to shock, doesn’t impair vision per see.

      • charles81

        I’m thinking the coughing might be more than just the air… Maybe he has internal injuries as well. So the story continues with him telling his life story from down here now? Nah, I’m sure there’s plenty more to take place on Mars beyond Mike sitting, talking and dying… Although It wouldn’t surprise me if the story does end in his death regardless.

    • Emblin

      It’s called petechia. It basically is burst blood vessels in the eye from either
      1: Trauma
      2: High Pressure
      3: Near death from lack of oxygen sometimes does that too

      • Kittenears

        or childbirth! WOO Mike had a … femur baby. Um. I don’t know what i’m doing here I had 4 hours of sleep and possibly that many cups of coffee.

        • shingworks

          lol

      • shingworks

        :]

  • That’s a pretty quick turnaround from “please send help” to “just in case someone finds my skeleton eventually”… :{

    • I can understand him not wanting to explain that to Goto, like, EVER.

    • Jones

      I’m kind of getting more of the sense that he’s rather curious of this bio hole he’s encountered and wants to check it out more [even with his injury]. I could be wrong. :3

    • shingworks

      A signal of any sort is not able to escape from a cave anyhow :\ LEVi could have probably upped those odds a bit.

  • VainVillain

    I’m so intrigued by this comic, I can’t wait until we get to the core of the plot. I’m completely sucked in O_O

  • You don’t say, Michael.

  • rain_of_stars

    I wonder if he’s coughing because of internal injuries, almost-suffocation, or because despite there being enough oxygen to breathe, it’s still pretty thin compared to optimum human levels?

    • Corbie

      Or even too much, if it is caught in this small hollow with nothing there to use it up? Too much oxygen can be fatal as well.
      Poor Mike when he’ll eventually notice how much Amorous Thighfish hurts. o_O

      • shingworks

        Can’t trust that pesky Thighfish

  • Brian

    Trapped in an unexpected air pocket in an underground sea on Mars is exactly not where I would get back to working on my podcast, but Mike’s clearly got his own priorities about stuff like this.

    • Eh, You put your last words where you can.

  • StClair

    This is so not okay.

  • Jojo

    Oi. I feel like we will be hearing a will now.

    • Jake L.

      Sadly, I get the impression that Mike has very little of both possessions and people he’d want to have them.

      • shingworks

        He has a sweet geology themed magnet set that could go to someone

        • Jojo

          True. That is very important.

        • Emblin

          Oh you silly Cleavage magnet you, thought you wouldn’t be noticed?

  • Spav

    As always, the lighting is beautiful. I love how stark it is across the features on Mike’s face.

    Best wishes with resolving your computer fiasco!

  • Shunka_Warakin

    …Singer/songwriter seeking ethereal/space music aficionados, must have own keyboards and/or guitars, no drum-only percussionists, to form band “Amorous Thighfish.”

    Sorry. I just had to.

    Aaaaand now there need to be mock album-covers. ;D

    • Tindi

      I was gonna, but you did it better than I could have, so well done. :P

  • Jake L.

    No need to apologize for computer troubles. I’m glad to hear that you’ve got some sort of system up and running in any case.
    As for this page.. This page is real good. It’s just amazing.

  • fox-orian

    “But it bored me so I scrapped it and broke Mike’s leg.”

    • shingworks

      Lol stop

      • fox-orian

        :D

  • Will there be an Amorous Thighfish mockumentary?

    • Emblin

      If only Steve Irwin was still alive.. He’d do a good job at it.

      “Crikey! This is a wild Amorous Thighfish in it’s natural habitat! Wow!”

    • shingworks

      It has to be Werner Herzog. I can hear it already “we are naow in ze lair of ze amorous thighfish”

      • Hansontoons

        How about Marlin Perkins, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom? Yes, yes, dating myself horribly. And then he sends in Jim Fowler to catch/wrestle/get stomped by whatever beastie they are stalking. The things we had to watch on one of the three or four stations that we could catch with the antenna. But we did have a remote control, aka youngest sibling that was made to get up and run the dial. :D

      • Kittenears

        I vote the Kratts.

        Just because I think they’d exasperate Mike.

        • Vert

          Toon versions or RL versions? ’cause the toon ones might actually be able to help out. Slap him into a power suit with Martian kelpmonster powers… Martian kelpmonsters have no bones! Problem solved!

          • Kittenears

            Oohhh. That’s a tough call! The RL versions are adorable hotties, but the toons and the suits…

            Now I have this hilarious visual of both of them excitedly jumping in front of him

            WHAT IF!?

  • Hansontoons

    “I’ve been better.” Hm. In a cave, pitch black with exception of tiny LED illumination, leg that won’t be useful for a while, shock setting in. Best understatement on the planet!

  • Infinity1201

    Amorous Thighfish.Im trying to explain to my dad that a femur looks like a fish. Golden •3-

  • Orange

    Idk why but when I read the first panel the “Can’t Hold Us” song started playing in my head. Could just imagine him continue singing/rapping it in the back of my ridiculous mind.

  • 7thSatellite

    Seriously though, what happened to the entomologist? Why isn’t Mike looking for her? I know he’s deep underground, but chances are she is too, and I’d be surprised if their space suits didn’t have some sort of telemetry. You’d think he’d at least check to see if it worked. But, I guess he’s tired and injured and completely confused, so it’s plausible he just forgot/doesn’t care. By the way, page still looks great, regardless of computer differences!

    • Kittenears

      I don’t know if he even knows that she fell, too. And even if he DID notice her falling/suit told him she fell too…

      Near asphyxiation, terrifying underwater martian bouldering, shock… And a broken femur? Um I wouldn’t exactly be as coherent as he is right now.

      I got in a bad car accident once, banged my head and cracked some ribs. Just cracked- not broken. But I was out of my freaking mind with how every tiny jostle of the drive home burned with pain, and breathing/every slight movement was agony.

      And yeah, I mean, it’s easier to hold a leg still than it is your ribcage because of useful things like breathing but still.

      Ouuuuch.

      That said, Oh man I really want Bex to show up

      WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS

      I’ll turn off my DW geekery now and slink out …

  • Some Unregistered Punk

    Oh! That’s his femur!

    I thought the last comic had him staring at a bloody trouser snake!

  • Zhivago

    I have a question regarding the location he is in. Didn’t he say it’s highly sulfuric? I was just wondering how much so. I work with sulfuric at work and it seems like if it would be causing a lot more damage to both his eyes and nostrils by this point. Hell, I’m not even sure he can keep his eyes open, I’ve gotten the fumes in my eyes before and couldn’t open them without immense pain until I washed them clean.

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