Chapter 3, Page 25

I think Mike is feeling a little better. Not happy, but better. Also Kalla would probably disagree with the whole “I like logic” thing.

Some stuff to share! A cutie sketch of a musical armshark, based on a Patreon post, by Squidlifecrisis. Additionally, a little writeup of the comic by a reader that was shared to the Facebook last week :] Thanks guys!

Several people linked me this article about isolated cave creatures last week so some of you might like it too.

And based on a Patron request,  just posted wallpapers of the Martian landscape spread from the previous page for all $2+ Patrons! As well a mid-month update for everyone, sharing some of the complimentary icons I’ve been doing for long-time supporters.

And one last thing, the online webcomic group I belong to, Hiveworks, is currently open for submissions. I’ve enjoyed my affiliation with them over the past year plus, so if you have a webcomic you might consider submitting an application! There are a lot of great comics in this group, which you can always find in the linkbar or here.

Today’s bonus art: Lineart only version. This page was very clean (I ruined it with my crazy coloring probably) so just a memory of a simpler time~

And it is mid-month, which means time to thanks the $10+ Patrons from April! Thank you so much for your support of my work <3

65 Comments

  • Oh good his eye is still there. For now.

    I guess he’s still acertaining whether everything was a figment of his imagination.

  • Inwoods

    Not quite sure how to take those last lines given the play on the idea of “in my head.” If he is assuming sharkfriend is an illusion, why care about salt water at all? Or does he consider it a way of talking out loud?

    But “the thing in his leg” has to be at least as tangible as sharkfriend. Why is one more real than the other if it is his senses he doubts? Is it simply because one talks?

    • shingworks

      Ah, it’s a play on words, “in my head” in the sense of “embedded.”

      • corvideye

        I was wondering that too. My first take was definitely that he meant ‘a delusion’, but that did seem to contradict the rest of his conclusions.

      • DukeBG

        Funny enough, I read it as intended. Second language power!

        • shingworks

          XD I was wondering if it would read properly… I’m not 100% sure it does but I like wordplay too much.

          • StClair

            It came through just fine, no worries.

          • Aristatide

            If we’re collecting anecdata, it lost me. :/

          • Pylgrim

            Took me a couple reads but got it. I think what makes it confusing is that we are used to people having little angry outbursts like this while in profound denial, i.e. trying to convince themselves that what they are experiencing is all in their heads. Seeing this angry outburst while someone is working out that it is /not/ a delusion is kind of new ground!

          • corvideye

            Wordplay is good, even if it takes a little figuring.

          • Roy

            I understood it perfectly.

        • Matías93

          I passed over it reading ‘y tengo todo esto sobre mi cabeza’, which is clearly an imprecise translation but matches adequately to the literal sense of the phrase. Asperger, you haven’t failed me this time.

        • Vert

          Me too, along with an unwritten, desperate it’s-not-funny-but-haha chuckle from Mike.

    • David

      I don’t know enough to say for sure, but I imagine this is kind of like the relationship a schizophrenic has with his auditory or visual hallucinations. To a certain extent, the person knows they’re not real, and he ignores them. At the same time, however, the images and voices are so compelling that he can’t help talking to them- if only to tell them they aren’t real.

      The interesting thing here is that Kallakore might be a hallucination, or she might be a real Martian, and we can’t tell which.

  • whosilence

    I want to kow what they are called, though. Damn it Mike! Stop — collaborate and listen!

  • Ray

    Mike sweetie you *really* need to get rid of that fungus growing on your face.

  • Localized

    Mike you’re being quite rude. Like imagine how weird Armshark thinks /you/ are.

    • corvideye

      Really, a being with its spine and limbs all pulled out straight like that, and that little round pinhead and tiny nose, it’s revolting! Yet look how polite Kallakore has been. Still, Mike has had an awfully bad day… week… life? Makes a body testy.

      • StClair

        Wait’ll it finds out that most human noses are even smaller!

  • Spark

    Mike’s hand looks a bit strange in the second panel. Is his palm facing his face or kallakore?

    • shingworks

      Kalla, and yeah I had to ref my hand for it but that’s what it looked like XD Maybe my hand is messed.

      • DukeBG

        I think it’s just not obvious if it’s the right hand or the left since we don’t see the elbow. But then again, the left shoulder is so far back, that it couldn’t possibly be left hand.

      • Brad

        I think having fingers arch back/dorsally when extended is a lot more common in women. Looks a bit off on a larger man’s hands.

        • shingworks

          My lack of manhands has come around to haunt me once again

        • Matías93

          Particularly on a caucasian, they have typically bigger hands and more rigid joints. Maybe putting on oversized leather gloves could do the work…

      • David

        “Talk to the hand!”

  • DukeBG

    Dat Thrip on the last panel…

    • DukeBG

      I cannot be the only one who sees this
      http://funkyimg.com/i/2bSXy.jpg

      • Aristatide

        I’ve sort of assumed that’s almost always what the thrip is doing.

  • fox-orian

    I have to admit.
    Didn’t see this string of responses coming from Mike.
    In his situation I would’ve been intrigued to hear all about his story. Or, that’s what I think.
    When in reality I probably would’ve been FREAKING OUT from the first sight of Kallakore and even then completely questioning everything I know about reality as I sit there watching a true Martian cook me dinner in his cave-home-thing.
    So actually, Mike is handling himself very well at this point, and I hope Kallakore understands the strange way the human pysche operates.

    • DukeBG

      A human psyche with a slight amendment — being a person that has pills prescribed due to some mind heath issues.

      P.S. I totally love how Mike’s going off like that

    • shingworks

      Years of managing his health hardcore did not adequately prepare him for subterranean homesick blue armshark.

      • Thrawcheld

        Wait, was this entire comic inspired by a Radiohead song?

        • shingworks

          The title of the awesome Radiohead song is a homage to the awesome Bob Dylan song, and also no

  • M Hoffman

    There appear to be overlapping balloons in the lower-left corner of panel 2 (chapter 3, p25)

    • shingworks

      Haha, yeah it’s a visual representation of someone talking over someone else

      • fox-orian

        What was he saying out of curiosity?

        • shingworks

          I’m sure it wasn’t important.

        • Vert

          The species’ name for itself, by the look of it. Damn it, Mike, you are like the worst sci-fi protagonist(?) ever.

        • Sheridan

          Looks to me like she is saying “We are called ?oll?.” It could almost be Kallakore but that wouldn’t fit with the word layout. Maybe the species name is ‘Kolla’ or ‘Kalla’, but that seems pretty limiting if you only differentiate yourselves by a single last name.

          • shingworks

            They’re called Wollaria/ Wollarians

    • Cthulhufish

      To you, M Hoffman, I recommend Scott McCloud’s excellent book, “Understanding Comics”. Title is self-explanatory. Bonus: The book is a comic. So meta.

      • Thrawcheld

        That raises the obvious question of how someone who doesn’t understand comics could use a comic to learn to understand comics.

        • shingworks

          Try the book, it’s pretty much the seminal work for comic visual language… also comics are a great learning medium in general. There are definitely some visual tricks that a person unacquainted might not necessarily know, and the McCloud book explains those points very elegantly.

      • M Hoffman

        I am familiar with the book.
        The fact that the left balloon is pushed past the left border (i.e the letters on the left are cut off by the panel border) left me with the impression that it was a copy/paste error and not intentional.

        • shingworks

          Oh, haha yeah it’s definitely intentional. The way I layer my art, text requires specific masking or else it would spill over to panel 1, but I can see why you thought that. In my other comic I usually erase the panel border for clarity, but here my margins are purple so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that and leave a raw edge.

          • M Hoffman

            I have edited a few comic books and seen things that looked like this before…that were errors (copy/paste/layering)

            Today, where everything is done digitally, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that certain overlapping elements are a mistake made in Photoshop.

            Most importantly, I am really enjoying your comic. Keep up the great work.

          • shingworks

            Haha, thanks for pointing it out in any case, I might shift things around for print edits just to make it less of a focus… my reasons or not, anything that takes the reader out of the story for a second should probably be avoided. And thanks for reading!

          • corvideye

            I found it quite clear… I think it’s a great technique to convey realistically overlapping conversations, and a great way to drive the reader freaking crazy… ahem, I mean, to control the delivery of information. Mike doesn’t receive this info yet, so neither do we… creating a third person limited point of view, rather than an omniscient one, come to think of it. Which helps sustain the ambiguity of whether it’s real or not.

  • Whachamacallit

    I can’t tell, but I get a “Getting pissed off” vibe from Kallakore in that middle panel. I’m not sure if I’m just thinking her frown is just her eye ridge being an eye ridge though.

    • David

      Even on our planet, animals have different ways of expressing emotion. It’s not likely that a facial smile means the same thing among Martians

      • Whachamacallit

        Yeah, definitely why I think I may be wrong. For whatever reason, I see a pissed arm shark doing far more of the open maw and flared up fur stuff than a doofy frown.

        • youhappynow

          Kallakore has had impeccable manners so far, it would be very unsettling to see such an ‘animal’ response from her.

    • Vert

      Probably more disappointed than anything else. She’s aware she’s lost a life, a tremendous history, she’s lonely, she might well be confused, and when she finally has someone to tell about her race’s history and accomplishments… he doesn’t care.

      I mean alien psychology or not, he’s showing a fair amount of disrespect for her, particularly after she’s gone to a fair amount of trouble to keep him alive. Maybe Armsharks don’t measure respect, but I can’t believe she’ll let herself be Mike’s verbal punching bag forever.

  • Ceceoh

    Mike, you’re starting to remind me of the little old lady who used to walk away from the our neighborhood half-way house and stand in our office parking lot, screaming obscenities. In other words: please get back on your meds. If you have no more meds, see if Kallecore can get you the Martian equivalent.

  • spottedspeck

    Mike, there’s something ELSE up with your eye. Red Planet Pink Eye perhaps?

    • Vert

      He’s getting more albino by the minute.

  • well mike, ya did say “tell me everything”

    also thanks for posting the wallpaper! ((don’t worry, I still have The Dagre on my phone))

  • sal

    I really enjoy the nuanced expressions that are being made using this absurd alien fish face. Page 21 and 22 are some of my favorites for fish-face expressions alone. It feels a little uncertain, because it’s a weird alien fish face with alien fish expressions, but you can’t help interpreting the emotion that fish-face is feeling.

  • nirgwendo

    your comic is amazing. it makes me think and its so visceral and thank you

  • AGV

    Mike, are you using the “we’re not in contact so you’re not real” argument? Because we know that this is not how logic works, at least not in science (you wouldn’t have bothered going to that dusty rock if so)

    • youhappynow

      You’re not the only one making this mistake. Mike is saying that Kallakore cannot be a hallucination, because even at his least grounded his imagination is incapable of coming up with something so thoroughly loopy as her whole deal.

  • Ceceoh

    Is the musical Armshark playing “The Thrip Man Theme” on his zither?

  • one: it took me three reads to actually get the sense of the “in my head” line
    two: that’s a good thing, because when the real sense hit me, well, it hit me in a good way.

  • Gemma

    Dear god michael, shut up and let the xenobiology nerds get on with it!

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