Chapter 3, Page 28

Woah hey that’s the name of the comic

Also I think you guys have been a little mean to Mike lately XD Kallakore is hospitable and all, but I think they’re also not telling us a few things…

Another reminder in case you missed it yesterday, Mars is at opposition this weekend, meaning you can see it with your naked eye on Sat and Sunday nights. Tonight’s is not as cool since yesterday was the dramatic full moon, but still pretty good if you ask me.

And, thanks to Patrons, we’re going to be having daily updates here for the next week or so. What should we call this? take a page from SU and call it a Mare Bomb? that sounds like a horse explosion so maybe not… either way, thanks for your continued support of the comic.

Today’s bonus art: The prelim pencils to panel 1 that I think look pretty nice

 

 

81 Comments

  • You know, sometimes I just wish Mike would behave rationally…

    • Luces

      At least Mike cut the chase. Perhaps it needs a paranoid mind to find a way out?
      Let’s hope that whenever he get’s to the surface again, Mare Internum will stay intact, at least in pieces. There is an ungood tendency in SF Adventures to leave only ruins behind the hero

  • This is a ocean-metaphor-based comic, so call it a depth-charge.

    • shingworks

      I like the way you think.

      Also I like your comics! I remember reading Over The Wall a while back but wasn’t able to remember what it was called to find it again… I’m glad you commented so I could follow the link. I’ll add your stuff to my links section :]

      • Thanks!

        Mare is an awesome comic, by the way. I really appreciate how well every disturbing, often fungal element of the world-building is supporting the central theme. Or how the fungal body-horror is less stressful to read then Mike’s life back on Earth.

        (Also the coloring is so dang good.)

        • Man, just checked your comics out because I saw Dershing’s reply. Good stuff, I enjoyed the short, quick pacing of Over the Wall. Will be reading onward.

  • Inwoods

    “They’re?” Kallakore is a plurality?

    Side note, what motive would Kall have had to go up top? Did they have biologic starships? I mean, the view alone is to die for, but, you know…

    • Fabhar

      I think it’s more likely they’re genderless, thus the use of a gender-neutral pronoun, even if it’s not ‘officially’ recognized.

      • Asterai

        Or rather, ‘their’ gender is at this point indeterminate.

    • Vert

      English lacks a good gender-neutral personal pronoun. “It”, though technically accurate, carries pejorative connotations when applied to a thinking being, so “they”, despite indicating a plural, is often applied to singular living things of indeterminate gender.

      • Asterai

        Adding to Vert’s comment.

        The default grammatical gender for persons in English is usually masculine, in absence of other information. Many of the commenters have been using feminine pronouns instead because of Kallakore’s name, which someone pointed out is awfully close to Greek for “beautiful maiden”.

  • Derkasnake

    Oooooh shit title drop!!! *air horns*

  • pencilears

    dead martian? what page was that?

    • Hg

      There’s a jaw or partial skull which floats up when Mike lifts what’s left of LEVi from the bottom of the Mirror.

      • pencilears

        oh jeez, I wonder if Kallakore is repeatedly cloned as time goes on.

        they don’t remember the thing because they have to upload their mind before they go under for the next copy to remember something, and that was the last clone that died fighting LEVi and thus nothing of that incident got uploaded.

        • Matias93

          That sounds very coherent, almost too much…

        • zpsabre

          o_o Huh. That sounds… alarmingly plausible.

        • Ragnarok101

          Hrrm….
          Filing this under ‘Likely Headcanons’.

        • Vert

          Yeap. Kallakore N-1 probably died keeping LEVi from following its breadcrumb beacons back to the surface. The Mare must remain secret from humanity. I think if Mike shows any signs of actually finding his way back, Kallakore will stop him, by force if necessary.

          Hah. Mike’s paranoia may be the only thing that keeps him alive, and Kallakore may have even less control over her own actions than he does…

  • JJ

    Um, is Kalla a really bad liar??

    • Dudikov

      I think Kal’s sincere to a fault, but (or “and as such”) may *feel* justified in being selectively discreet about what she shares with Mike. That might also include, for instance, her knowledge about the way the organic machines integrate with organic matter, and just what’s happening to him. I mean, her social standing may have been the Martian equivalent of a middle-wage grunt for all we know (rather than an engineer), but she’s sure candid about throwing her weighty age around, and then being all, “Whoops, THAT slipped my mind! I have no idea how your robit got down there, or who the dead guy is. Also, though I’ve spent all this time with the machine, I’m clueless to why it LIKES you so much. It sure LIKES you, Mike; how STRANGE! You should really get something in your stomach.” I’m interested in seeing what his new, parasitic friends do with ingested food, even if that it doesn’t amount to much. To wit, I’m so happy this is MI week. What a wonderful time to discover new comics. <3

  • Hg

    I was going to say, surely Mars is visible with the naked eye most of the time?

    But I suppose when it’s very close to the Sun (in terms of angular position relative to the Earth surface) it would get washed out with sunlight – same reason why Mercury’s quite hard to observe.

    • shingworks

      Yeah, right now it’s just super easy to see and in an easy-to-locate position in the sky. And don’t call me Shirley.

      • I think Hg mean ‘surely’ as ‘quite sure’.

        • shingworks

          It’s a classic line from Airplane :]

          • David

            That’s when I first developed my drinking problem…

          • Hansontoons

            Roger, Rodger!

          • Jędrzej

            I’m quite SURE, I didn’t watch that in english 8\

  • David

    One huge flaw in Kallakore’s logic: Mike got in, so there has to be a way back out. One challenge would be breathing once you got out on the surface.

    I think Mike’s doing better, actually. When he first fell down here, he didn’t care enough to run away from the edge. Now he wants to get out.

    • JJ

      Getting out the way Mike got in would just be diving through an ocean and then climbing a couple kilometers.

      The way Levi got in would seem much more promising, if only Kalla could remember what happened to him.

      • Dudikov

        Begs the question: just how “deep” was LEVi hidden in the first place? Why’d he go AWOL? How? All this, and more, in next week’s… etc.

    • shingworks

      I think he was operating under the assumption that falling off the edge would result in something other than Advanced Friend Mode

  • Spav

    I’m getting a serious pirate vibe from Mike in panel 1.

    Yarr! Thar be Fungus Mike, scourge of the Inner Sea.

    • Dudikov

      In page 27’s last two panels, I got a “Martian Terminator” vibe from him. “YOUR CLOTHES. NOW.”

    • I actually got a serious Solidus Snake vibe from MGS2 o_o

    • shingworks

      Actually we are like one hair color away from Haddock

      • Dudikoff

        I KNEW DEM AESTHETICS SEEMED FAMILIAR

        • shingworks

          sIGH. It is a coincidence. I really really try to avoid direct reference from pop culture, it goes against all the reasons I make things.

  • DukeBG

    Of course you cannot leave Mare Internum. It’s a comic and you’re not aware of the forth wall, duh!

    • Linebyline

      Actually, I think he accidentally made a cameo in Everblue not long ago.

  • Ash

    Mike, I understand you’re scared and confused and angry but you’re giving Kallakore a frighten. Stop borking.

    But yeah no. I know what it’s like to mouth off like that when overwhelmed with emotion. I love that. It’s so real and relatable.

    • shingworks

      Doin’ a real harsh spook

  • AGV

    KK seems quite overwhelmed

    I wonder how armsharks express intense emotions (do they “cry” or start wobbling their head arround or something?)

  • Quill

    I think to be fair, the way mike is reacting is very normal and probably how most people would react first instinct (getting angry anyway) but honestly I’ve been liking the character less and less, and that’s not cause of poor writing, infact your great writing is actually why, agressive people just put me offguard and make me naturally uncomfortable.

    • Spongegirl Circleskirt

      This is an IMPROVEMENT for Mike! Remember that whole attempted suicide thing? His anger, aggression, and demand for answers means he has a renewed investment in living. For some who had been as detached and suicidal as long as he has been, there is nothing like being tossed into a parasitic hostile alien environment to get back in touch with humanity.

  • CrisprChild

    At first i was fairly annoyed at the way Mike was acting, but I’m starting to think he has a point. As readers, it’s easy for us to accept a fantastical premise, because we are reading a sci-fi comic. We expect it. This is not a comic for him, this is his experience. Is he supposed to simply resign himself to this place because a shark walked up and told him to? “you can’t leave the mare internum” …but you can enter it? That dosent quite seem right. Something about KK dosent add up either. All this information he is volunteering, while fascinating, is irrelevant to the current situation. I’ts almost like he is trying to keep mike distracted. I think KK dosent want to open up his closed system, because then the system will fall apart… and maybe something else…

    • shingworks

      Thank you XD I think his reservation up until now has been pretty well founded. Of course WE like Kalla and thrip and thighfriend, but it’s probably a different experience to be on the receiving end of those things.

  • Asterai

    Guys, I think Kalla might be genuinely distressed in the last panel. It’s possible she hasn’t noticed the gaps in her memory very often before, lacking any external standard for comparison.

    • Asterai

      I don’t think she’s touched her face before, nor hesitated verbally so much… all very disrupted behavior, suggestive of distress.

  • zpsabre

    Title drop HYPE.

  • CosmicStresshead

    WAY TO BREAK THE FOURTH WALL KALLAKORE

    YOU HAD ONE JOB

    • CosmicStresshead

      …is what I was thinking after the chills left me. This just gets more intense. Love it.

  • Fawnet

    This is getting so Alfred Hitchcock!

  • I know he’s trying to escape and all, but what exactly is his plan after getting out of this oxygenated environment? Hold his breath and run back the the Mars facility?

    • Woops, typed my website address wrongly.

    • shingworks

      He probably just wants to find a transceiver, if LEVi dropped any nearby, to try and signal to base.

  • Karyl

    All his life Mike’s been in peril–and he can’t even off himself in peace………..now there’s an alien he doesn’t want to believe in interfering with his plans. PFFT! brain implodes!

  • Angelina

    Aaaa what dead martian???? What!!??!

    • shingworks

      Big ol’ dead martian right here

  • Gart Shwey

    Kallakore is Dory now.

    • AGV

      KallaDory? DoryKore? I can’t remember…

      • Mouse

        Dorycore sounds like a weird Disney subculture.

  • naaaa I think kalla was periodically brought out of suspended animation to be bred whenever the population dwindled… which could mean there are other armsharks still on mars

    starting to get some Lotus Eater Machine vibes from this page. what if Mike isn’t being a dick, he just knows what happens when you eat food of the underworld?

    • Vert

      Or the “System” itself is alive, and spins up a Kallacore whenever it needs something with a brain to fix it up or deal with a novel situation. I think the last Kallakore probably died to make sure LEVi never found its way back to the surface.

    • “he just knows what happens when you eat food of the underworld?”

      Ooh, dang, nice connection.

    • Asterai

      Oh god. The food of the underworld/fairy realm. I missed that. Maybe I wouldn’t survive in a fairy tale.

      Buuuuut if we’re sticking to mundane explanations, Mike’s bodily integrity is already so compromised that food couldn’t make it any worse. I mean, straight to your bloodstream is even worse than through your digestive tract; your digestive tract is full of filters and kill-floors and other defensive stuffs specifically to keep shady shit from reaching your bloodstream. And Thighfriend definitely has access to his bloodstream, and we have no idea if Thighfriend has been “eating” anything from the water Mike dips it in.

    • Hansontoons

      Martian Soylent Green?

  • corvideye

    Oh, wait… this is the Hotel Kalla-fornia!! You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave…

  • Mal-L

    I wonder if Kalla went “I could just say Interior Sea or something, but I’m going to try this Latin thing that these primitives use to make things sound more sophisticated.”.

    • Leon

      My guess is that Levi was well aware of the expedition’s nomenclature, or was maybe even auto-naming new discoveries, and Kalla picked it up from Levi.

  • Wood

    GODAMMIT KALLAKORE, I NEED TO GET BACK TO BASE SO I CAN HANG MYSELF.

    • shingworks

      lol goddamit

  • martin

    Funny to see mike from a suicidal mood to a survival one.

    • Leon

      Well, he already tried to: hang himself, jump/fall down a cliff, drown in water, break his bones, suffocate, lose blood, get infested by a parasite/biofilter, get crushed under Levi, drown some more. At this point, he’s like “why do I even bother trying anymore?”.

  • anvill

    Oh man, I really wonder the origins of Kallaore’s role within this ecosystem. Hopefully, despite Mike’s best efforts, we will find out! If Kallakore has really been existing in this system for the past 4 billion years…what unimaginable torture to be trapped in an environment that will not even allow one the escape of death. Its starting to look like Mike may have more in common with Kallakore than he might think.

    • Lilian

      That’s really insightful!

  • Lilian

    Michael’s reaction is entirely understandable. It looks like it is even productive.

    Kallakore does indeed appear distressed.

  • Metrophor

    Well, you could always say they both reached for the gun.

  • Pen

    “Greetings, Earthling. I am Kallakore, caretaker of Mare Internum.”

  • w00tist

    NAAAAAAAME DROOOOOOOOP

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