Chapter 3, Page 59

Uh okay good to see you too :|

Not much to add today, just like… you know. Be nice to people.

133 Comments

  • Negativeburn

    yep, that awkward moment when the person that killed your pet martian land-shark friend asks ‘What’s wrong?’.

    • shingworks

      Woah, “pet”??

      • Deltabratwurst

        Well… It was a person… Too soon?

      • Bear Grylls

        Now it’s dead person *badum-tss*

        • shingworks

          :,(((((

        • datguy

          food-person?

          • AGV

            The food-pet-roomba was Thrip

  • The Doc K

    I don’t feel right now that Kallakore’s gone

    • Ashley

      I agree, hopefully she comes back.. the only problem is there’s no guarantee she’ll come back anytime soon :( Could be many years

      • DukeBG

        LEVi was lost only few months ago, it seems. That has to fit time that passed after LEVi befriending Kalla and them both dying in the Mirror. If it was Kalla getting regenerated, it didn’t take years.

      • Vert

        And she might not have any memory of Mike when she does. We don’t know how often her memory gets “backed up”.

        • Anvill

          True, although Kalla 2.0 did have memory of her time with LEVi, so she didn’t start from scratch in that respect. I wonder if memories involving their death could have been selectively removed? But that would have some implications about the sentience/intent of the server/greater Martian ecosystem, and the unknowing/uncaring automation of a backup of a dead world seems a little more fitting to the story somehow. Anyways, gah…that panel of Kalla on the ground is just heartbreaking :(

  • Ashley

    Poor Mike… At least he didn’t attack Bex :/

    • AGV

      Same

  • even if Kal was to be “remade”, there’s no garantee it would be immediatly :|

    • Chrontius

      Also, how often are her backups updated?

  • This made me feel sick.

    • The Wing

      I feel you dude. I rarely get so viscerally attached to a character. This turn of events was… absolutely unexpected for me.

      Not only is poor Kalla gone, but this is bound have serious repercussions on Mike’s mental state and he was doing so well.

      • Matías93

        Dunno, I had thought about this possibility when Kalla appeared on scene, mainly considering how the already shown martians behaved; Mike literally had no opportunity to react, but it would be logical for him to fight, provided he were on a favourable position. From that, any scenario that included an alive Bex (frankly, I thought she was dead) implied that she had to kill to survive, and Kalla was just one of the possible victims (Thrip was much more probable, but less powerful story-wise).

  • Whachamacallit

    I’m honestly surprised that he didn’t react violently towards Bex. God damn it though, I’m still pissed that Kalla’s dead. Kallakore was a better friend than Bex ever was!!

    • Japanne

      They weren’t friends…. they were coworkers who interacted with each other for like an hour or two. =\

      • shingworks

        Haha, exactly. They’re basically strangers.

      • Amanda

        “Work proximity associates.”

  • Localized

    The 5 Stages of Grief & Loss;
    1. Denial and Isolation…

  • Pumpkin_Cake

    Bex’s eyes look a little red. I guess since she doesn’t have a thighfriend, the air still stings her?

    • Fridge_Logik

      Looks like Bex might have something growing on the back of her Neck though.

      • RedDwarfIV

        Nah, that’s the knot of her bandana

  • Ash

    I’m so numb. _ノ乙(、ン、)_

  • Dar

    NOPE.

  • Jojo

    Woof. Emotions. My emotions. What have you done Shing?

  • Dar

    Also, she took off her bush/tree cloak? Don’t tell me she managed to avoid getting assimilated by the planet while Mike kept face-planting in organic toasters. Dammit, Bex. Mike’s gonna feel awkward if he’s the only freak here.

    • gloopygloop

      it maybe looks like the bushy cloak might be more organisms that latched onto her and then receded into her flesh. like Michael’s leg friend can! she might have damaged her shoulder.

      • Dar

        I thought that on the previous page but in the first panel, it appears the bush is attached to a looped cord that is draped around the collar of her suit. Not to mention an organism of that size would probably make a noticeable lump even when retracted. Guess we’ll see. But I like the idea that she’s still untouched by Martian technology. Mike has gone full native between acquiring thigh friend and talking to Kalla. Having Bex on the complete opposite end of things will make for delicious (but painful) drama.

        • ARandomThrip

          I really like the idea of native Mike because it really shows the transition from skepticism and cynicism towards some sort of acceptance

          • Dar

            And I just noticed how Mike blends in with the bluish color of his surroundings. Bex is all warm(er) colors and lit up. The light doesn’t even touch Mike. I think this further reinforces the idea of him being part of the landscape while Bex is the intruder.

  • HyruleSymbol

    This is the thing! As i said last page, Kallacore is bolth Human and Animal to Mike, she’s in a Limbo state for Mike, and seeing her dead is not only shocking and tragic, it doesn’t feel right, he doesn’t feel the emotions for a Human, but nor does he feel the feeling of a dead animal, it’s just such a mind breaker!

  • Look at all that stamina he didn’t have just a few pages ago. Oh man. Adrenaline’s one hell of a drug.

    There better not be a hiatus soon, my heart won’t be able to handle the wait.

    • Pumpkin_Cake

      I think we’re probably gonna get an interlude pretty soon.

  • Lilian

    Oh, Kallakore’s lovely crest…

    I’m impressed that Bex managed to kill her so quickly and quietly. Was this due mostly to the element of surprise?

    • It probably helps to remember that because of the lower gravity on Mars, humans should be stronger and more dense than Martian lifeforms.

      • Lilian

        Yeah, I thought about the gravity difference as well. But now Shing is getting cryptic…..

      • Zach

        That’s like saying sea creatures shouldn’t be strong. Local competition would still prime them for maximizing strength. Lower bone density, maybe.

    • shingworks

      Guess we’ll just have to see~

      • AGV

        Mysterious mysteries!

      • Cheri

        well now I’m anxious to see if Bex has become a veritable Voltron of super strong organic martian machinery

  • HandwashBigpan

    “…”
    translation: “I taught her to laugh.”

    • DukeBG

      ^ this

  • I got my text alert that the comic updated and I immediately broke into a cold sweat. That last page may have given me an anxiety disorder.

    This reaction makes a lot of sense for Mike. I’m glad this page wasn’t some sort of shouting match.

    • The Wing

      I’ll second all of what you said. If it were me, I would probably run away speechless as well.

  • Fawkes Rinzler

    “Say something!”….

    …..
    …..
    ….

    nope! *runs*

    Also, she took off her green shrubbery! I don’t think it was attached to her…. not sure though…

    • Thrawcheld

      I thought it was something attached to her too, but I think it’s more like a Martian ghillie suit.

      • HandwashBigpan

        Adding “Martian Ghillie Suit” to my list of awesome band names…

  • Luces

    She killed his friend – the first person he’d open to for ages – for food. What should he do?

    • Solanuma

      I just remembered the Simpsons epidode where Homer raises a lobster, names it Pinchy and almost comes to love it like a son. It eventually lands on the table – like intended – but he eats it while crying, but he eats it anyway.
      That was fucked up

  • Spav

    Despite the horror of the situation, I got a chuckle out of panel 5.

    Mike has decided he’s having precisely none of this shit. Nope nope nope.

  • Bear Grylls

    Soo….is it martian tastes like a fish? And wheres most delicious part of it’s body?

    • AGV

      Too soon, man…




      …I’d say chicken

    • ProphetZarquon

      Probably the cheeks.

  • Igby

    Thing is, Mike wasn’t even sure any of this was really happening. That helped him cope. Denial. Now Bex shows up, it suddenly seems real. He really has Martian organisms growing out of him, he really has made friends with an ancient alien, and oh also his new best friend really just got hacked to pieces. This is too much for any normal human to deal with.

  • Leon

    First the canapés, now the armshark fillets… Mike sure is picky when it comes to food.

  • DukeBG

    This is the third time someone is literally running away from problems (and second for Mike), so posting this again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwx_GT7gQpY

  • datguy

    Hoping this is all just a hallucination sequence. ;D Yup. Just a bad trip. Yup.
    YUP.

    • Hima

      OH!!! I forgot that was an option!!!
      ….Now you’ve gotten my hopes up…!

    • AGV

      I hoped this to be a nightmare sine I’ve seen kalla’s corpse, but I’m really afraid of this being real

  • Sillymattface

    Now I want to see all of Mare from Bex’s point of view.

    Trapped and alone, she’s gone full on survival mode and made herself a gillie suit and an Uruk-Hai sword so she can kill dangerous beasts for food. All while apparently desperately trying to get in contact with Mike.

    And then after heroically killing a particularly terrifying arm-shark monster, she finally meets him again. And he doesn’t say a word, and then runs away. And also has fungus growing out of him.

    • Matías93

      That’s a much more traditional approach to an space opera, but also one that now is sorely needed…

  • Hima

    Actually, hallucination is an interesting possibility.
    Why would Bex attack something so large and potentially dangerous? Honestly, the chances of her getting killed were very high if Kallakore was an animal. I get it that she wanted food, but it looked like Kallakore could find remnants of things to eat on the ground. Couldn’t Bex just scavenge for such things first as well? Why did she go for the most dangerous choice now?

    • Phi

      I reckon that if Mike ever gets out of the martian underground he’ll at least go vegetarian.

      • Keith

        Hmmph, plants have feelings to you know. I figure if you end up in the stew pot you deserve to be there.

      • Matías93

        Consider that surely Kalla is a fungus

    • AGV

      I suppose that she killed Kalla because that’s the meeting place where she tried to reagroup with Mike and thought that a shark-dinosaur thing is the last thing one would need in this sort of rescue
      If Bex was hunting I don’t think that she would consider something bigger than her as prey

      • Some_Douchebag

        That’s not taking into account the possibility that Bex is and believes herself to be a supreme dinosaur-killing badass.

        Do you think she’ll be disappointed when she finds out the monstrous-looking armshark dinosaur she just killed was a lonely and soft-spoken historian?

        • AGV

          If they ever get to talk about that, at first she won’t belive it and will think that Mike have lost it.
          But if Kalla is recreated by the system on what’s left of comic, chances are that Bex meets her again, thankfully with Mike’s intervention, which probably will confuse her.
          And if she comes to realize that she killed a person and not a random animal, she will either feel guilty or try to dehumanize Kalla.

  • Unclever title

    Damn, now that’s a profound misunderstanding.

  • Dar

    Bex, what message are you talking about anyway? Distress beacon? “SOS” written out in rocks? A letter written in blood? You’re going to be mighty disappointed when you realize Mike kinda forgot about you.

    • AGV

      The one that she probably have sent to his communicaton device, which he threw away when he woke up at the entrance of Mare Internum

      • Dar

        Which page was that again? I found the one where he tried transmitting a recording and it failed.

        • shingworks

          Well we haven’t seen her since Chapter 1, so we don’t know what she’s been up to, but everyone is connected via a comm system called Buoy (also mentioned a few times in Chapter 1). Not too far fetched to suppose that she has tried calling out.

  • Roo

    NO BEX, HE IS NOT HAPPY TO SEE YOU.

    I cannot imagine what this will do to Mike’s already fragile (but consistently resilient) mental state. I just want to hug him ;^;

  • Arianwen

    What is it with Fridays and people DYING :C

    • AGV

      Wait, who else died?

      • Dar

        Leonard Cohen? Though he died earlier this week. :(

        • Shihchuan

          Ah no don’t remind me again……I’m probably going to miss and mourn him for a long while :( (one of very few celebrity deaths that elicited this reaction in me)

        • Arianwen

          Yeah, it was Leonard Cohen I was thinking of. At the time, anyway… turns out my uncle finally passed away that night, so ha.

          What a shitty week.

  • AGV

    Poor Bex is puzzled

    I just can’t figure out a way for things to go smoothly

  • Psychotic Muffin

    WOOP
    GOTTA BLAST

  • Omer

    I think I will continue sobbing for the rest of the pages till Kalla comes back to us.

    Also, did Bex hack of her entire head-bone structure thing? Monster!

  • Purplefelix

    That juxtaposition, “are you hurt?” while in the background we face the scene of excruciating murder….

  • Cheri

    Discouraged at all the comments that go so quickly to surprise that Mike hasn’t “snapped” and turned violent. Still can’t get away from the idea that mentally ill people have a propensity for violence -_-

    • Yeah,he is emotionally drained.I wouldn’t expect something violent out of this.

    • shingworks

      Yeah, it’s a little sad, but also a point this comic is meant to address before it’s over.

    • Minutiae

      Agreed. When I’m at my lowest, I just can’t. When I have the energy/ability to confront a problem, I’m at my most stable.

      Mike running off instead of a well placed “WHAT THE SHIT BEX” is 10000% exactly what I suspect I would do if someone murdered my only friend and were feasting on their corpse when I walked up.

    • Eversist

      To be honest, I really don’t think it’s too far-fetched to expect someone WITHOUT the mental difficulties Michael has to have reacted violently (or at least have a violent outburst, which Michael has been shown to do) in this situation. I would also argue that characters in fiction are usually portrayed with more dynamic mood swings and reactionary attitudes than real life people, done to make the story interesting. Additionally, he barely knows Bex, and had possibly made a bond with Kallakore beyond anything he had with anyone at the station.

      Then again, this hypothetical non-Michael character would likely have to have a propensity for violence…

      I dunno where I’m going with this, just posting some thoughts.

      • Some_Douchebag

        I agree that’s it’s possible for the urge for violence to arise in such a situation, regardless of mental health. I should also point out that this desire for violence would be directed at someone who is armed, and the closest thing their weapon is also sitting closer to them than it is to you.

        While I’m sure we’d all love to see Mike engage in some greatsword-fighting with a weapon made of Kallakore’s crest, I forgot what I was going to say because I only now realize how awesome this would be and (farfetchedly) hope to see it happen in the comic.

  • Some_Douchebag

    Bex, there’s only one thing to do to make up for this. Attempt to comfort Michael by offering a hug. Try wearing the crest to sweeten the deal.

    • Minutiae

      D:

  • Min

    Aw Mike is so protective of Thighfriend in panel 4 after she spots it in his leg!

  • Cheri

    Once someone rinses your waste receptacle you’re bonded for life. Shing breaking all the laws. :| :| :| :| :|

  • Lynne

    Is thighfriend meant to be on his left in the last panel? It usually flaps around to the right when Mike’s running.

    • shingworks

      Yeah, I think I might have reversed it… I flip my pages when I’m drawing so left-right sometimes gets messed, thanks for pointing that out!

      • Wren

        Interesting. What’s the reason for that?

        • shingworks

          Because I suck XD Haha. Artists in general have a problem where they draw something off balance that isn’t terribly obvious until you flip it. You can try it sometime by drawing a symmetrical face, then looking at it in the mirror. Anyhow, sometimes if my text layer is turned off and I’m zoomed in I forget where the real left and right is (you can see this in The Meek too… I put their belts on the wrong sides in one or two panels, to my eternal shame).

          • Lynne

            Gasp! You… make mistakes???

            You’re not a real artist at all!!

  • Spongegirl Circleskirt

    I take a little internet break and come back to Trump being president and than THIS???!!!

    MY HEART CAN’T TAKE MUCH MORE!!!!

    • shingworks

      You’re probably going to have a bad time with the final two chapters then, haha

      • Spottedspeck

        Oh sweet Cheez-Its….!

  • squidlifecrisis

    wan’t kalla carrying mike’s pants? if bex paid attention for ten seconds this wouldn’t have happened

    • squidlifecrisis

      *wasn’t

  • Ei[Dr]
  • BelleGanlaya

    No. Dude. No. Saw this coming…every instinct from past experiences told me so…..still wasn’t ready…;^;….*internally screams*

  • Saturn the Almighty

    How dare you. How dare you murder my favorite mars shark! I’m crying so much right now. There was so much for Kalla to look forward to.

  • bambo

    1. thank you for making the woman the one who survived and survived well, and the man the one who stumbled around until someone rescued him. it’s about damn time.

    2. thank you for killing my favorite character.

  • JJ

    I’m not on twitter, pls excuse this digression: Are there crabs in the Grand Prismatic?

  • Gonfrask

    Well…we don’t know what’s hidding under her scarf…maybe she has something attached, and is making her hungry

  • Fawnet

    I’m floored. Bex, why? They’re space explorers, right? Maybe they didn’t expect to encounter alien life, but surely they would have gotten some kind of Space Scouts lecture on local megafauna? “Remember, if you see an armshark, just wave your arms and make lots of noise, it’s more scared of you than you are of it?”

    It doesn’t make sense; as a reader, I feel like I’m the one who’s gone crazy now. And the look on Bex’s face is so soft and pleading, and utterly at odds with the thing she just did. What is happening?

    • shingworks

      Those are all really going questions, and I promise you we will find the answers to them!

  • VIII Strength

    Michael and Bex were simply playing two different games:
    Michael was playing a round of Undertale, whereas Bex was playing Monster Hunter. :~I

    I really liked both Bex and Kallakore, but you managed to combine the two in a way that I didn’t anticipate… like a sad, bloody version of Pineapple Pen. :’~(

  • foxorian

    Let’s just all take a moment to admire that superb texture in Bex’s hair in panel 4. I mean, *look at it*

    • Dar

      *looks at it* it is indeed superb.

  • Pumpkin_Cake

    Huh. The terrain in the last panel kinda looks like the middle of Kallakore’s neck.

    • shingworks

      Haha… I was looking at some dry hills here in California and thought maybe it makes more sense to run down the middle of those little valley things… INTO THE COMIC

  • vjek

    I’m absolutely stunned by this comic every time I return to it. I remember when I first found The Meek years ago and the art just blew me away – and you’ve been getting better and better each year. The composition, color and lighting in MI is amazing, and the sense of scale and research poured into it – reading MI is a wonderful experience. I’m so glad you’re doing this, and thank you for sharing it. I love this.
    P.S. I hope there’ll be a printed version of the comic, eventually <3 I'd love to have this as a book.

  • Spav

    I’m desperately hoping that this’ll be another example of that disturbing Wollarian pragmatism, and Kalla let herself get killed to get Mike some food, knowing that the system would resurrect her.

    “Michael, you should try some of my rib meat. It is delicious and tender. Michael, it is improper to run screaming from a communal meal.”

  • Rachel

    Ooohhhhhh nooooooooo! THIS is where I finish my archive crawl??

    Sigh.

    This really is a wonderful, beautiful, heart wrenching comic. I’ve struggled with suicidal behaviors, deep depression and manic highs for much of my life, and Mike really reads true to me. Well done, der-shing! But man, I really liked Kalla. Hope she gets “reborn” at some point.

  • Ambs

    I read all these articulate and detail-oriented observations and comments and all I’ve got to offer is a mix of sobs and dry heaving :c

  • Bex: “Come back, Mike! I’ll share if you’re hungry, I promise!”
    Mike: *vomit*

    (Humour’s a valid tactic to fight off all the feels, right?)

  • Ar

    Bex’s eyes like that with her body covered in blood is a haunting image.

  • Run run run as fast as you can,
    You can’t catch me, YOU KILLED MY FRIEND, MAN.

  • Glew

    Darn, I totally missed this page.

  • May

    BEX NO.

    BEX WHY.

    I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU. WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU. HOW DARE YOU.

  • I would react similarly. This being whom I’ve begun to form a genuine bond with- perhaps the first meaningful connection in a long while- has been killed by someone I know, but can only barely be considered an acquaintance. I wouldn’t want anything to do with her, or process what’s taken place; some people would act out in rage and grief, but I feel such a… non-reaction(?) hits closer to home for me.

  • KigV2

    His expression on panel four is really sad. This is really sad.

  • Sheridan

    Jesus…

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