Yes the plot of this comic is very interesting but please describe lakes to me
It’s still kind of up in the air if Martian water was liquid or solid (ice) at various times in its history. Mars began losing its magnetic field a longass time ago (4.2bya) due its molten inner core slowing down/ loss of internal convection of metals that causes the magnetic field to exist. The loss of the field would have left the planet vulnerable to having all of its insulating atmosphere and water stripped away :[ Which is why Mars is so barren now despite being so similar to Earth otherwise… anyways, there’s some evidence either way for liquid and frozen oceans, depending on the state of the planet at the time.
Before I get to other stuff, a cute Mike and Bex by one of my best buddies Mags, who does Monster Pulse :]
Sorry for a brief update pause! I am juggling so much work right now, haha… Finishing up a story for the Elements anthology (scifi of course~), prepping for my first Kickstarter for The Meek annnddd… TUTORIAL. We hit a huge Patreon goal last week and the means a new tutorial has been unlocked. I’ll be uploading that sometime this week, very exciting. You can read a full recap of the last month and what’s coming for this month here. In the meantime, back to “normal” updates.
Today’s bonus art: I found this older pic of Mike back when I was playing with the idea of him growing shit everywhere, scruffy af
40 Comments
Dude seriously do something about the mushrooms near your eye D:
I think at this point his eye is the mushrooms. D: I hope he doesn’t lose the remaining baby blue or ThighFriend will have to pull double-duty as a seeing-eye… flap-flap. Thing.
And emotional support flapflap
He’s a whole ecosystem at this point.
Now Kallakore can get a taste of that human curiosity.
The post-traumatic shock is over
I was beginning to worry he wasn’t going to fill the “ask questions so that readers can know what’s going on” role, but here we go!
well he seems to be handling things pretty well considering his situation I know I probably wouldn’t be handling things so well let alone asking what his life and planet was like four billion years ago so yeah mike is made of some stern stuff indeed
Do arms sharks have sexual dimorphism?
They do!
Woah! I hope that we can have a peek at that at some point!
Michael your science nerd is showing
back to the face touching
That fungus is getting quite concerning. Mike should keep an eye on it.
Yeah, he’d better keep his eyes peeled.
I’m sure a little fungeye is nothing to worry about (I really hope that pun hasn’t already been made 10 times by now…).
At least Mike is asking real questions witout any ugly side remarks; exploring scientific problem seems bring all his good sides up. Let’s hope the martians teach him to cope with his difficulties!
Bad thighfriend, no flapping in the soup!
Kallakore appears terribly lonely here, even without the text.
And now we get to see Mike geologist-nerding on everything. I love it. Forget the fact that Mars apparently experienced some kind of freaky bio-singularity, tell me about dem lakes.
Mike had still been hanging all his hope on find LEVi intact. Now that that hope is dashed, his curiosity is no longer blocked by his basic survival instinct.
Mike’s face-touching really highlights the fact that he hasn’t opened his eye. Is it gone to the Martian mushrooms?
I’m not sure if this has been asked already or not, so I’ll ask it anyway. Are the mushroom/fungal growths on his head a sort of symbiote? Sort of along the lines of his sweat and dead skin cells providing nutrients for the growths while they in turn allow him to better survive in the underground martian conditions by adjusting the immediate conditions around him? (I.E. Breathable air, filtering irritants, preventing disease, etc)
More and more it appears the Martian technology is completely biological. Possibly by necessity to survive the ages, relying on an eco-system geared towards their needs to cover the ages.
Best guess is that Kallakore’s people were there to experience the downfall of Mars’ atmosphere and designed this eco-system to sustain their life in the hope Mars would become habitable again one day.
Interesting that Kallakore notes being brought in and out of stasis over that period of time as circumstances warranted it. Makes me think that the same could have been happening to Mike. He’s in a stasis, sustained by the eco system (particularly thigh-friend) and restored (thigh bone injury and internal bleeding). We know the first outage couldn’t have been long since his helmet still had battery to produce the light but he was arguably brought out of the sleep when the hammer-heads presented a danger. Then he’s out for who knows how long the second time until thigh-friend is in need of a drink.
That would explain why his beard appears to be growing so fast…
Is Mike being eaten alive, or is he being modified to survive the environment?
Plugins, as it were…
Uh, Mike. I think it’s about time to harvest.
What look is that on Kallakore’s face? Is that sadness I see? So then, there WERE others. Past tense. Buckle in for feelings.
AND I KILLED THEM ALL
FOR I HATE MY ENNEMY
I’d say it’s weird that he’s not freaking out about the fungi all over him but I’ve read way too many articles about parasitic microorganisms exerting some form of mind-control on their hosts
Why do you think he was happy and laughing when he found the water?
oh weird i thought he’d gotten rid of thighfish!!!
It perked back up ca. p. 18. Really seems to like water.
oh my god mike is so cute
ps is kalla burning sulfur or… why is flames blu
lol yes, high sulfur content in the dry fuel, nice spot XD
“Can you describe the surface hydrology?”
Mike is a Tier-1 nerd.
I wonder if the “system” is capable of repurposing alien matter and forms for the purpose of proliferating Kalla’s species? That would answer her uncertainties, as well as Mike’s.
This is kinda becoming rather disgusting, what with all that fungus and stuff… =/
“Did it have oceans?”
“Oh yes,” said Arthur with a sigh, “great wide rolling blue oceans…”
“Can’t bear oceans,” said Marvin.
Up till now, this has been a beautifully-illustrated and engaging story, but now it gets *really* interesting.
Top of my mind is why, if the Martians were technologically-advanced enough to throw rubbish into precise solar orbits and could see that their planet was dying, why they didn’t build something like an artificial magnetosphere out at L1 to stop the solar wind stripping their atmosphere. Where is the remnants of their space activities like bases on Phobos or Demios, or a space elevator and/or orbital ring/s? If they were at least as advanced as we are there’s no reason for them to go functionally extinct unless they do it to themselves.