Thighfriend has a real name~ But we like its nickname better, I think.
Thank you guys for your patience for my last few months of Kickstartering! The campaign ended today, topping out at a little over $116,000, which is insane. I am so grateful to all of you for reading, and to those who were able to contribute as well. This Kickstarter is definitely a practice run for me to learn how to produce a book… Mare Internum is next on the list B] hehe
Aside from fulfilling the KS, my goal is to get back on track with updates. I owe over a dozen pages I missed in June, and honestly MI is what I want to be working on the most right now, so I’ll likely be loading the updates here :]
For Patrons, in case you missed it, there was a new tutorial that went up, as well as the support worksheet. This month I’ll probably be splitting the tutorials into two smaller ones (and two smaller worksheets) just to mix it up a bit, should be fun. I’ve also been meaning to share some art from a sci-fi edu game/ comic I worked on a while back, so I’ll probably do that there this week as well.
Oh yeah this is a complete aside, but my bday this year coincided with a rare California concert by Tame Impala, and I got to see them… Tame is one of my biggest inspirations while I work on these pages. I pretty much only listen to their albums and nothing else nowadays. Was SOoo awesome to see them in person. Just felt like sharing since I associate those psychadelic sounds with this comic so much <3
ok i will shut up now haha
89 Comments
“Well, yes, about that…”
What are pants?
Pants are an illusion, and so is death.
Pants are an illusion, space pants doubly so.
Only the darkness knows….
Congrats on the KS, this is amazing! =)
Mike, you were just drugged, out cold, awoke in a different place, your pal is missing … the lack of pants seems obligatory under these conditions. Just hope for the best possible explanation, even if it involves your pants drying on a clothesline for reasons.
More importantly, where’s Thrip?
This comic is a lot less fun to draw without Thrip :[
You could draw extra legs and google eyes on the other characters, if you want. We won’t mind.
This is true.
How is Mike’s beard growing so ridiculously quickly? Am I the only one who’s noticed this??
No XD Getting scruffy
Who says that’s fast? Do we really know how long Michael has been down here?
*ominous music*
https://i.imgflip.com/1a6925.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhaT7F7lMEY
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/e3/e32161a09ada3aa41752877ab4c198a0a9bd78488c8550d22de9edb6e5309faf.jpg
It sure looks like he’s wearing pants.
Kal’s topknot looks bigger in the last panel than the previous ones
The lighting and colors are just lovely on this page…!
But Mike… You’re already wearing pants :\
The answer to the pants question is “The Less I Know the Better.”
He’s gotta Be Above it~
Maybe it would be easier to just “Let It Happen”?
IDK man… he just got stung up by Forty One Mosquitoes Flying in Formation
Until he gets over that, I guess he’ll just have to Keep On Lying
Too bad Mike’s not exactly the Glass-of-Wine-Half-Full type of person.
Is his eye fungus toaster gone? I see scraps on his head, but the big chunk is no longer hanging out of his eye.
It’s still there :] this page turned out a bit dark, but it’s visibly hanging out on the last 3 panels
Question-are they still underwater with mike’s legs in a different part of the chemocline (as in different levels of water) or are they in the high and dry sitting above the water?
They’re out of the water now, back on a beach in the main chamber (for the chemocline, I tried to show that bubbles and debris bits were traveling through both levels of the water).
Is Kalla’s head adornment bigger than normal, or is she just pleased to see Mike?
Also, I see pants. Am I the only one who can see pants? Tell me you see the pants?
I love that last panel so much.
no I do not see pants what are you talking about are you mad??
oh my Gosh the madness is spreading I see pants!!!
NOOOOOO the pants have taken yet another victim
WILL THESE PANTS EVER STOP
I love how he’s not asking as much as just commenting the lack of pants.
that was my first thought too. Like “oh, this is a thing. okay”
Poor Mike. Seems like his only option now is to get some help from the outside.
But considering what happened, probably his peers at the Mars station think he’s a goner, already sent their condolences and insurance to any relatives, and they won’t spend any resources looking for him anymore.
Unless there is something odd they can detect and start digging a little bit more…
Kinda weird, but I just remembered I had a dream that there was a mega-update to the comic (like a chapter worth of pages) and two things happened; a female minor joined the cast (sassy floof); the Processor cloned/replicated Mike prematurely so there was an extra Mike walking around and the extra was rescued instead of the original Mike. But then suddenly there was a Steven Universe crossover and Kallakore was revealed to be a Crystal Gem.
Geez, I wish that I had that dream
That’s better than all but three of my dreams this month.
No girls ever inquire about my pulmonary sacs :-(
How are your pulmonary sacs, David?
They are moist and supple, thanks ^.^
Kalla is perched on the log in a rather bird-like pose. This amuses me almost as much as the lack of pants.
Something that I’ve beven curious about for a while now: How is it Kal is capable of communicating with Mike? Did her species evolve a vocal setup similar to that of a parrot, but much more advanced, allowing for exceptional mimicry of vocal communication? I’m thinking this because to my recollection I’ve never seen her drawn with an open mouth, and for that matter she doesn’t seem to have displayed anything similar to the facial movements we might recognize as human. Many of her physical mannerisms seem very bird-like (the various head turns and the like).
Addition to my prior: obviously she learned how to understand English from LEVI, was just curious how she could actually physically speak the words.
I think DS has said she’s avoiding open-mouthed speaking in this comic both as a stylistic choice and because Mike mumbles, so that may answer part of your question. That said, I think Kalla’s vocal apparatus must operate quite differently than our own; she can speak underwater, for a start. Humans can’t do that; if we’re breathing liquid, our larynx can’t vibrate to produce sound, and even if you speak by exhaling the air in your lungs, the acoustic impedance mismatch between the gas and the water means your voice will be all but inaudible.
The fact that Mike *does* speak underwater a few pages back raises still more questions about the nature of his current environment…
Well, obviously it’s because of Eye Toaster………or some heretofore undiscovered Body Buddy. Can we just call the all that from now on by the way, Body Buddies?
Call all of themy that*
My kingdom for an edit function.
Body Buddy, the Martian equivalent of a Babblefish.
I kind of really really want a little pet Kalla. I’d totally take a big one, but I think a small one would probably better suit my housing situation. A tiny little thing I could pick up and carry around and cuddle~!
Great page today! I loved Mike and Kalla’s interaction~! I actually thought Mike lost his legs in panel..2? XD I forgot he was hanging on a rock-thing and I was thinking that it was his body…. I got a little concerned until he mentioned missing his pants. That’s when I figured it out again. XD
lol, rude! you can’t have a pet person, even if they are a bit sharky~
XD What about like in WoW, when you got those little companions, and you can summon either a dog or an elf or small child? XD Just like that! A tiny companion Kalla! Would an armshark be a willing companion? :D
But Link and Peter Pan have little people companions and it’s ok… :'<
No, but you can make an AI that’s … plausibly acting as one, but provably not one at the same time.
Mike must have been out awhile, since Kalla had time to rescue him and fix her hair… crest… thing.
There’s always time for fashion
Shouldn’t “Where are my pants.” be a question like “Where are my pants?” Or is he making a statement? As a grammar nazi I’m unable to compute life now.
I figure the “where” makes it an obvious question; I just like the lack of inflection when the question mark is left off.
Ah! Intentional. Recalibrating grammar humor to accept situation. Responding: LOL.
Yeah, I like the period there. It helps me imagine what Mike’s voice sounds like.
It constantly amazes me how big Kalla’s primary limbs are. She looks fully capable of pimp-slapping a polar bear back into hibernation.
I wonder how well she’d hold up in earth gravity?
Not very well, haha. Earth Mike could probably lift and carry her.
I know, and those claws look formidable too. Her species evolved to climb or fight, maybe both.
Yay! I finally made an account. Let me just say, this is my all time favorite comic on hive works. There are many amazing ones on there, but I love this one the best. Thank you for making this comic!
Aww :] Thank you so much Munka!
I feel like if Kallakore was a nurse, her documentation would be pristine.
“Offered repositioning to patient. Patient initially refused but then consented. Patient moved into an upright, seated position with legs extended. Head, shoulders, and spine in neutral alignment.”
I love how ‘Where are my pants.’ is a statement and not a question. Like at this point he either doesn’t expect a cohesive answer or just doesn’t really care what the answer is. His system has now overloaded and his brain can’t process the weird anymore.
This.
Kallakore does not wish to speak of the pants incident, the memories are too fresh.
I’d love to see Mike carrying kallakore for once xD
I finally got around to googling collumai and, guess what, Google didn’t have an answer! Found collum (neck) but no declension forms that fit. A neologism?
I think Collumai might be Thighfriend’s species name.
Yeah, collumai is thighfriend :B All of the wildlife has a Martian name, we’ve just been butchering our way through the landscape as readers, haha.
Hey I don’t know if I’ve ever commented on your webcomic before but I have one thing to say and one question to ask.
Firstly, I love this webcomic. It has an amazing feel and I’m really glad I get to read it, so thank you for having this idea in your head and creating it.
Secondly, do you listen to Nightwish at all?
First, thanks! And second, never heard of them, but I’m not a huge music listener XD
With all these comment’s about Kalla’s head being larger on this page, I had to go through previous pages to compare… I’m really loving the different hairstyles(ie pg 45 compared to 24)!! I love her bun, haha! Kallakore is perfect and I need to know more about her. ♥_♥
It took some going back and forth to finally see it, but I love the fact that what I assumed was a bony crest like a dinosaur’s, actually has flexible prongs that can be flared or compressed!
That is it yes XD They are semi-“inflatable.” But I do think I drew the tail part of the crest too long on this page (compared to the fins), will have to fix it later.
Kalla doesn’t know much about pants…
Wait. So I’m just thinking out loud here. So, if Kallakore’s eyes are on the side of her head, does that mean on her planet she’s prey? Just since prey animals eyes are also on the side of their heads on Earth. I’m probably wrong, but I just wanted to see.
Yes, they originally came from a smaller, defensive creature that spent a lot of time dashing to and from the surface of the water.
I’m going to quote Aang, “Where we’re going, you won’t need any pants!”
So… Should Bex find him, she’ll find him scruffy, half naked, and covered in parasitic automatons… Wonderful.
… With an armshark who talks like a dolphin who learned to speak english from its blowhole who desperately wants a community to live in, but can hardly tolerate Earth’s gravity, but if she could, could help bootstrap Terragen technology to the late Martian so that one of the Solar species might survive the loss of their homeworld.
I’d read the *shit* out of a sequel like that, even if it’s two, three, six books out. This reminds me of the best of Contact, with an awful lot of Carl Sagan, but – somehow – with more compassion baked into the script.
lmao “I wanted to see your genitals, for science”
Mike needs a set of Torg’s Emergency Pants