Utsumi: Mare Internum
Author: Der Sing Helmer
Publisher: Vault Comics
Publication date: October 2025
Cover price: $29.99
Link to purchase
The Internal Sea was originally published as a webcomic titled “Mare Internum” and was self-published in print in 2020, but has now been republished by Vault Comic to reach a wider audience. This is a comic about how people help and hurt each other, and how time, space, and distance change people.
This comic starts with an impressive first scene. One of the main characters, Michael Fisher, is about to commit suicide by hanging when he receives a phone call from a colleague who interrupts his attempt. Despite his best efforts, Michael soon finds himself subject to the expectations and pressures of others, as the epigraph of the first chapter states, “No man is an island.” Still grieving the death of his assistant robot LEVi and heartbroken by the failure of his last mission, Mike is tasked with training the newly arrived Vex Egunsora, who plans to leave her husband and children on Earth to permanently settle on Mars. Everything quickly goes awry on the first excursion. A loud argument between them causes a rockslide and Michael ends up trapped underground…in a cave full of alien life.
The most important part of a mystery novel’s story is the world. In comics, the easiest way to make a world believable is through visuals. The helmer uses tones of red for the surface of Mars and fairly limited tones of blue for the titular inland sea, and makes effective use of lots of glowing lighting and dramatic scenes of characters jumping and climbing over rock formations to avoid danger. The flora and fauna that Michael and Bex encounter are uncannily similar to those of Earth (justified in the story as Martians bringing life to Earth billions of years ago), but with one notable difference. That means the entire inland ocean ecosystem is powered by intelligent processors that have been fighting to preserve what remains of life on Mars.
The theme of being in control of the direction of your life is present from the first page and continues to develop until the end. The Processor gives both Michael and Vex a “gift”, a parasite that heals Michael’s injuries and gives Vex the ability to instinctively understand language. The gifts help them survive in the underwater space, but they both resent having no choice in the matter of accepting these benefits, at the cost of potentially not being able to return to their daily lives. Vex’s decision to go to Mars was motivated by the fact that on Earth she was just a mother and felt that her children were overshadowing her career. Relocating to Mars was a way to regain control of her destiny, just as it was for Michael. As Michael said, “You travel 40 million miles and realize you’ve brought all your baggage with you…” The helmer handles depictions of abuse and mental illness with sensitivity and grace. Flashbacks show the problems each faced on Earth through subtle references that allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.
The first print edition of Mare Internum was self-published in 2020, but the timing “wasn’t the most ideal launch,” Helmer admits in the afterword. With the help of Vault Comic, The Internal Sea is now reaching a wide audience who may have missed the original webcomic or crowdfunded print version. If you’re a fan of intimate, character-driven sci-fi and survival stories like Project Hail Mary, this is your chance to check out the comic today.
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