Strip 589 -- First Seen: 2010-12-09
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

What Comes Next

The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?

These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.

After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!

A Little House Cleaning

I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone who backed our Kickstarter project. One small matter remains: a couple of you have yet to provide your shipping address for your rewards. As soon as possible, please either fill out the Kickstarter survey request found on the Kickstarter site, or simply send us an email Orders address and we will ship your reward soon after. If you're wondering why you haven't received a notice about this via email, please check your spam folder.

The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
Larrge panel, showing a group of people at a poker table. Morris has approached the open seat and is about to sit down. To Morris' left, a Nordic-looking woman, with alabaster skin, faded blue eyes and hair a very light blonde. She has a drink and is looking fairly tipsy; to the left of the blonde is a sleek, attractive Thai woman who is smiling demurely at Morris; to her left is a middle-aged Texan – Ed Turner. Ed wears a battered cowboy hat, an old leather vest over a contemporary-styled shirt, blue jeans and 'dingo' style boots. He has a grizzled appearance – a week's growth of beard, chiseled lines, kindly eyes. His weapon is a mid-sized S&W revolver carried on his right hip. To Ed's left are a pair of tipsy Korean young men.
In this frame Ed and the Koreans have their backs to the camera.
A word about poker tables on Ceres. Players use the same basic tools – the cards and the chips, to play the game, but low-gravity issues produce a difference in the table. There are areas of the table which are sticky, using the same principle as the Gecko shoe-soles. Chips and other wager-items are placed carefully in the round central area which is clearly marked. Each player in turn has marked-off areas of high-tack surface at his station.
To transfer cards from the dealer to each player, a series of sliding trays is arrayed side-to-side on a rail running around the center 'pot' area, one tray for each player. When the dealer deals she deals into those trays, and slides them around the center to each player.
Caption: Morris found an open seat and sized up each of the players.
Caption: The Thai woman identified herself as 'Suki.' Although she was sober, she was Asian, and that usually spelled 'fish' to Morris.
Caption: He thought to himself, 'Maybe later, I'll get to know her … better.'

Panel 2
Wide panel divided into three small frames. The caption will lay across the top of all four. In the first frame, the blonde; in the second, the Thai woman, in the third, wider frame, the two Koreans.
Caption: In Morris' assessment, women and Asians believe in luck, not math. And of course, drunks couldn't do the math even if they wanted to. They will make the most extravagantly excessive bets, on the crappiest of hands.

Panel 3
Wide panel, focus is on Ed Turner sitting in between the Thai woman and the two Koreans. He is looking at Morris (at the camera in this case) with a knowing smile.
Caption: His only concern was the white guy, who called himself Ed Turner. He was sober, and seemed to know the game.
Caption: As far as Morris was concerned, Ed was the competition.