Strip 605 -- First Seen: 2010-12-31
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
Largish panel, re-establishing the scene. Focus is on Rhonda and Ed at the bar. Ed is finishing his whisky shot. Rhonda is listening to him intently. We can see some tables behind them, all of them with grizzled miners sitting at them except one, which has the male 'coal-mine canaries. All eyes are on Rhonda and Ed. In this frame we might also see Carlos, looking annoyed that Rhonda is talking to Ed and not to him.
Ed: You're obviously new here, so let me tell you about the word 'mister.'
Ed: It comes from the word 'master' and people in the Belt won't be anyone's master or have anyone be theirs.

Panel 2
In the foreground we see Larry the bartender, cleaning a glass in typical bartender fashion, listening in on Ed and Rhonda, who are in the middle background here.
Ed: 'Sov' is short for 'sovereign.'
Ed: We use it as a way of saying, 'I recognize your sovereignty, your self-ownership.

Panel 3
Looking past Ed at Rhonda, who appears taken aback.
Rhonda: Uh, mist … sov … oh, Ed.
Rhonda. You surprise me. I wasn't expecting to hear that from … from ...

Panel 4
Pull back to look over Rhonda's shoulder at Ed, who is sweeping his arm wide. We can see some miners at the table behind him.
Ed: An Outie? A Belt rat?
Ed: Rhonda, most of us came here to get away from all that master stuff.

Panel 5
Medium c/u on Ed. Leave room for dialog.
Ed: I used to teach university physics in the Texas sector.
Ed: I got cashiered because at the time everybody knew Terra was undergoing global warming … except me.
Ed: Guess I wasn't a team player.

Panel 6
Side view of Ed about to take a sip of his water. Beyond him we can see Rhonda looking at him incredulously. Beyond Rhonda we can see Carlos rolling his eyes.
Ed: Sold everything I owned, closed out my retirement fund and bank accounts and bought passage for Ceres.
Ed: Been free and fulfilled ever since.