Escape From Terra - by Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser and Lee Oaks! - Big Head Press, publishing Thoughtful Stories since 2002

Panel 1
Inside the Water Bros. café. Billy Rose and his friend Wally are crouching behind the counter that stands to the left of the entrance (as seen from inside the café looking towards the exit hatchway). Wally is fiddling with some small device a bit bigger than one of those Blackberry phone/PDAs, which is attached by a thin wire to a standard desktop holo-monitor.

Billy: Now what’s this supposed to do, Wally?

Wally (whispers): Shh!! It looks at people coming in the door, and projects a 3D ‘body’ of our choosing onto them.

Panel 2

Closer 2-shot of Billy and Wally. Hunched over and whispering conspiratorially.

Billy: What, for real?

Wally: No, just in the recorder. We edit and broadcast this on Tanglenet. Imagine this joint full of freak-show, Billy. We’ll go viral and become famous.

Panel 3
In this and the following 3 panels, we are seeing the action on the holo-monitor, with Wally and Billy at the far opposite edges of the frame. The monitor is showing the café entryway from a somewhat elevated point at the far end of the room (the camera is hidden in the sign above Babbette the Elder’s usual station), zoom set to provide a full-length view of whoever is passing the counter behind which the boys are hiding.

In the first frame, we see Bert coming through. But his head is on top of the body of a gorilla.

Wally (still whispering): Ape-Bert

Billy (quietly): *snort*
Panel 4

Next, a youngish-looking couple. He has a body something like the Gorn from Star Trek, she is dressed in a clown-ballerina outfit with tutu over candy-striped leggings, flower-print leotard and grotesquely oversized, sagging breasts

Wally: Lizard-man and his bozo ballerina

Billy: *chortle*

Panel 5
Next up, Neil Isher (the gunshop owner). He is wearing ridiculously exaggerated “cowboy” garb – big floppy hat, vest with the “Woody” black-and-white cowhide pattern, a pair of comically oversized cartoon sixguns slung low on his hips, bolo tie, oversized cowboy boots with very pointy toes and oversized spurs. And a rope coiled and looped over his left shoulder. Billy is visibly shaking with mirth.

Wally: Lariat Neil

Billy: *snicker*

Panel 6
Last but not least, Emily Rose. She is portrayed in a Medusa get-up, with brass brassiere, tattered skirt, and snake-hair. Billy is bursting out laughing now.

Wally: Aaaand – Emilydusa!

Billy: (losing it) HAW!!!

Panel 7
Make this panel narrow so we have more room in the last panel. The boys, in the lower foreground, are looking over their shoulders at Bert, the unnamed couple, Neil and Emily (in their true appearances) glaring down at them from across the counter.

Billy and Wally in unison: Uh-oh!

Panel 8
Exterior entry to the Water Bros. establishment. Billy and Wally are scrambling out the door, enraged Emily in hot pursuit. (Don’t forget the low gravity – these kids are really leaping.

Emily: Billy Rose! You are so DEAD!

Billy: Not if I can run fast enough!

Strip 105 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2009-02-06
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
Inside the Water Bros. café. Billy Rose and his friend Wally are crouching behind the counter that stands to the left of the entrance (as seen from inside the café looking towards the exit hatchway). Wally is fiddling with some small device a bit bigger than one of those Blackberry phone/PDAs, which is attached by a thin wire to a standard desktop holo-monitor.

Billy: Now what’s this supposed to do, Wally?

Wally (whispers): Shh!! It looks at people coming in the door, and projects a 3D ‘body’ of our choosing onto them.

Panel 2

Closer 2-shot of Billy and Wally. Hunched over and whispering conspiratorially.

Billy: What, for real?

Wally: No, just in the recorder. We edit and broadcast this on Tanglenet. Imagine this joint full of freak-show, Billy. We’ll go viral and become famous.

Panel 3
In this and the following 3 panels, we are seeing the action on the holo-monitor, with Wally and Billy at the far opposite edges of the frame. The monitor is showing the café entryway from a somewhat elevated point at the far end of the room (the camera is hidden in the sign above Babbette the Elder’s usual station), zoom set to provide a full-length view of whoever is passing the counter behind which the boys are hiding.

In the first frame, we see Bert coming through. But his head is on top of the body of a gorilla.

Wally (still whispering): Ape-Bert

Billy (quietly): *snort*
Panel 4

Next, a youngish-looking couple. He has a body something like the Gorn from Star Trek, she is dressed in a clown-ballerina outfit with tutu over candy-striped leggings, flower-print leotard and grotesquely oversized, sagging breasts

Wally: Lizard-man and his bozo ballerina

Billy: *chortle*

Panel 5
Next up, Neil Isher (the gunshop owner). He is wearing ridiculously exaggerated “cowboy” garb – big floppy hat, vest with the “Woody” black-and-white cowhide pattern, a pair of comically oversized cartoon sixguns slung low on his hips, bolo tie, oversized cowboy boots with very pointy toes and oversized spurs. And a rope coiled and looped over his left shoulder. Billy is visibly shaking with mirth.

Wally: Lariat Neil

Billy: *snicker*

Panel 6
Last but not least, Emily Rose. She is portrayed in a Medusa get-up, with brass brassiere, tattered skirt, and snake-hair. Billy is bursting out laughing now.

Wally: Aaaand – Emilydusa!

Billy: (losing it) HAW!!!

Panel 7
Make this panel narrow so we have more room in the last panel. The boys, in the lower foreground, are looking over their shoulders at Bert, the unnamed couple, Neil and Emily (in their true appearances) glaring down at them from across the counter.

Billy and Wally in unison: Uh-oh!

Panel 8
Exterior entry to the Water Bros. establishment. Billy and Wally are scrambling out the door, enraged Emily in hot pursuit. (Don’t forget the low gravity – these kids are really leaping.

Emily: Billy Rose! You are so DEAD!

Billy: Not if I can run fast enough!