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.

QV on a short break

QUANTUM VIVE is taking a break for a few weeks, as we prepare for Part 2 of the Novo Palermo story, and also for a Kickstarter campaign for Part 1, which will start in September.

In the meantime, Not-Safe.Space will continue, as a murder mystery begins and the relationship between Eithne and Diana develops in unexpected directions.

Not-Safe.Space is a NSFW strip but more than half the pages are SFW so I've set those to *not* require a Patreon membership. Readers should be able to follow the story without seeing the NSFW pages. If I've done this right.

Kickstarter successful and closed

The Kickstarter campaign for Not-Safe.Space Chapter 3 concluded successfully on April 21, and Scott extended the time allowed for late pledges until May 19.

Books have been ordered from the printer and Scott will be spending the next week or so setting up and sending the PDF files to those who asked for them.

(There are still six of you who have not responded to the survey asking for e-mail and snail-mail addresses, he'll do the best he can.)

Thanks to all for supporting this Kickstarter!

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!