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

Panel 1
Full-height panel, Guy Caillard – a small, wiry man with a pencil moustache -- is walking towards us down an office corridor. He is dressed in 22nd-Century style office clothing, and the corridor (along with all the interiors of this segment) have a simple/functional but also vaguely futuristic style. Clipped to his breast pocket is a 2”x3” ID badge. When you can see it up close, it has his mug-shot as the largest object, his printed name, a small bar-code and two magnetic strips.

Guy is holding a cup of coffee, and he has a desultory expression on his face.

Caption: Guy Caillard, from the French region of Terra, pronounced his first name ‘Ghee’.

Caption 2: That the mostly Anglophones here at United World Revenue Service insisted on pronouncing it to rhyme with ‘eye’ was one of many irritations he endured at his job.

Panel 2
Dream-picture of a more heroic image of Guy, dressed something like a Wild-West Sheriff with a big star on his vest, standing over the corpses of the “robber barons,” gazing across a bomb-blasted corporate boardroom in a domineering pose.

Caption: All his life he had nurtured an heroic vision of himself, one recognized for his talent and courage.

Caption 2: When he went to work for the UWRS, he thought he would force the robber barons to pay their fare share in helping Terra’s less fortunate.

Panel 3
Medium elevated angle shot of Guy’s cubicle, with the real Guy sitting at his desk. The cubicle is about 7x7 and is crammed full of paper files, folders, and envelopes both large and small – stacked up in piles around the place. There are drawers and cabinets but they are also stuffed There’s barely room for a walkpath to Guy’s chair. It looks absolutely dreary. Guy is taking a sip of his coffee while seated with ramrod straight posture facing the terminal display on his desk. The display looks something like a futuristic flatscreen monitor and keyboard, without cords. The desktop is also cluttered with stacks of papers and envelopes.

Caption: It hadn’t quite worked out that way. The Robber Barons had been taxed into oblivion, except for a clever few who made all the right friends and were therefore untouchable.

Caption 2: So Guy spent his days squeezing the dwindling middle class to fund UW’s many worthy projects. He felt sorry for them, but somebody has to pay for social justice.

Strip 1 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2008-09-26
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
Full-height panel, Guy Caillard – a small, wiry man with a pencil moustache -- is walking towards us down an office corridor. He is dressed in 22nd-Century style office clothing, and the corridor (along with all the interiors of this segment) have a simple/functional but also vaguely futuristic style. Clipped to his breast pocket is a 2”x3” ID badge. When you can see it up close, it has his mug-shot as the largest object, his printed name, a small bar-code and two magnetic strips.

Guy is holding a cup of coffee, and he has a desultory expression on his face.

Caption: Guy Caillard, from the French region of Terra, pronounced his first name ‘Ghee’.

Caption 2: That the mostly Anglophones here at United World Revenue Service insisted on pronouncing it to rhyme with ‘eye’ was one of many irritations he endured at his job.

Panel 2
Dream-picture of a more heroic image of Guy, dressed something like a Wild-West Sheriff with a big star on his vest, standing over the corpses of the “robber barons,” gazing across a bomb-blasted corporate boardroom in a domineering pose.

Caption: All his life he had nurtured an heroic vision of himself, one recognized for his talent and courage.

Caption 2: When he went to work for the UWRS, he thought he would force the robber barons to pay their fare share in helping Terra’s less fortunate.

Panel 3
Medium elevated angle shot of Guy’s cubicle, with the real Guy sitting at his desk. The cubicle is about 7x7 and is crammed full of paper files, folders, and envelopes both large and small – stacked up in piles around the place. There are drawers and cabinets but they are also stuffed There’s barely room for a walkpath to Guy’s chair. It looks absolutely dreary. Guy is taking a sip of his coffee while seated with ramrod straight posture facing the terminal display on his desk. The display looks something like a futuristic flatscreen monitor and keyboard, without cords. The desktop is also cluttered with stacks of papers and envelopes.

Caption: It hadn’t quite worked out that way. The Robber Barons had been taxed into oblivion, except for a clever few who made all the right friends and were therefore untouchable.

Caption 2: So Guy spent his days squeezing the dwindling middle class to fund UW’s many worthy projects. He felt sorry for them, but somebody has to pay for social justice.