Line #57 Webcomic/EscapeFromTerra


1	''[[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft Escape from Terra]]'' is a 5-day-a-week sci-fi adventure webcomic by Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser, Leila Del Duca, and Lee Oaks. In the late 21st century Terra is controlled by the United World while its colonies in the solar system largely remain independent. Senior UW revenue agent Guy Gaillard is sent to the anarcho-capitalist asteroid Ceres in order to establish a taxing authority, he has a change of heart.
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3	Think a more political version of Heinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' and you're not far off.
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5	Went on hiatus July 7th 2012 as Big Head Press dropped it due to costs. They're currently looking for a new venue.
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8	!!''Escape From Terra'' contains examples of:
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10	* AlternativeCalendar: One developed for Mars and used by most Belters for the sake of convenience. Includes "centimes", "decadays", and "dekasols".
11	* AmicableExes: [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=736 Ernie and Lili]].
12	* AsteroidMiners: A lot of Belters, naturally.
13	* AuthorTract: Due to Big Head Press's championing of libertarianism, the comic reflected it with the self-reliant and anarchic community as the protagonist.
14	* AutoDoc: One in every household on Mars and the Belt, illegal on Terra. They have been used to heal someone clinically dead more than once, [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=693 in one case after being shot through the heart]].
15	* BrainComputerInterface: Occipital (bone at the base of the skull) "occ" computers, with optional Tanglenet transceiver.
16	* ClipboardOfAuthority: How Robyn and Sajjan escape the moon penitentiary.
17	* ColonizedSolarSystem: The solar system is being colonized. Mars and much of the Belt seem to be largely independent of the United World while the moon, Venus, and Mercury are (officially at least) under its heel. The first Mars colonists were members of a private space corporation that hijacked the International Space Station when it was scheduled to be decommissioned.
18	* DuelToTheDeath: Legal on Ceres; Guy's cousin Pierre tries to start one after a "misunderstanding" at a gay bar, but backs off after Guy and his opponent's second add a couple of [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=818 ridiculous conditions.]]
19	* FreeLoveFuture: In the Belt and on Mars.
20	* GlobalCurrency: The UW uses "continentals" that are [[GlobalCurrencyException worthless in the Belt,]] where they typically have grams of gold as currency.
21	* HawaiianShirtedTourist: The UW's last-ditch attempt to provoke an incident on Ceres involves a hapless soldier dressed as one.
22	--> ''Ed: [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=687 "Could he be any more of a cliche?"]]''
23	* JustFollowingOrders: The defense of the weapons officer, who fired a deathray at some poor guy's and his family's shack and killed them. This defense was taken as it was in Nürnberg-it got him a slightly milder sentence, a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] instead of being shot in the chest like Butcher Harris, his superior, who ordered the strike.
24	* LongevityTreatment: Rejuvenation treatments are one of many examples of bio- and nanotechnology that are officially banned on Earth. Reggie King and Babbette the elder undergo the treatment on Mars, and the first man on Mars is a [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=870 great-great-great-great-grandfather]] who looks no older than 30.
25	** Largely so, since they have near-magical [[{{Nanomachines}} nanobot-maintained]] materials that maintain an atmospheric seal, even if you [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=227 deliberately cut a big hole in them.]]
26	* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: And has been extended to measurement of time, with the Martian day divided into 100 "centimes" and Belters and Martians using "Decadays" in place of weeks or months. Kind of hard to measure days by planetary rotation on Mars, which has a 25-hour day and 687 days in its year - let alone an asteroid.
27	* {{Microts}}: Martian time, as mentioned elsewhere.
28	* OlderThanTheyLook: Reggie King, Babbette the elder, and Leon Ball, after rejuv.
29	* OneWorldOrder
30	* PenalColony: The "Lunar Kiddie Slammer" is a juvenile delinquent center and farming complex operated by the UW on the south pole of the moon.
31	* PlanetTerra: As the name indicates, Earth is called Terra in this comic.
32	* PoliticalOfficer: The UW [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=678 revived]] the concept.
33	* PracticalCurrency: The primary medium of exchange on Ceres is [[TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay grams]] of [[GoldSilverCopperStandard gold]], but paper backed by water, Coca-Cola, and shares in asteroid mines is also mentioned. [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=25]]
34	* ShoutOut:
35	** The Guzman brothers nicknames are [[Series/SesameStreet Bert and Ernie]].
36	** Tobikuma Kobayashi's private asteroid is called ''Literature/TheLittlePrince''.
37	** One of the asteroids is called UsefulNotes/FlyingSpaghettiMonster.
38	** The High Commissioner of the UW revenue service looks like a pirate-copy of ComicBook/LexLuthor. His secretary's name is Tessmucker, a play on the Teschmacher, Lex Luthor's accomplice in the movies.
39	** Ernie was talking about a "[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel_Run Kessel Run]]" (a name for a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperlane hyperspace "lane"]] from ''Franchise/StarWars'') he made in "less than 12 parsecs".
40	** [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=772 "He's dead,]] [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Jim"]]. And it actually gets referenced [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=775 later]].
41	* SlidingScaleOfLibertarianismAndAuthoritarianism: Ceres and the UW represent opposite ends of the scale.
42	* SpaceAmish: Subverted, there is a Mennonite colony on the moon but they're one of those sects that don't shun modern technology.
43	* SpaceIsCold: When Guy and Fiorella are trapped in a sealed off and unpowered corridor section they're in more danger of freezing than suffocating.
44	* StealthInSpace: [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=159 Some]] Ceres mining ships manage to sneak close enough to the invading UW fleet simply by hiding behind small asteroids they tossed ahead of them.
45	* StrawmanPolitical: Guy until he sees the light, and every authority figure in the UW generally.
46	* SubspaceAnsible: "Tanglenet", like the internet except with quantally entangled particles.
47	* SuperSoldier: The "Black Mamba".
48	* TakingYouWithMe: Reggie King wanted to surrender himself to Harris, but pocketed a industrial Pocket Nuke (they used it to crack asteroids, it's 0,1 kilotons strong, because it was not intended to be used as a weapon) to take him down with him. He's discovered, though.
49	* ThisIsNotMyLifeToTake: At Admiral Harris and the gunnery officer's trial for killing the Rose family, Emily, the sole survivor of that massacre, shoots them herself.
50	* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: The brief "war of the worlds".
51	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: The girls toss Jamal out for tampering with Ernie's air, but pull him back in after he loses consciousness, [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=773 and soils himself]].
52	* TitleDrop: [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=85 this strip.]] [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=120 and this.]]
53	* VomitDiscretionShot: When the ship they've been traveling in has to adjust rotation, Guy's stomach doesn't take it very well.
54	** Or Reggie King after he rode an rollercoaster [[RecycledInSpace on mars]].
55	* VomitIndiscretionShot: "King" Reggie's reaction to Butcher Harris' use of a death ray against a civilian target and his demand to surrender himself and his government, even when there's no government to begin with. One of the reasons he's so shocked is not only that these poor people died, but they died because Butcher Harris is going after them because of HIS ruse of a monarchy.
56	* WeirdnessCensor: [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=273 Purposefully enforced]] by the researchers at a Martian polar base; the first one to mention hallucinations lost their job, so all his successors kept their mouths shut. And then one went nuts and went outside for a bit of fresh "air"...
57	-->'''Guzman''': Okay, I get it. Back in the day, commercial and military pilots saw ''lots'' of strange things in the sky. Those that honestly reported what they saw, were taken off flight duty. Their bosses didn’t want "crazy" pilots in control over heavy armaments or the lives of hundreds of passengers. Of course, the law of unintended consequences made sure any pilot - crazy or not - who saw something out of the ordinary "kept mouth shut" too.
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Context Webcomic / EscapeFromTerra