In the late 21st Century, humans are colonizing the Solar System, finding fabulous wealth and re-discovering freedom in the far-flung Asteroid Belt.

But the United World government on Terra (Earth) envies the Belters' wealth and fears their freedom, and is determined to bring these "cowboys" under central control, one way or another.

-- Collecting the first 315 strips of ESCAPE FROM TERRA, the popular sci-fi adventure comic published on the World Wide Web.

Sounds 'innocent' enough!

Well, it truly isn't!  It is a thought provoking series of web comics that have been transformed into a really good graphic novel, IMO.

The political undertones in this volume don't just lie there...they come right out in your face while reading.  

This may not sit well with those that are of a different political persuasion, and not open to to others viewpoints.

In my case, the political undertones are what kept me reading, to see what the comics creators would bring up next!

The front cover to this compilation shows a group of diverse individuals in both age and ethnic groups. It seems to be merely a Sci-Fi graphic novel by just looking at the cover.  Well... You can't always 'judge' a book by its cover!

In this published format, there isn't a 'splash page', 'credits page' or 'intro page' to the book. 

It starts right in with the first page of panels, art, text, and dialogue.

Which could be hard for a new reader to jump right in...

I wondered what this storyline was about, so sat myself down and started reading.  Even without the intros, I found myself wanting to read more. Of course this would have been an easier reading if those intros had been shown at the front of the storyline...!

However, the storyline read well, and I was soon captured by what the comics creators were attempting to portray in the early pages of the book.   

The interior pages were black / white / greytone in a sort of way.  Which fit fine with this published format.

The creators, Sandy Sanford, Scott Bieser, and Lee Oaks! crafted a series of pages that held together well when reading.

Those pages numbered 315 strips from the web comic.  I looked this morning while formatting this blog, and found that as of 11-15-10, they have published their 571st strip, so the story continues!

Personally, I've found over the years, that I just don't have the time, nor want to make the time to read webcomics on a regular basis anymore.  I've found that I'm still a tactile reader, so I appreciate when creators take the webcomics and publish them in printed format for me to read. That's because when I'm on my laptop, or 'Droid' phone, I'm either blogging / listing comics for sale / reading emails / answering messages, etc. I just don't get the 'pleasure' of reading webcomics online, period.

So I said that I 'appreciate' webcomics that are printed. Let me put an addendum to that.  The webcomics that are published need to be 'dressed up a bit' when published in hard copy. No matter how good the storyline or artwork is, there has to be an 'understanding' that the potential reader / buyer of the product could be 'new' to this 'intellectual property'!

I remember hearing Stan Lee say years ago, that a comics creator has to understand that each issue of a comic book series, no matter how many issues have been printed before, may be the first issue to a potential new reader who can't feel 'lost' when first browsing the issue in their hands!  If they feel 'lost' right away, they will be put the issue back on the rack, and find something else to purchase that is easier to understand and buy!   This from The Man who became famous for NOT doing 'done in one' comic books, but continued stories!

So, even though I feel this graphic novel was fun to read, thought provoking, and really illustrated well, there was something missing at the very beginning that would motivate a casual browser from picking it up, browsing through the first few pages, and then purchasing it right away.

Which is a shame, because this is one of the better graphic novels, (format wise), I've read this year!