Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for July 19, 2021

They are Sterling’s people.

…and this is how Sterling became the ruler of an interstellar empire.

Amelia: “He’s over there! I can tell from the smell, the wind shifted!”

I realized recently that I’m only two degrees separated from space aliens. You know, degrees of separation as calculated in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

See, On Oct. 11, 1973, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing on the Pascagoula River. Long story short, they were grabbed by the aliens and subjected to weird examinations inside their spacecraft, then let go. Catch and release, I guess.

My father was a security guard at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula at that time, (It was a pretty big deal of a place, they made atomic powered submarines and other stuff.) Hickson and Parker worked in the shipyard, and he knew them.

So, I’m zero degrees separated from my Dad, one degree from Hickson and Parker, and two degrees from the aliens. (To be clear, I do not believe the alien encounter story.)

I’m also one or two degrees from the entire population of Pitcairn. Only 47 there as of last census. They are descendants of mutineers (who were on the Bounty) and their Polynesian wives. Another story for another time.

OH NO! HE BROKE SPUD!

“Travel Buddies” indeed.

Calling someone who is trying to hide = big mistake..!

Bigger question, where’s the seagull?

And thus, Amelia breaks Spud again, if that was her speaking in the last panel. Sterling on the other hand is built for the apocalypse.

The aliens will bring Sterling right back. And never return.

Spud and Sterling would be a very interesting catch by aliens, indeed. However, I don’t believe that most reported abductions occur in corn fields……

I like how they’re all wondering where Spud is…but no one has stopped to think about Sterling’s whereabouts (seeing they wouldn’t know Sterling is with Spud as of yet).

I take this as a sign they all know Sterling can look out for himself.

Amelia, you have no heart.

Sterling! Best travel buddy.

Wallace is the one talking in the last panel (“holding the button”) … remember when he called Spud as “Spud from the future” to almost warn him of some danger to avoid? :D

Sterling is thinking, “ROAD TRIP”!

It would be a pretty brave alien that abducted Sterling …

My parents rented Fire in the Sky when I was 8 and I snuck in and watched the scene when they abduct the guy and strap him to the alien experimentation table. Biggest mistake of my young life.

The alien is right there with you, Spud