UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Humanity, interrupted

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Clint

There was a day a couple of weeks ago where, for a short time at least, Los Angeles had the cleanest air in the world.

Yeah, L.A. The place where the term “smog” was coined. It was better these days (post Clean Air Act) than back in the ’80s where we got daily alerts and sometimes had days we couldn’t go outside for recess at school, but it was still a rare day that the near permanent haze hanging over the basins and valleys would clear. With the reduction in traffic after the county and state-wide stay-home orders, it’s been an almost mystical transformation to see crystal clear blue skies for weeks on end. We’ve gone from punchline to paradise.

Of course the balance sheet here is that we can’t really go outside to enjoy it, at least not without proper caution. Jogging without a facemask is permitted but you have to watch out you don’t get within 10 feet of others. Me, I’ve never been much of an outdoorsy type so the lifestyle change barely registers except that telecommuting sure is a hell of a lot easier to deal with than my usual commute where it would usually take me about an hour to go about 20 miles.

Meanwhile as all this has gone on photos around the world are showing other unforeseen effects of dialing back our “free-range” interactions with the Earth. Some, like dolphins in the canals of Venice, were faked, but the canals have undeniably become much clearer without churning oars and constant human detritus. And though the dolphins were debunked, other wildlife has tentatively (or confidently) made its way into the empty streets of cities around the world.

If you’re a fan of apocalypse fiction then you’ve probably run across some “after man” theories or concept art speculating what the Earth would look like in a future scenario with humanity (for whatever reason) out of the picture. It’s often pretty cool stuff showing things like fish swimming down a flooded 5th Avenue or hollowed-out skyscrapers covered in greenery as the natural world reasserts its dominance. But all of it assumes something like years or even centuries have gone by. Here we’ve got a milder take on the concept happening in real-time and it’s only been a month or so since a lot of us started staying off the grid.

Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Well, it’s definitely an interesting thing. Maybe Mother Nature has far more capacity for bouncing back than we ever suspected, if we’re just willing and able to take our foot off the gas once in awhile.