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.

Homecomings and holy days

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Clint

The ongoing pandemic is a global crisis, yet has (perhaps inevitably) resulted in people focusing closer to home. I swear that despite the world wide Internet of information it’s become harder to find out what’s going on outside the United States unless I specifically go looking for it. Even international news conglomerates have all their localized affiliates, and those affiliates are understandably more concerned with their proverbial backyards right now than what’s going on down the street. Perhaps it’s an outgrowth of the various quarantine lockdowns where for a lot of folk their own backyard is as far as they care to go (or even in some cases are permitted to go). The focus narrows. Like some of the classic scenes in zombie fiction, “just down the street” might as well be across a vast ocean.

So here in the States, we’re mostly focused on the States. That’s perhaps nothing new as the U.S. has historically always had its isolationist tendencies which it really only reversed from post-WWII, and the Trump administration’s friction with the U.N. and NATO was threatening to reverse course yet again. Covid-19 may have not only accelerated that but opened up new problems as our particular political system pits states against each other and against what I could certainly term as a weakened Federal government. Not so much so as the one I envisioned for the Zombie Ranch world but there’s certainly been some friction, and we haven’t even reached the forecast peak of the outbreak yet.

It could be worse, though. In case you’re wondering, India seems to be an absolute mess at the moment with thousands upon thousands of suddenly unemployed migrant workers trying to return to their rural homes. The government shut down the airports and it just meant they overloaded the buses or are trying to get home on foot. Then the government realized that these mass movements of people were potentially going to spread the virus to every far corner of the country and closed the internal borders… but now you’ve got a million plus people stranded, unemployed, and homeless wherever they happened to be, and those lucky enough to make it home might have brought an uninvited guest along that will make them wish they hadn’t been able to see and hug their loved ones.

Back to the States again, though, we’ve got a serious evangelical Christian streak in this country with a serious chip on its shoulder about government. Some of those folks are actually officials in government and have gone so far as to declare religious gatherings in their individual states “essential services” that are exempt from social distancing protocols. For those states of a more “no, really, please don’t pack your church full of people right now” viewpoint the orders to do so have become a point of friction that really flared up this past Easter Sunday. Trump wanted to declare the virus over and done with by then but cooler heads have prevailed so far on the national level. On more local levels, well, some pastors have been very defiant about continuing to hold in-house services and the results have been as you might have expected. Bishop Glenn was an early bird who last held a service on March 22nd before falling ill and dying this past weekend. Those who similarly packed into churches for Easter are more than likely now ticking time bombs. No zombie horde to throw oneself to, but the end result may, sadly, end up being the same.

Myself, I’m lucky enough to be working at home now both for this and my day job, but a co-worker died of Covid last week. He was 48.

Stay home, folks. Stay safe.