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.

Finding harmony in feedback…

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Clint

“I don’t know if I like that…”

When you’re a writer, sometimes you’re going to hear this or a variation on it from people you’ve asked for feedback. And you may instinctively get defensive. After all, we tend to be our own worst critics, right? You’re not sure if you like “that” either, or maybe you wouldn’t have had anyone else look at it in the first place. But on the other hand, you feel like you had good reasons to write what you did, and feedback that something doesn’t feel right is maddeningly vague and tempts you to just ignore it and bull on ahead.

This happens occasionally in the Wolf household because Dawn functions as my first reader. Most of the time any feedback is more along the lines of figuring out how to draw a given panel or asking me to please alter it because she doesn’t think it’s going to work visually, but occasionally the critique goes deeper than that. The original draft of this week’s page was one of those times where I could tell she felt uncomfortable.

“I don’t know if I like that she doesn’t know how to use the rifle.”

Ah. I explained that I didn’t want Suzie to come off as an expert in everything, all the time. She’s not used to automatic fire, but she corrects shortly and nails two Huachucas.

“Yeah, but, Suzie’s supposed to be a Clint Eastwood type. You wouldn’t see Clint Eastwood have that loss of control moment.”

This gave me pause, because I couldn’t readily think of an example to refute her. Dirty Harry is a master of all weaponry from revolvers to bazookas. The Man With No Name can handle small arms and artillery alike with unquestioned, sometimes even nonchalant competence, and I never asked myself where he learned to shoot a cannon with pinpoint accuracy. And certainly no supporting character was nearby cannonsplaining to him. The closest I could think of was William Munny’s shotgun misfiring in Unforgiven, and that was the hardware at fault rather than him.

But still, Zombie Ranch is meant to be a deconstruction of such fare as much as it is a celebration of it. It felt right to me to acknowledge that moment of uncertainty, even if just for a second. And Oscar’s advice isn’t meant to be mean-spirited. On Dawn’s end, though, she still felt something was off.

At these times when you’re at impasse, both feeling strongly but struggling to express that in more precise terms, it can help to take a break, so I called for one. Let’s have some dinner and watch some TV and then revisit.

When we came back to it a couple of hours later, Dawn still wasn’t feeling in agreement, but she was able to articulate, “I don’t like that they’re ganging up on her.”

You see, in the original draft, just after Oscar shouts advice, I cut to Frank grumbling about a “goddamn waste o’ ammo” — I meant that to be him grumbling about Oscar’s insistence on carrying and using an automatic rifle, but I had to admit the timing of it seemed more like a critique of Suzie, especially since Frank had been snarking at Suzie in their last interaction. Completely not what I intended, and for that matter not really necessary to the moment… so I snipped it. And thus was balance achieved.

Dawn’s not the best at articulating her critiques, but I’ve learned over the years that if she feels strongly about something, it’s worth examining that and sussing out what’s giving her pause. Then we can figure out a solution together, and more often than not the end result is the better for it.