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.

The importance of divergence…

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Clint

This week’s comic features some talk about technology and what should and shouldn’t be possible according to the characters’ knowledge, in particular on the topic of “active camouflage” — which in layman’s terms could best be described as being able to disappear into the background a la The Predator, or Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. If you google it you’ll come across some videos of people claiming they’ve already made it happen. These videos tend to be, to put it kindly, “unverified.” I don’t know if you reading this are old enough to remember when the claims of cold fusion made headlines back in 1989, only to fizzle under peer review and remain–so far as anyone knows–unrealized nearly 30 years later.

But technology has a way of blindsiding even the most prescient of futurists and science fiction authors. What if I write a comic like today’s where Rosa claims active camo isn’t possible, and tomorrow I read the real-world headlines that active camo is real?

Well, first I’d be waiting for the cooling off period cold fusion went through (pun intended), but if indeed it turns out to be a real, repeatable, verifiable tech, then I look kind of foolish that I had a tech-savvy character say otherwise, right?

That’s when divergence becomes important.

How to best explain the concept? Well, most settings where superheroes exist in our modern world tend to set a divergence point somewhere shortly before, during, or after World War II, which not coincidentally was the point in our world where superheroes started appearing in popular media. Human history progresses normally up until the point of divergence, but after that point all bets are off.

As exercises in alternative history this can be fascinating in of itself and also allow for positively Kirbyesque flights of fancy, but a very practical reason is entwined in this process as well. For Zombie Ranch, I have taken a snapshot of our world as it existed in the early 21st Century and started riffing on it from there, which means now I don’t feel burdened by the need to continually update based on current real-world technological advances. Instead, the advent of the zombie apocalypse gives me the freedom to say, for example, that Tech Aspect A is further along now than we may ever know in our own lifetimes, but Tech Aspect B remains stagnant or retrograde even though we in the real world might tomorrow be enjoying its benefits (or cursing its problems).

Divergence allows for an uncoupling of the reality you require for your story from the reality you’re living through, and I feel is nearly mandatory when you’re dealing with a modern or near future setting. Will active camo be a thing on the battlefields of tomorrow? Is it already a thing, just not available to the public? Will it just prove completely unfeasible to implement?

As a certain wizard of Middle-Earth once said: “even the very wise cannot see all ends.” Diverge, and you can just fit your ends to justify your means.