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.

Security concerns

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Clint

So as you might know if you’ve been following this blog, over President’s Day weekend Dawn and I got back into the convention groove with the Long Beach Comic Expo, with the holiday allowing us to take full advantage of the early setup on Friday.

No complaints there, honestly, we got loaded in and got our badges with minimal fuss, although I did end up scrounging around for alternate parking options since paying the convention center a $15 “all day” fee for two hours of being there didn’t sit well. On Saturday and Sunday when we truly were there all day, fine, but otherwise that was going to be steep.

This phenomenon is not isolated to Long Beach, in fact it’s a reason we continue to pony up the ever-increasing fees for a hotel stay at WonderCon despite theoretically being able to drive back and forth: the Anaheim Convention Center wants you to pay an all-day parking fee even just to access the loading dock for a few minutes, and the lots are set up in such a way that means you could very well end up paying twice.

Maybe it’s changed now, but that was a rude realization a few years back. Speaking of changes, though, as I went to re-enter the Long Beach convention hall from the frontal direction after getting the car parked at a street meter (a far more economical option for two hours or less, believe it or not!), I was reminded of the relatively new additions of metal detectors and bag searches to convention entry.

I mean, I’m pretty sure we can thank Matthew Sterling for that since this only really started happening after he tried to bring a loaded arsenal into Phoenix Comic-Con. It’s also something that as an exhibitor you can still be surprised by, since truth to tell there have been conventions where we barely get a look at the front lobby, much less the entrance. Even those times we use the front lobby to load in, we’re doing so early in the morning, sometimes before things are fully set up. It can easily skew your perspective. You wonder sometimes why the crowd is so thin for the first couple of hours after opening, and then find out that due to various factors it’s taking the crowd two hours just to get inside, even if they pre-bought. And that was before things got all TSA at the entryway.

Anyhow, thankfully I had nothing I was carrying or dragging when I came back to the convention that Friday afternoon, but despite showing my exhibitor badge I was still made to empty my pockets and walk through the detector. Keep in mind the convention isn’t even open until the next day and meanwhile the loading dock has no such screenings going on. Which, yeah, can you even imagine how crazy that would be? And in my head I imagined the situation if we didn’t have Friday off and were trying to wheel our stuff in on Saturday morning, as we’ve done in the past. “Sorry, sir, you’ll have to open all those boxes and bins for inspection.”

And so once I was cleared to go inside, I went straight to Dawn and said sorry honey, we’re not sleeping in as much as we thought tomorrow because we need to make damn sure we get here before they close the loading doors, because I am not arguing with security and I especially am not going to try to explain to them that yes, there is food and drink in this cooler because we are exhibitors who need to eat and we are a long-standing exception to the rules on that.

Exceptions are why exhibitors have a love/hate relationship with security staff, who tend to be temporary hires that were briefed that morning for all of 15 minutes and the briefing was, for example, “no one gets through this door.” Often omitting crucial riders like, “unless they are exhibitors with an official confirmation letter authorizing them.” Because that’s happened. I’ve had a letter from the convention organizers that in boldfaced print says LET THIS GUY IN THROUGH THIS DOOR and the security guy won’t let us in, because his scant-yet-absolute orders are NO ONE GETS IN an  there’s no one around to override him.

But on the other hand, Matthew Sterling, right? But on the other other hand, cavity searching every exhibitor and their merchandise would be… impractical. On Saturday at Long Beach I did check out the lobby in the morning and exhibitors were bringing in their stuff through the front, so I asked if they’d had any trouble and they reported that after from some grumbling and arguing, security was allowing them to pass. As one does, I ween, when confronted not with a singular backpack but a rolling cart stacked to the brim with containers secured for transport.

So where do we go from here? Probably the same old same old from an exhibiting standpoint, as any convention which started making exhibitors pry open all their crates before entry and letting poorly-trained temps paw through their merchandise likely wouldn’t have exhibitors for long.

Other than that though, I figure that like it or not, the metal detectors and potential pat-downs are going to be here for the foreseeable future.