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 moment of silence…

Posted on October 11, 2017 by Clint

Ah, the age of streaming video. October brings with it more than the usual glut of what I’ve (fairly or unfairly) come to call “Netflix Horror” and its rows after rows of not-quite-but-almost-amateur productions; not that I’m throwing any big stones here in my glass house, but get ten minutes into most of them and it’s just the same old boobs and blood and foolish behavior from well-heeled stereotypes. If you’ve just smoked a bowl or three and that’s what you want, more power to you, but one of the biggest pitfalls for any creative endeavor is this: if you’re not doing anything original, you better do it really, really well or you’re already going to be on a back foot with regards to standing out from the rest.

But I digress. In addition to films that are obscure for the reasons above, there are films in the catalog that might be obscure for other reasons. Or perhaps I shouldn’t use the word “obscure” since some of them were quite famous and successful in their day…

I’m speaking of silent movies. Scrounge around on Netflix and you’ll find a selection of them, both Made in the USA and not. Now it’s a feat in itself that these prints have survived nearly a century, but are they all classics for that? Not necessarily, but still, it’s an interesting exercise to check them out.

And here’s where I come around to my thought for the week: this is not only an interesting exercise for the aforementioned bowl-smoking session, it’s interesting from a comics perspective. Because moments.

Moments in comics are just what you might think: the “freeze frame” that’s presented in a given panel. The moment is something our imaginations fill in on either side, completing the action presented… comics never show the entire punch being thrown, but in our mind’s eye we see it happen. The choice of the moment is crucial, though, which is why 99% of the time a thrown punch will be drawn at or just after the point of impact. You usually don’t want to draw the guy cocking his arm back because unless there’s a purpose for that it’s just quite literally wasting time and space.

So film, including silent film, is a full-motion medium that doesn’t really need to worry about those economics, but silent film is an intriguing beast because of the necessity to insert those breaks displaying the dialogue in print form. With these intertitles the director had to make the decision of where to momentarily interrupt the visual flow… or sometimes they’d just have someone talk and gesture and never use an intertitle at all, just counting on the communication to be clear enough without…

Well, let’s call it a word balloon, right? They’re a form of word balloon, those intertitles. That was my thought, at least. When you’re creating a comic with dialogue, part of your choice of moment has to pay attention to which “freeze frame,” which moment, is going to best accompany the words being said. What’s the key emotion? What will best flow?

Those early silent movies were in a way struggling with similar concerns. So if you find yourself watching one, you could do worse than pay attention to the director’s choice of where to cut for those intertitles, and whether that choice seemed good or bad for the story. Moments of silence. No tragedy required.