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.

Good for your skull…

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Clint

Well the Thor: Ragnarok trailer dropped recently and I’m quite enthused about that, but before that happened a different film had its place in my heart for at least a few days. Aw heck, it’s not like I stopped loving it. Kong: Skull Island is unequivocally the best time I’ve had at the movies since Mad Max: Fury Road, and when I sort through any number of reasons for that I keep coming back to one factor: enthusiasm.

And that, friends and neighbors, is the main reason it’s my blog topic this time around — aside from maybe trying to convince a few of you to shell out the cash for a viewing before it leaves theaters. That toxic, entrenched attitude that genre fiction is somehow inherently inferior, which I talked about a couple weeks ago, is something that still occasionally sabotages movie adaptations of “geek” properties, even though you’d think by now that Marvel Studios would have shown that a policy of embracing your source material can be quite profitable. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising since Pixar’s overall track record has not changed that many animated flicks still come out offering little more than fart jokes, and make money despite that. If you’re a movie executive that’s not really interested in your job beyond what money and perks it can give you and you can make just as much money not trying as trying, why bother trying?

That’s why a movie like Skull Island, for all that it’s basically about a giant ape who smashes things, is so important. Because if you’re a fan of the IP involved, “why bother trying?” is not even a question that enters your head. You want the people bringing an adaptation to the big screen to be as excited as you are, where it’s not just a job but a labor of love.

Now mind you, words alone aren’t always the greatest indicator of this. Ben Affleck and M. Night Shymalan both professed to be big fans of Daredevil and Avatar: The Last Airbender, respectively, and those productions turned out… not so great. Listen to K:SI director Jordan Vogt-Roberts talk about rebooting King Kong by way of Apocalypse Now and it sounds like a potential misfire/disaster on the scale of Josh Trank’s doomed reimagining of the Fantastic Four. But Trank, I contend, is someone who didn’t embrace his source material, to the point he wouldn’t let any of his cast members read the comics. Similarly, Zack Snyder is on record as not understanding Superman or why people might like him, and as a result gives us a Man of Steel that not many people like.

Vogt-Roberts sat down in the director’s chair for Skull Island with a strange vision. I wasn’t really interested in the film, at least not enough to shell out for a rare theater viewing. Even after friends started reporting it was a decent popcorn flick with lots of giant ape action, meh, gotta have standards. But as fate would have it, Dawn and I ended up needing to get out of the house for a few hours and neither of us were in the mood for something heavy, so we gave it a shot. And we loved it.

Kong: Skull Island is a movie by fans of monster movies, for fans of monster movies, but more than that is just a great action movie, period. You don’t even have to turn your brain off to enjoy it, because the plot holes and mystery motivations are at a minimum, and there’s a cast of A-list actors keeping the human element interesting in between money shot after money shot of kaiju battles. Possibly the best kaiju battles I’ve ever seen on film, and by the end of it I was actually excited for Legendary Pictures attempting to put together a “Monsterverse” with Kong vs. Godzilla slated for 2020 or thereabouts — which by the way, if you do give it a go, stay past the end credits.

Vogt-Roberts embraced his sources with knowledge and enthusiasm, and would seem to have been able to infect his crew and actors with a similar sense of doing something special. I think the film not only succeeds because of that but is going to be the sort of cult classic fans are still watching 30 years from now, up there with the likes of Aliens. I’m not going to go so far as to blaspheme and say it will still be watched nearly a century later like the original King Kong — I don’t think even Vogt-Roberts had any notions of that level of hubris — but this is the kind of genre production that should be encouraged. It’s good for the geeky soul, and Skull as well.