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 limits of conflict

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Clint

Fight scenes are a staple of fiction, the end expression of conflict that has escalated to the point of actual violence. By that view, they represent something that has gone completely out of control… yet the fiction creator doesn’t have the luxury of just “letting it happen.” In any medium there are boundaries that have to be observed, and comics are no exception. Two guys sitting on a couch debating the latest videogame controversy is arguably rather easy compared to portraying those same two guys rolling around the room trying to bash each other’s heads in.

Sure, there’s something to be said for a fight being naturally exciting compared to talk, but it’s still something that requires thought and effort in presentation. I don’t do storyboarding for every page of Zombie Ranch but fights are something where it feels like a mandatory part of the process, because here you are trying to get this conflict across in a limited, bounded space, and you’re trying to get the action and storytelling beats you need presented in a way that the audience can not only follow but impart a momentum to them. The “gutters” and the concepts of closure come into stark focus as you struggle to find that Goldilocks balance somewhere between too much and too little, and do what you can to guide the reader’s eye so that Punch A is clearly understood to happen before Reaction B.

For instance, in the western mode of reading we go top to bottom and left to right, and so adhering closely to that format will hopefully lend itself to proper order and sense of momentum. Going against it can look odd. Originally I wanted Oscar to get tackled off to the left of the wagon, with an impact marker as they hit the ground that would point downwards to the next row of panels. Fancy. But you put that on a page in a sequence and, because of the left-to-right default, it might look weirdly like they were rising back onto the wagon instead. Switch it around, and the impact marker now points to the bottom right instead of bottom left where it should. So, we ended up abandoning that. Sometimes you can play around with the paneling — for instance more and smaller panels tend to punch up the sense of urgency, and skewed panel borders impart a sense of imbalance that can be usefully dramatic — and sometimes you just end up playing it straight, whereupon I have to remind myself that Watchmen was able to present several memorable fight scenes without ever straying from its grid pattern. If getting too fancy is getting in the way of the storytelling rather than enhancing it, well, I’ve learned to swallow pride and let a more plain layout carry the day. Fights are messy. But it’s up to you and your creative partners to try not to make a mess of them.