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 slow tease

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Clint

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a preliminary reaction to the video game Fallout 4 (which I’d finally gotten around to purchasing and playing) and in the course of that wondered if anyone out there aside from me had ever fashioned up a Zombie Ranch character as an avatar in another fictional world. One of the respondents mentioned that they could perhaps see doing so for a game without roleplaying elements, for instance some straight-up shooter where appearances are purely for cosmetic reasons, but they felt that as of yet they didn’t have a good enough grasp on the characters to confidently take them into some realm where decisions and interactions needed to be made, with attendant consequences. They needed more backstory, more of a sense of where they came from in order to get an idea of where they might go.

I’m hoping that this doesn’t reflect badly on myself as a writer, since at this point I’ve been presenting some of these characters for over seven years. I of course feel like I have a good sense of all of them, but a comment along the lines of the above is still totally fair given that I possess the ultimate insider perspective. Sometimes it’s helpful to remember to try to keep the audience perspective in mind. I’m wondering, in fact, if it might be of benefit, or even possible, for me to read back through the archive and try to approach it from a surface angle where all I know is what’s on the page. How much of a sense of Suzie would I end up with? How much would be open to interpretation?

And while I think getting bogged down in too much backstory is a mistake for fiction, I have to admit I’ve been teasing and then pulling away from tantalizing details on several occasions, and you readers have so far been very patient about that. Portraying character through dialogue and action may in the end only go so far and perhaps I should be considering indulging in a flashback or two (or some similar device), letting the audience in on certain matters that are so far only explicit in my head and notes. I don’t normally like to second guess myself on such things but ideally by now people should have a decent idea of how Suzie, Frank, Rosa and Chuck might handle different situations, right? If not, it may be time for some revisions to address that balance.

Something for me to mull over during this Holiday break, anyhow. I did already plan for one major revelation regarding Suzie to be resolved in the coming issue which will probably put some “puzzle pieces” in place, as it were. Honestly everyone’s got such interesting pasts (to me at least) that I think it’s been more of a struggle over the years *not* to indulge, and right now it might be too awkward in the midst of the current Huachuca and network shenanigans, but we’ll see what can be done. It’s at least good to keep the perspective in mind and remember that all the teasing should get around to some rewards.