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 Artist Budget

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Clint

Dawn linked me a cartoon recently that I now can’t for the life of me find, so I’m going to do the worst thing possible and try to describe it to you from memory.

A comics writer and artist team are hosting a panel at a convention. In the first panel, the writer talks about how much freedom he has in the medium versus his previous work in television and film because comics “have no budget”.

In the second panel, he goes on to give an example of how he could write that an armada of 200 uniquely designed alien spacecraft are dropping out of a wormhole in hyperspace, and how in most media the expense of showing that would be prohibitive, but in comics it’s totally possible.

In the third panel, the artist (who has been silent but steadily growing more and more agitated) is leaping across the table at the surprised writer and screaming “I’LL KILL YOU!!”

If you haven’t worked collaboratively on a comic, you may not get it, but I’d wager every comics writer who is not also an artist goes through that phase where they think “comics have no budget” and whatever they can dream up is totally possible. There’s no actors to hire, no sets and props to build, no locations to rent. Especially if the writer comes from a background that previously had all those complications, then one guy or gal doing some drawing seems like the simplest, cheapest thing in the world.

And that’s when you send your artist the “two hundred ships” script and they start plotting your painful death, assuming they don’t just laugh in your face. There is indeed a budget for comics, and it’s based around how much your artist can feasibly get done in the amount of time allotted. If you’re working with a career artist who has no other job, is solely dedicated to your project, and has a team of inkers, flatters, and colorists backing them up, then congratulations! That’s a nice, big budget to work with. You might just be able to get that gigantic, ultra-detailed splash page of your dreams.

If, on the other hand, your artist is, say, your wife, and she’s got side projects and she has a day job and has to do all the penciling, inking, flatting and coloring herself, your comics budget is considerably more restricted and you should probably keep that in mind when plotting out your epic battle scene. Even if you can talk her into doing it, you should be prepared for it not to necessarily live up to the vision in your mind’s eye.

Now I’m not saying this has happened– oh, who am I kidding? This absolutely happened. I had to learn to manage my expectations, even though I was living in the same house and was witness to everything she went through in the process of producing the illustrations. Sometimes your budget fluctuates at this level just because of basic human being stuff, like an unexpected illness or family emergency cutting into the time and energy available. Maybe you end up having to go back to your script and figure out a way to tell the same story at a lower “cost”. Maybe you even have to just skip a week, easing off the throttle so the whole engine doesn’t break down. I suppose that last is arguably a mixed metaphor but you get the idea. Hell, I was just reading today that Marvel’s Civil War II event comics which were supposed to finish up in Summer are going to have their end delayed until December. Such delays are not all that rare for books of even the major comics publishers, and those are the guys operating with what you would presume to be the biggest budgets.

Now to be fair, I’m not advocating that the artist needs to be completely coddled. Even if it’s a second job for them, it’s still a job and there are certain expectations that should come with that. But a little understanding can go a long way, and it’s seductively easy to write “A big, epic splash page! 200 spaceships pour out of hyperspace, lasers and missiles firing!” and forget the effort and time it’s going to take for your partner to draw all of that. Remember the budget — even if it means you can’t get all those nifty special effects you want, it’s better than an insane artist trying to throttle you in front of a convention full of fans.