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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.

YMMV

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Clint

Your Mileage May Vary.

A useful bit of idiom born originally out of the American automotive industry where that disclaimer was added to any estimate of a given vehicle’s gas efficiency. It has since become shorthand for “this was the case for me, but your own experience may be different”. I’ve used it a lot in this very blog, because I do talk a lot about topics that are ultimately subjective matters of opinion. TV Tropes has an entire page category for each of their work entries so as to allow for the quite possible happenstance that one fan’s “Moment of Awesome” is different from another’s.

I bring this up because a fun thing happened a couple of weeks ago. One fan of the comic piped up with the notion that they really were starting to hate our character Lacey. Not long after that, another fan piped up with the notion that they really were starting to like Lacey. Both had read exactly the same pages and come away with two different opinions.

And where a character is concerned, I think that’s great! It’s very, very rare that I intend to present anyone in Zombie Ranch as being “in the right” or “in the wrong”. Instead, I try my best to write them according to their personalities, circumstances, and motivations. It’s fair to say that I would perhaps give some side-eye to anyone who declared they really liked the Huachucas because “human flesh tastes awesome, you guys!”, but I’m not necessarily out there with an agenda of, say, always presenting Suzie’s decisions as the best and wisest. I feel like the author siding explicitly with a character can lead all too easily to a work degenerating into an author tract, or worst of all the specter of the Mary Sue. Then the situation can be compounded by the author feeling personally attacked when even one audience member offers criticism of that character, much less outright hatred. Even if you do largely agree with your protagonist’s perspective, I think it’s more useful and better for the story as a whole to keep a bit of distance for perspective. For instance, because of the author’s known political outlook you might expect Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta to be firmly on the side of its anarchistic, anti-establishment protagonist, and yet the story itself presents a much more nuanced take where V is shown at times to be as much a monster as those he fights. Admittedly, sometimes an author just shows that anyhow by complete accident in the course of trying to show how their hero is the bestest thing to ever best, but that’s a dividing line for me that’s the difference between something that makes me think and something I just laugh at.

No matter how much you try to skew the presentation, if your fanbase is big enough there will always be at least some people who will be rooting for The Empire. But as long as that’s not because the majority are finding your heroes or story unintentionally dull, such should probably be taken as a compliment on how great your antagonists are. Your fans’ mileage will always vary. Your job as a creator is to make it a memorable trip.