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.

Visually impaired…

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Clint

I’ve said before that it is perfectly possible to have a comic with pictures and no words, but it’s not possible to have a comic with words and no pictures.

So what happens when I have to try and override my own proclamation? I’m about to find out.

Several months ago I was contacted by a lady who was recruiting writers to do readings for Lit Crawl L.A., in particular her segment of the event which was framed as a “Zombies vs. Vampires” competition.

If you’ve never been to a reading, it’s a situation where several authors will get up in front of an audience, one after another, and read out loud a short story or excerpt from one of their books. Often this takes place in a small club venue, where authors get to promote themselves while the clubs get to collect cover charges and drink money from the attendees.

Lit Crawl L.A. is envisioned as several readings at several different clubs within a certain stretch of North Hollywood. In this case she wanted six authors–three to a side–spinning their tales of vampires or zombies in five minutes or less. I’m not sure how victory will be determined at the end, but I’m perfectly willing to let the fangbangers have their way if necessary. Zombies aren’t known for their egos.

Now on the other hand, I have the unique situation where my zombie work happens to be in the form of a comic book, not the usual prose situation these events are tailored for. I was contacted based on a kind referral from a friend, but I immediately warned the organizer that in my case there were pictures involved, which could be awkward.

She figured that was fine, but from my end I now had to figure out a way to solve the issue of verbally presenting a comic book without sounding like a total dork, the way you might when trying to describe a Sunday funnies strip to someone (“…and then Marmaduke gets up on top of the dad with his food bowl in his mouth and the kid is watching and tells the other kid, ‘When he’s hungry, Marmaduke really bowls you over!…”). I pondered perhaps being able to project images on a wall as I read, but once I saw the venue those hopes were dashed.

In the end I decided that I could perhaps see about turning a weakness into a strength. The beginning of Episode 3 is something I’ve always felt a bit iffy on because it’s very wordy, particularly on the first page. Then there’s some arguably on point dialogue that in some cases repeats what’s there visually (“This is a nice viewpad.”, for example, as opposed to just “This is nice.”)

On the other hand, I like the flow of the dialogue and how it sounds, and I do have that background in drama where I might be able to differentiate between who’s talking by changing my voice. Would that really be any more awkward than prose authors having to get up there, continually mumbling actions or “he said”s under their breath?

If this works out it might just be interpretable as proof that we failed at comics for that particular stretch. Or it doesn’t work, which I guess would act as the opposite and prove we really did still need the pictures to tell the whole story. Or the really optimistic interpretation — that it’s just so cool it works either way!

We shall see, I suppose. We shall see what happens, when there’s nothing to see at all.