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_

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*


 

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.

Grumpy old men

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Clint

Every so often I think that I posted something in these blogs that, on further research, seems to be a figment of my imagination. For example, it does not appear that I ever talked about WonderCon 2013, or at least my experience of finally, *finally* meeting Jim Steranko and getting his autograph, something I’d been trying to do for years. As a general rule, I don’t like standing in lines, and I’m also reluctant to meet anyone whose work I admire in person, because hey— sometimes they turn out to be assholes. Steranko is one of the few that I felt was worth both the time and the risk.

Alas, it turned out the particular collection of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD stories I had brought for him to sign dredged up some bad blood. It turned out to be something Marvel screwed him on, using a loophole of publishing in Europe so they didn’t have to pay him any royalties. I had no idea. Thankfully, he still signed it for me, but only in exchange for a charity donation. In the case of some others I’d seen interact ahead of me, he asked for five dollars. In my case, he spread his arms wide, grinned and declared, “For you? Ten!”

I paid it, because Steranko. Also because he’d just let me talk his ear off for several minutes while other people were still queued up behind me. It’s entirely possible that as I left him with my signed poster and book in hand, his judgment of me was “What an asshole.”

But hey, he could have turned me away completely. He could have told me to shut the hell up and move along. Instead he sat there spinning me cool anecdotes like how he convinced Stan Lee to run his famous four-page splash illustration of a SHIELD/Hydra battle (“Stan! To be able to see this in its proper form, they’ll have to buy *four* copies!”).

As we talked, people would occasionally come up and snap photos. Steranko would hold up his hand, and sometimes they’d think he was waving, and wave back and scurry off. He wasn’t waving— he was trying to block his face, and grumbling every time he failed. He was taking cash for his posters of Captain America as donations to charity because I think for legal reasons he wasn’t allowed to be selling them for profit. Little aftershocks of an idealism long since sacrificed on the altar of the comics business.

The one time I truly saw him enjoying himself was when a young boy and his dad made their way to the front of the line. Steranko’s face lit up, and however long he talked to me, he talked to that kid longer, even inviting him behind the table to watch while he did a free sketch of the hero the kid wanted. No charge. But eventually, it was back to business and the signings, a lot of which would no doubt be ending up on Ebay.

My poster didn’t end up on Ebay, though, it’s in a nice place on my wall. Look, maybe meeting Steranko wasn’t nirvana, but like I said, I accepted the risk ahead of time. When dealing with potentially grumpy old men, sometimes just some quality time is all you can ask.