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.

Adjusting your settings

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Clint

So there was (well, I guess, is) this fictional setting by the name of Crimson Skies. Ever heard of it? Well, I always thought it was pretty cool. It started with the idea of its creators of transplanting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” feel to the early years of aviation, of “air pirates” in a more modern era. Not quite our modern era, though, they settled into an alternate version of the 1930s and got it all gloriously tangled up in the pulp fiction of that decade, the kind that inspired similar works like The Rocketeer.

Now you might say that having a world of crazy awesome airplanes and war zeppelins and pulp adventures and dogfighting duels doesn’t need any justification beyond the “Rule of Cool” I mentioned last week, but Crimson Skies does have a backstory to it. In much the same way as Deadlands takes a hard turn from history as we knew it circa 1863, Crimson Skies visualizes a post World War I America that begins to fall apart for various reasons starting with the 1918 influenza epidemic and culminating in the stock market crash of 1929, both of which are real historical events but end up being the falling dominoes that lead to a breakup of the United States into several different competing, and at times completely hostile nations. And being hostile, the roads that linked such nations fell into disrepair, assuming they weren’t sabotaged outright.

And that’s why planes and zeppelins are the primary mode of commerce and travel instead of cars and trucks.

Far-fetched? Well, that’s what I was hinting at last week when I mentioned that alternate histories can get a pass on anachronisms, but still have to ride a fine line of how far they can stretch suspension of disbelief. I bring up Crimson Skies in particular because it engages in a similar mode of “blah-blah-blah therefore airplanes” that I’ve done, except for my Weird New West it’s “blah-blah-blah therefore helicopters” — or I guess if we extend further, “blah-blah-blah therefore zombie ranches”.

As another example, there’s the setting of Car Wars, which required a post-apocalyptic, divided United States where cars and trucks were still a big deal but banditry abounds. Therefore despite the breakups and hostilities, the roads still somehow get maintained even if they happen to be rather unpatrolled. There are planes and helicopters but they’re not the focus, so the end result goes in a different direction.

That’s the beauty of speculative fiction. You can’t be wrong.

Okay, that’s not precisely true. When you’re dealing with speculative histories or futures, the less you have to stretch the bounds of logic and possibility to get your setting to where you want it to be, the better. This is where it helps to do your research. Even if you’re speculating on the future, you should be looking to the past. Humanity moves in cycles and, cliché as it may sound, history does repeat itself. Crimson Skies wasn’t off base in starting from the example of the Golden Age of Piracy. Competing nations, shifting alliances, sudden wars and even more sudden peaces leaving sailors and soldiers abandoned who know no real trade except how to fight? It’s a time-honored recipe for instability and chaos, the proverbial “Interesting Times“. And the romanticized, fantastical version of any period of interesting times is synonymous with an “Age of Adventure”, no matter if it has airplanes and air pirates or dragons and wizards. Start with the basics of human nature and human history and extrapolate from there, and it’ll give you a grounded base to fling your setting far afield while keeping it at least somewhat within the realm of your audience being able to say “Yeah, it seems crazy, but somehow it makes sense.”

That’s my theory at least. Hopefully it’s working out.