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.

Historical inaccuracy

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Clint

We mentioned in this week’s comic blurb how the Pony Express has an iconic status in the image of the Old West that far outstrips its actual impact and time of existence. They’re not a made up thing, but that just potentially makes it more complicated if you want them in your Western tale but don’t want that tale to be set in the tiny window of 1860-1861 when they operated.

Writers have a ready made escape for this, which is that most people don’t know or don’t care. A Western set during the American Civil War (1861-1865) will show characters using guns that didn’t exist until the 1870’s. Or they might carry a revolver model invented in 1851, but load metal cartridges in a day and age they’d still be limited to cap-and-ball and tied paper.

Does that impact the audience’s enjoyment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly? Not by much. A small percentage would have the know-how to realize something is amiss, and even then only a small percentage of those folks will be bothered with more than a shrug so long as they’re enjoying the rest of the movie.

The US Army didn’t formally adopt the Gatling Gun until after the war ended? Bah! Gatling Guns are so cool that even today action movies will use nearly any excuse to shove one in to the proceedings.

And that’s how a lot of fiction operates. Why is the Pony Express in your 1872 Western? Why’s that shell-shocked Confederate veteran fresh from Lee’s surrender carrying a Colt Peacemaker?

For much the same reason Rambo can fire an M-60 from the hip. Rule of Cool. The way Hyperdrive works in Star Wars doesn’t matter, what matters is desperately trying to fix it so you can jump to lightspeed before the Empire catches you. Colt Peacemakers and Winchester Repeating Rifles are all things expect to see from a tale of cowboys and gunslingers, so in they go. It’s so pervasive that even in this tale set in the 21st century some readers presumed Suzie and Frank were armed with those particular weapons. I think Dawn may have even accidentally drawn Suzie’s revolver like a Peacemaker once or twice even though I explained it was a more modern frame.

Now in our situation such a choice would be even less of an issue because it would be more a case of 21st Century ranchers simply being unlikely to use such weapons any more for day-to-day needs, rather than it being the impossibility of someone in 1872 owning a Springfield bolt-action rifle. But it was interesting to see people actually expressing disappointment on finding out that Frank wasn’t using a Winchester, like I’d personally shot a non-thirty-thirty hole right through the heart of their cowboy mythology. In the struggle between historical accuracy and iconic genre elements in fiction, historical accuracy often seems like a thankless task only a few hardcore nerds will appreciate, while the presence of the Pony Express will go unquestioned because it’s just hard-wired into audience expectations. People want that classic image of King Arthur and Lancelot wearing shining (and completely anachronistic) plate mail.

Is that bad? Well, considering one of the recent King Arthur movies that tried to present itself as more historically accurate to the time period wasn’t all that great a film, you can’t just blanket condemn inaccuracies. Artistic license happens, and the only thing that annoys me personally is when fiction claims to be historically accurate and/or “realistic” but isn’t, especially if it’s obvious that the creators actually really didn’t give a shit. It’s also better for me if a creator can graciously nod and acknowledge, “I know this particular style of stagecoach wasn’t around until several years later, but it’s cool looking and iconic so we rolled with it”, rather than just going “Huh?”, shrugging, and shooting you the finger while snorting another line of coke off a hooker’s ass.

Or you could cunningly concoct an alternative future setting that deviated from the world we know some murky time in the past decades, so that your only conflicts of accuracy may be logical rather than historical. But *ahem* more on that next week, I think.