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.

Signature sounds

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Clint

Several months back I wrote a blog about the “sounds of silence”, where I explored the way creators choose to portray (or not portray) sound effects in comic pages. I won’t rehash that entry here (that’s what the link is for, after all), but as today’s comic goes live with its whumpings and bumpings and ble-e-e-gh, the subject is on my mind again.

For instance, how do you spell the word ‘okay’? The way I just did? Or are you more of an ‘o.k.’ or ‘ok’ person? Or are you Raymond Chandler who always insisted on spelling it ‘okey’, and screw you if you didn’t like it? Do your characters say “damn it!”, “damnit!” or “dammit!” ? Do they just “sigh” or do they bust out with an Alan Moore-style “huaaaaauuugh!” ?

It occurred to me how much these little variations can mark stylistic differences between one creator and another, similar to the way a handwriting expert examines how someone loops their signature. For instance if you know about Chandler and a dude offered you a “lost manuscript” of his where ‘okey’ was spelled differently, you might get very suspicious. If you picked up an Alan Moore comic which was chock full of ‘ZOT!’ and ‘KA-POW!’ and people weeping with word bubbles of ‘Sob!’, it would seem like something was very off… like a Rob Liefeld drawing displaying realistic anatomy and a lack of pouches.

But so long as a creator is alive, there’s also certainly no prohibition against them trying different ways of doing things. Not every Moore comic has that same sound effects moratorium that Watchmen or V for Vendetta had. Moore even penned a “Writing for Comics” guide in 1985 that he nowadays disavows as crap that should be forgotten rather than studied… just as an example of how people can change their thinking, even on matters they seem quite adamant about for the moment. Hell there’s stuff in this very blog series I can go back and read and scratch my head wondering what “that guy” was thinking.

There’s also the possibility where comics are concerned that the writer isn’t doing their own lettering, which could mean you’re looking at the stylistic preferences of another person entirely. But if they are doing their own lettering, all the choices they make from bubble structure to font to bolding to even how they choose to convey expressions and sounds can get pretty individualistic. And there’s really nothing wrong with that, so long as the story gets told effectively. I think it’s actually part of what makes comics fun, especially in the independent scene.

Plus, you have no idea how long it took me to come up with a visual way to express the sound a goat makes, funky font and all. This is my onomatopoeia, mm hmm. There are many like it, but this one is mine.