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.

Holiday observations

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Clint

So a few weeks ago it suddenly hit me that Christmas Day and New Year’s Day would fall on Wednesdays this year, i.e. that day we do updates. I know, my powers of calendar are amazing.

We’ve taken breaks during this time in the past, sometimes with sketches and sometimes with fan art, and we’ve acknowledged other holidays in our blogs as they come around, especially if they happen to actually coincide with a publication date. But compared to some webcomics, I have to admit we really aren’t all that “festive”. If you’re a regular webcomic reader you probably know what I’m talking about, you open up their site on December 25th or thereabouts and there’s some illustration of the cast in their Santa hats all gathered ’round a tree, sipping eggnog, unwrapping presents, and engaging in all other manner of stereotypical Holiday cheer.  Meanwhile, you open up Zombie Ranch today and get a blood-spattered Uncle Chuck with nary a wreath or sprig of mistletoe in sight.

Now mind you that’s a story page where it would make absolutely no sense to shove in Christmasy things, but even when we’ve had fan art or sketches for these times they tend not to be themed. Jeez. Buncha Scrooges over here.

Before you ask: no, we’re not really meaning to make any sort of principled point with this. We’re not being Puritans, even if Dawn did once post a Halloween sketch of Suzie dressed up in Solomon Kane garb. Actually I guess that illustration stands as proof we did tip a nod towards a holiday occurring on at least one occasion. It was also one of the only times we posted something on a day other than a Wednesday, since Halloween was on a Saturday that year. Dawn felt inspired, so she sketched it up. In succeeding years, for one reason or another, it just hasn’t happened, even last year when Halloween did indeed fall on a Wednesday. Suzie did look pretty spooky, though.

I know personally I could argue that holiday shout-outs aren’t as easy for a long-form serial comic as they are for something more gag-a-day, and in fact have the potential to be disruptive. Here’s your complex fantasy world set someplace that’s decidedly Not Earth, and now here’s your Elven Court hanging stockings over a fireplace and leaving out milk and cookies for good ol’ St. Nick… things that are not only specific to our world, but to a specific culture of our world and the specific way they choose to celebrate the Season. Note that I’m not saying you’ve got to have a Menorrah and a Mkeke mat in there, that’d probably just make it more strange to me. Then again, is taking a side trip to present the adventures of a caveman and zombie on Mars any less weird? I suppose I shouldn’t judge.

But then again, there’s the whole issue of holidays, period. Nearly everyone everywhere on Earth has some sort of celebration going on around this time, but there’s plenty of webcomics originating out of Canada (for example), and while they do celebrate a Thanksgiving, it’s on the second Monday of October rather than the fourth Thursday of November. And hey, most countries don’t even celebrate a Thanksgiving at all, or at least not as the Turkey-centric feast AmeriCanada does. This is one of those little thought about quirks that results from having the international audience a webcomic can give you… sometimes not everyone’s going to understand what the big deal is, and you either adopt a sink-or-Google policy in regards to that or devote part of your posting towards explaining the holiday in addition to showing your characters observing it.

Would the Zanes celebrate (American) Thanksgiving? Most probably so, although they’d have to work around some problems like turkeys and pigs being all but extinct. Of course, working that into the narrative means getting there first, which is a daunting prospect at our current pace where we’ve been taking a year or more of real-world time just to get through the events of a single day. It would probably have to be a one-off illustration, and in that case again becomes a matter of Dawn feeling she has the time and inspiration to do it. You don’t want to force an artist to make a holiday image. It will lack joy.

I mean, aside from when I did sort of get sneaky and squeezed in a reference to the U.S.’s Memorial Day on one of our covers. But that’s only fair after she does things like Zombie Charlie Brown. Talk about a guy who’s always caught up in one holiday or another, right? Good grief.