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.

My denial of reality

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Clint

So here’s a weird thing for me to admit, seeing as I’m writing a comic that has a large pool of inspiration drawn from “reality television”: I’m not all that entertained by reality.

What I mean by that is, when it comes to fictional offerings, I’m always more inclined towards the ones which have some sort of fantastic or paranormal element to them. I’m fully aware of the irony that many shows purporting to be realistic are often anything but. I complained about it in a long ago blog, and TV Tropes is full of entries on such hair-tearing nonsense as the “Enhance button” presented as a standard investigation technique. I do prefer the honesty of fantasies that fully embrace the Phlebotinum of their Sonic Screwdrivers, but what I’m talking about today goes beyond even that. It’s a full blown personality flaw.

Well, maybe it’s a personality feature. But I rarely get excited about fiction that’s presented in an entirely realistic setting. Again, leaving aside that even a “realistic” setting will take a lot of liberties, I will put up as an example that I just never got into Breaking Bad. I watched several episodes and I fully support the idea that it was a good show. I can absolutely see why people adore it. It just didn’t hook me. Not the way, say, X-Files did. Or Buffy, or Angel, or Babylon 5 or True Blood or Supernatural.

Am I saying that those shows are better than Breaking Bad? Or The Wire? Or any number of others close, respected friends of mine hold up as great television? No. No no no. I’m just saying that personally speaking, I’ve always felt much more desire to keep up with shows that had some element of overt fantasy or science fiction in their premise. Or watch them in the first place.

That doesn’t mean you get a free pass because your show has superheroes or aliens in it, I still have my standards. X-Files really started losing its focus after a few seasons, so I lost my focus on it. Birds of Prey? I barely lasted an episode or two before giving up on it. But I won’t deny it’s an easier sell to me than something focusing purely on gritty reality. I gave Longmire a try recently and liked it, I really did… not to mention it’s all modern Western-y, which should be inspirational… and yet I still haven’t gotten around to watching more.

Bah. Well, I have some saving graces. The instinct doesn’t seem to apply to movies, possibly because of Jaws sinking its teeth into me at such a young age. Then again that arguably has a giant monster in it. Pretty sure I was over a need for the paranormal in movies by the time I saw Die Hard in my teens. Casablanca took a bit longer, but has been on my favorites list ever since I finally queued it up.

Also, I don’t think this ever applied to comedies, just dramas. I have a definite hankering to keep watching Arrested Development after starting a Netflix run of it earlier this year. Ditto for New Girl, and before that How I Met Your Mother. I don’t seem to need spaceships and demons and dragons so long as the laughs keep coming my way. But something about dramatic serials… I just ideally want to see them play out on a stage that’s a little beyond the world we know. Greater room for metaphor, perhaps?

Probably nothing to try to analyze rationally. It just is. And I suppose explains why all these zombies and floating cameras keep hovering around the story here, instead of it being straight up people drama. It’s what keeps me interested in watching, so it keeps me interested in writing, as well.