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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.

The basics of character

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Clint

This link may not work for you without an InkOutbreak account, but basically Savannah Houston-McIntyre, writer of the webcomic Amya, was opening a discussion on the forums about creating strong, iconic, and most of all relatable characters, and the techniques people use for doing so.

I got about seven thick paragraphs into my response before figuring it would be better for everyone if I just made it a blog entry, like the tumblr post she made that inspired her to ask around. So here it is.

When first putting together Zombie Ranch I wanted a lot of classic Western fiction influence, so I tended to start a certain archetypal template and then flesh things out from there. For example, when coming up with our lead’s mannerisms and attitudes, I took a lot of inspiration from the classic cowboy roles of John Wayne. For a drifter character of uncertain morals, I couldn’t have asked for a better model than Eli Wallach’s portrayal of Tuco from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

That gave me a headstart on being iconic, but icons will only take you so far if there’s nothing beyond the surface. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter how much back story you have for a character if you can’t communicate it effectively to your readers, which includes having the restraint to *not* communicate the back story if it’s not appropriate for the narrative. Han Solo didn’t sit down at the Mos Eisley table and immediately regale Luke and Ben about his days as a Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy… it wasn’t relevant and likely would have left the audience cold. In fact, it never comes up over the course of the movies, except for Han occasionally having some strangely specific knowledge of Imperial procedures. Anyhow, we’ve been over this.

When writing from anything other than a first person viewpoint (and sometimes even then), I still think when you’re introducing a character it helps to mimic the natural flow of how we meet and get to know people in our real lives… we start with stereotypical surface impressions, and only later, over a period of time, do we get potentially get past that and learn how correct (or incorrect) our assumptions might be. I remember the first time I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, when no one knew who Indiana Jones was, and in the opening minutes this grizzled thug attacks a guy with a bullwhip and looms out of the jungle darkness with a scowl. It was the introduction a villain would have, but then you find out, nope, that’s our hero! Then as we go along we keep peeling back the onion of who this guy is. Ooh, he’s pretty good at this. Oops, nope, now he’s running for his life. Hates snakes? Funny. Whoa, look how clean-cut he is now, and teaching a college class?!

Nowhere in all this do they stop to spell things out, but the surprises also don’t seem out of place, and they keep hooking your interest by challenging your assumptions, like that mousy co-worker you’ve known for three years and suddenly find out they used to be a professional singer. “You sing? I didn’t know you sing!” “Well, we work in a post office. it never came up.” Dr. Jones doesn’t just randomly start shouting that he hates snakes, it comes up because his pilot’s pet snake is in the (motherf’in) plane. And while it’s played for a bit of random laughs, later on it becomes really important when we reach the Well of Souls.

I know it’s not technically a comic, but seriously, look at what a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark accomplishes without resorting to a single flashback sequence, even though there’s obviously a ton of history between certain characters. We know all we need to know from just watching them in the present, and it works, and we grow to love or hate them accordingly. We don’t need to see every encounter that ever happened between Indy and Belloq, we only need to know that “…there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away“.

So how does all this rambling come back to the issue of strong, relatable characters? Well, I think it’s all about the basics, and the basics are about people, and we more readily perceive fictional creations as people if they are behaving in ways somehow familiar to us, even if their surroundings are bizarre. “People” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “human” in fiction, but it’s a tough job writing creatures with a truly alien mindset. Usually aliens (including non-human fantasy races) just end up being a certain aspect of human nature taken to extremes, but still recognizable. Even our notions of Gods still tend to have human forms and human motivations. We can’t get away from it, and I’m not sure we should even try, because ultimately I think storytelling boils down to humanity wanting to hear about, and reflect upon, Ourselves.

Whew. See why I decided to take this to the blog?