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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.

Now that’s a sandbox game…

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Clint

I remember several years back, while I was still deep in the midst of my Left 4 Dead phase,  this delightful piece of artwork made its way to my attention via the various currents of the Internet (click the pic for the larger version):

Possibly just because there happened to be four kids in the picture, my friends and I were left wondering if it represented L4D fan art of some kind, re-imagining Bill, Zoey, Louis and Francis as kids. Except then that meant Francis was a red-haired girl with glasses, which, while a hilarious thought, probably wasn’t the intent. Some digging (because I don’t think the signature and copyright was on the version I saw back then) turned up the artist as one Jason Chen, but other than being a fun bit of imagination, it didn’t seem to bespeak anything more than one guy’s momentary vision.

Shows you what I know. Turns out there was an entirely new video game idea brewing behind this illustration, name of Zombie Playground. Zombie Playground Kickstarted itself just last year, an event which came and went without me or any of my friends realizing it was happening. If I had, I would certainly have mentioned it here. The bad news is it’s too late to contribute to that. The good news is that it reached its funding goal to at least get the minimum version they wanted underway, and if you like you can still donate to the cause through their main site (although without rewards beyond good will). Meanwhile this blog must serve as my poor, belated attempt to correct my own oversight.

The basic idea is the zombie apocalypse as it might be viewed through the wild imagination of a child, where your super soaker is actually a flamethrower and that trashcan lid and whiffleball bat make you king (or queen) of the mountain. Where those weekend karate lessons let you do axe kicks or throw Street Fighter fireballs. It’s exactly the kind of crazy crap I recall making up with my friends on the playground as a kid, barring the fact zombies weren’t really the en vogue antagonists at that time. It was the 1980s, so it might have been ninjas.

Point is, this is a great idea, and so far what I’ve seen of the development diaries and concept art really seems to be running with it in all the best possible ways. If you click on the Kickstarter or main site link you’ll see a lot more of Jason Chan’s depictions of the kids and their foes, which include some obviously inspired by the way stuffed toys or other mundane things can take on sinister features on a dark and stormy night.

That said, they wanted $2 million to really put together the game in a way measuring up to their vision, but managed only a little over $160,000 when the Kickstarter was done. It was enough for the Kickstarter to succeed, but the final game will probably only be a fraction of the tantalizing potential. Enough that maybe some more investors might buy in and let it fully blossom? I think that’s the hope, and it’s a hope I share. There’s a good dose of energy and imagination behind Zombie Playground, and while Massive Black seems fully capable of bringing it to (un)life with the funds they have, the game they could deliver with the funds they want sounds like something that could easily be a classic.