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.

Serious business…

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Clint

In the previous page, Lacey was threatening to shoot. In this new page that threat perhaps carries more weight, seeing as she’s now got the safety catch off and a round actually chambered.

It’s something I notice every time now that it happens in movies or TV that I didn’t even think about while growing up. The bad guy has a pistol to their hostage’s head, threatening to shoot them. The hero hesitates… so in order to show how serious they are, the bad guy racks the slide of the pistol, usually taking it off their hostage’s head in the process, then puts it back now that they’re ready to shoot.

Which begs the question, why weren’t they ready to shoot before they tried taking a hostage? Why doesn’t the hero tackle them the moment they start messing with the slide, a tacit admission that if they’d pulled the trigger the hammer would have fallen on an empty chamber? You never see a bullet popping out in this setup, after all.

Sure, the real-life rule is to treat all guns as if they’re loaded and capable of firing, but it’s just funny to me that the dramatic action of racking the slide means the hostage was technically in no danger up until the bad guy did so. But it happens anyways, because it makes a satisfying sound and is a big cool motion and shows how serious things are now.

Except now for me it has the opposite effect because it reminds me how silly it is. But it’s been a part of cinematic language for so long that people just accept it, the same way they accept that chest compression CPR alone can bring someone back to life. Hopefully they never have the opportunity to be disappointed by reality.

Lacey is being very serious, and the situation is serious. But Lacey and the situation are also on some level silly. That aesthetic fits quite nicely into Zombie Ranch, don’t you think?