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.

You can’t sue for this whiplash…

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Clint

Oh, you can complain, or quit reading, or both, but it isn’t really grounds for a lawsuit. What am I babbling about? Mood whiplash: when a work of fiction veers between emotional extremes so quickly it can leave your head spinning. One of the more well-known variations is the laugh spot that’s followed immediately by something calculated to make you scream instead, such as the infamous “come down here and chum this” scene in Jaws. That’s an example of it being done well, while the climax of The Phantom Menace was such a confusion of scenes that even those who worked on it admitted the emotions being evoked were flitting so fast as to become close to white noise.

I think I’ve touched near this topic before when I was writing about what makes a horror comic, particularly in observing that so-called “camp” horror has a long and bloodily brilliant pedigree in comics like Tales From The Crypt or films such as Brain Dead/Dead Alive. It seems like a good portion of us enjoy laughter mixed with our terror and don’t have much of a problem switching the two up, or even feeling joyful and scared simultaneously. If that weren’t true, amusement parks probably wouldn’t invest in fun houses, much less rollercoasters.

Zombie Ranch is a much more low-key affair for the most part, in terms of both horror and humor. Arguably it’s more of a matter of serious vs. comedic, and from the start my intention was to swerve back and forth over the line between the two; sometimes gently, sometimes sharply. I hope I laid the seeds for that tone with the very first Episode/Issue, mixing enough light and dark so that no reader would get past that first arc without realizing what they’d be in for in the future. I think Dawn’s art also helps with this, since it’s not overly gritty while also not being cartoony (except of course, when we’re doing those TV cartoons).

Have we succeeded? Well, according to the comments on various pages we’ve evoked all sorts of reponses, and they’ve usually been the emotions we were aiming for, whether it was sorrow, or laughter, or even a mix of both. Heck, evoking any response at all is something of a victory for an artist, but it speaks much better to your meager skills if you’re not desperately backpedaling and claiming your piece is meant as comedy when it clearly wasn’t .

Zombie Ranch was never meant to be comedy or drama, horror or humor, but something that hopefully allows for all those aspects to co-exist and tell an interesting story. If you’re still reading I can only guess that you’re appreciating that mix. But hold onto something–the last few pages have been pretty light, and it looks like Muriel’s decided we’re about due for a dark turn…