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.

Four!

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Clint

Am I allowed to shout that without being on a golf course? Do they still shout that on golf courses? Doesn’t matter I suppose, it’s not even spelled the same in print (the golf shout is “fore!”, if you must know).

Here, we’re moving on to Episode Four in the comic, and it will be our first addition to the storyline structure since I installed it a few months ago. I hope everything goes smoothly. If not, well, I comfort myself that even folks like Kris Straub seem to still have website/update SNAFUs. Sometimes I regret the whole decision to update just after midnight, since I ain’t as young as I used to be and tend to start nodding off prior to that these days unless I force myself awake. On the other hand, it does make for some convenient “settling in at the office” viewing for our fans around the GMT zone.

The Rapture got postponed until October 21st. I never know how to feel about the throng of disappointed believers whenever these end of the world jobbies occur. On the one hand, it must be depressing for them to still be here after zero hour (particularly since the whole crux of the Rapture is if you’re still here afterwards, you weren’t worthy of being saved); on the other hand, they’re praying and hoping for the world to end — a world that I by and large happen to like, even if I do have student loans I’m still paying off.

One of these days I’ll probably be getting deeper into the aspect of religion as it relates in the Zombie Ranch world, where an apocalypse well and truly occurred. If you were reading between the lines at the beginning of Episode 2, you’d notice that Suzie is quoting words from the traditional Christian burial rites, an indication that a belief in the Big G has not entirely collapsed even though some parts of Revelation may have arguably come to pass. Religious themes are something I think every zombie story has to deal with sooner or later, because of how intrinsically most major religions are tied in with a particular concept of life beyond death and the dispositions of souls (or their equivalents). “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth”, etc.

But Zombie Ranch is a story from the perspective of practical folks. Uncle Chuck might be the closest thing they’ve got to a philosopher, and he seems to be a living example that the line between insight and bullcrap can be a mighty thin one (even if the bulls aren’t around to crap any longer). In any case, pondering the fine points of spirituality isn’t high on the list of priorities at the Z Ranch, but you can bet if you told them the end of the world was coming, they’d thank you graciously for the warning, but still be up as usual for work the next day. After all, some of them have already seen an apocalypse, and although some things changed forever, many more stayed exactly the same.