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.

Scents and sensibility

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Clint

There are a lot of writing guides out there offering tips to those trying to step up their game with their own fictional offerings. There’s a lot of advice in those guides, presented with varying degrees of authority and mandate, and sometimes hoping you’ll be willing to pay for the privilege rather than just browsing the free ones (semi-pro tip: they most often say the same things).

Now, writing guides are not useless, especially if you’ve never read any. In fact, I encourage people interested in writing to read a lot of them, despite the redundancies you’ll come across. The most fascinating thing about them is not what the professional, published, successful writers delivering them your way have to say that’s the same, but what they have to say that’s different. Sometimes they’ll blatantly contradict one another on the habits and techniques that will lead you down the golden path. Sometimes, they’ll even contradict themselves. If you experience enough lists of guidelines, you may get the feeling that the ultimate statement regarding writing is, “Don’t do this, it’s bad and never works out well… unless it does.”

Putting it another way, it’s like the old argument about Jesus which usually ended in some cocky teenager getting smacked.

“Cut your damn hair!”

“Jesus had long hair!”

“That’s different. He was Jesus!”

So for writing, we have:

“Shorten your damn sentence!”

“Faulkner wrote run on sentences!”

“That’s different. He was Faulkner!”

This usually ends in some cocky creative writing student getting a fail. But to be fair, I do agree it’s at least important to know the rules before you think about breaking them. You might still end up with crap, but at least you’re experimenting rather than just being ignorant. So check out all those different authors and their different rules, and see which ones make sense for your work.

And honestly, sometimes, you get little gems of insight you might not have thought about, and that a dozen other guides didn’t mention either (maybe that particular author thought they were too obvious? who knows). For example, relating to this week’s comic is a gem I picked up along the way, which sadly I can’t remember the proper attribution for anymore, and it regards the senses. To badly paraphrase the original tip, the claim was that one of the hallmarks of a beginning writer is that they rely too heavily on how things look or sound, and never give consideration to other elements of the characters’ environment, especially in terms of how things smell.

Maybe this is because humans don’t prioritize smell all that much, or that we don’t especially expect it in our entertainment media. I mean, I don’t, I’m actually rather glad that Smell-O-Vision was a failed experiment in immersive cinema that Hollywood has yet to try again. But we do notice smells, and, good or bad, they do have a big influence on our memories and reactions. They can even show, more than anything else, the difference between a native and a newcomer to a certain place. To me, a barnyard or ranch is still an almost eye-wateringly overpowering experience, while for my wife that same scent is a comforting memory of growing up. Conversely, someone who grew up on a mountain farm would probably feel like choking on the streets of Downtown L.A., while I looked oddly at them and wondered what the problem was.

So, imagine the sort of stench a zombie ranch would have hanging over it… and yet, that stench would be all but invisible to people who have worked there all their lives. Certainly it would be invisible to a TV Crew whose only contact is remote drones being operated from miles away. But oh, poor Rosa. She may be no stranger to zombies, but it’s like the difference between driving by a cow pasture and being next to a slaughterhouse on a hot day. Her chutzpah has been undone in dramatic fashion by the simple expedient of no longer being upwind. And if characters have their own lives, as many writers will claim, then somewhere, somewhen, she’s cursing me for having read that guide.