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.

The good, the bad, and the miscellaneous…

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Clint

So, I re-watched The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly the other night, and damn if it isn’t even better than I remembered from last time. Quentin Tarantino considers it the best movie ever made. I can’t agree with him there, on account of Jaws existing, but I can understand why he’d feel that way.

It’s one of those movies that I think gets better with repeat viewings. Certainly that’s how the critical response has been, where it was mostly panned or dismissed when it first premiered in 1966, but these days it’s considered a classic by some very respectable names. Roger Ebert gives it four stars; in 1966 he gave it three stars, but admits now that he knocked off a star for peer pressure alone, because the attitude of the time was that no “spaghetti western” could possibly make the cut of cinematic greatness. They were just cheap, exploitative foreign knock-offs of a dying genre, pandering to the lowest common denominator of filmgoer.

But the lowest common denominator doesn’t challenge. It doesn’t risk. Right from its beginning, TGTB&TU does both, by spending its first ten minutes with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. Ten minutes is a noticeable length of time for no one to be talking, but the story points and characters come across in crystal clear moments, some brief — some intentionally, uncomfortably drawn out. I don’t understand the notion expressed by some that spaghetti westerns are minimalist in their cinematography, since I feel the exact opposite is true. Sergio Leone was fussy, temperamental, and above all a perfectionist, particularly with his visual details. That attention shines through in this film: yes, there’s the famous parts everyone remembers, the close-ups on twitching hands and mouths and eyes, but there’s also a lot of subtler, gorgeously framed sequences to be enjoyed. Don’t agree? Again, watch that first ten minutes, particularly the entrance of Angel Eyes (the titular “Bad”) into the home of the man he’s going to interrogate. From one direction, he looms larger than the archways, a wolf at the door. From the other direction, in the same exact architecture, the home owner looks dwarfed and trapped. It’s illusion, tension, and mood-setting at its finest, and you can see a lot of Tarantino’s opening sequence for Inglorious Basterds in what Leone filmed almost half a century earlier.

The weakest parts of the movie are probably where Leone’s script starts to get a bit preachy about war and man’s inhumanity to man, talking about it instead of just showing it (and oh, how he shows it…). Well, that and if you’re a stickler for historical accuracy, the film will annoy you to no end — for example, that the Winchester rifle Clint Eastwood’s character uses wasn’t made until eight years after the end of the American Civil War, the period in which the movie is ostensibly set. But it’s not about accuracy; I mean, Leone went one further than all the “Texas” westerns filmed in Arizona and Utah and California, and filmed everything in Spain… but damned if it doesn’t look like the iconic western landscape. TGTB&TU is Iconic with a capital “I”. Great landscapes, great characters, a rousing storyline of betrayal and hidden gold, wild setpieces like a gunfight that occurs in a town being shelled by artillery, or that famous three way duel at the climax… and I’d be more than remiss to not mention Ennio Morricone’s musical score. You know the one… Ah-EE-ah-EE-aaaah WAAH WAAH WAAAAAAH.

Oh c’mon, everyone knows it. Here, does this help? Clickie.

If you still don’t recognize it, I’m disowning you. Chad and Elspeth will split the estate between them, and you will get nothing. NOTHING, do you hear?

I jest. Keep reading Zombie Ranch, and all is forgiven.

Less than a month to go before Comic-Con International 2010. Did I ever mention that Dawn and I scored Professional status this year? While I’m not entirely sure this comic clinched the deal, I’d like to thank you all again regardless for your readership and support. We didn’t manage to get a booth, but we’ll have a presence on the Freebie Table (don’t laugh, you actually have to be approved for that!), and Dawn will have art available for bidding and purchase in the Art Show. And hey, that Art Show was where “On the Zombie Ranch” was first displayed and sold, so someone out there has quite a piece of original illustration on their hands. Who knows, Dr. Jones? In 10,000 years maybe even it will be worth something!

All right, time to end the blog for this week, before I grow even stranger in my meanderings. Type at y’all next time!