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.

Voice to the voiceless…

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Clint

So let’s continue the discussion on dialog, because why not? A lot of people struggle with it. Any help those of us who don’t struggle with it (or don’t struggle as much) is probably welcome, assuming we can express our assistance properly.

That part’s the rub, isn’t it? Last week I talked about how I’ve been writing all my life, over and over and over, but it seems like the greatest cop-out to tell someone having trouble to “just write.” Again I’ll equate it to the thought of Dawn telling me to “just draw.” Some more guidance than that would be appreciated, wouldn’t it?

But when you’re so familiar with something, you have to go back and take it apart and try to figure out some of the underlying things that you think would help a newbie. These past few weeks I’ve been attempting to do that. So let’s talk a bit about what I’m just going to call “voice.”

Do you hear your characters’ voices in your head? You really should. In fact, you might even want to speak your dialog aloud and see how it sounds. In the early days of Star Wars Harrison Ford is supposed to have famously told its creator, “George, you can write this shit but you sure can’t say it.”

Do all your characters sound the same? They shouldn’t. True, groups of close friends will often develop a certain unifying vernacular, but if everyone’s just a generic quip machine that’s going to ring hollow after awhile. Quirks of speech aren’t just for determining who’s talking from off-panel, they can be downright crucial in establishing a sense of verisimilitude for a reader. Nothing’s worse for me than a bunch of twelve-year-olds talking like they were 35. You might even need to go listen to some actual twelve-year-olds for a refresher.

I don’t want to say this isn’t hard, because for someone having trouble with it it’s of course going to be hard. So maybe start with the broad strokes, so to speak. Extreme characters and extreme situations… how would Characters A and B respond to Character C’s declaration of a risky plan?

Character A: “Have you quite taken leave of your senses?!”

Character B: “Dude! Are you nuts?”

Without even seeing them represented on a page, these characters have formed a picture of who they are in your mind’s eye just by virtue of their words, haven’t they? So maybe do that several more times. Take one of your characters and imagine what they might say when threatened… when exhausted… when in love. Then take another character and do the same. Now put them together and let those different reactions interact. It’s alchemy of a sort, to be sure, but writers have been rediscovering the formula over many centuries, so I have a feeling you can, too.