Cart
Product categories
Support Us!
If you like what I do please support us on Ko-fi or Patreon.
Follow Us!
Join Our Newsletter!
Vote For Us!
Login
Polls
Loading ...
Events
-
Pasadena Comic Con
Dates: Jan 26
Location: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E Green St, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA ( MAP)Details:We will be at the Pasadena Comic Con on January 26th. See some of you there for this one day event!
Purchase tickets online at here: https://www.tixr.com/groups/pcc/events/pasadenacomiccon-pasadena-comic-con-2025-115248
5 thoughts on “537 – Kooky And Spooky”
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
Obligatory William Gibson reference for the excellent novel “Spook Country”. I’ve read it fourteen times and still find something new each time – the man does not waste a word. No, not crazy at all.
Clint
Hurray, people in the comments can have names again (if they choose to)!
Evervigilant
Yay for names! I love the pun as he takes the offered drink.
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
…Just for a moment, like a mirage … ” And when I turned the headlights on,
Just for a minute I thought I saw the both of us
On some kinda tropical island someplace
Walkin’ down a white sandy beach eatin’ something…”
Wyrmlaf
Nice Stan Ridgeway reference
Latest Comics
#358. EPISODE FIFTEEN
48 Aug 01, 2017
#357. 343 – Howdy (END OF EPISODE 14)
45 Jul 12, 2017
#356. 342 – Loaded Memories
45 Jul 05, 2017
#355. 341 – Partial Recovery
13 Jun 28, 2017
#354. 340 – Parting Shots
8 Jun 21, 2017
#353. 339 – Not Just An Expletive…
11 Jun 07, 2017
#352. 338 – High-Risk Assurance
14 May 31, 2017
#351. 337 – Jumping At Shadows
12 May 24, 2017
#350. 336 – Motivational Viewing
18 May 17, 2017
#349. 335 – Pumping The Breaks
12 May 10, 2017
#348. 334 – Numbers Game
11 May 03, 2017
#347. 333 – Conflicts Of Interest
14 Apr 26, 2017
#346. 332 – Silent Running
13 Apr 19, 2017
#345. 331 – Whispered Opportunities
15 Apr 12, 2017
#344. 330 – If You See Something…
14 Mar 29, 2017
#343. 329 – Failure To Save
16 Mar 22, 2017
#342. 328 – Cutting Response
15 Mar 15, 2017
#341. 327 – Ambivalent Equivalence
14 Mar 08, 2017
#340. 326 – Supersonic Shutdown
16 Mar 01, 2017
#339. 325 – Rhetorical Questioning
9 Feb 22, 2017
Latest Chapters
Episode 22
Episode 21
Episode 20
Episode 19
Episode 18
Episode 17
537 – Kooky And Spooky
Show within a show (within a show?)
So longtime readers know that occasionally I like to experiment with Zombie Ranch, which I conceived as a fairly straightforward story — except when it isn’t. Media interludes abound, sometimes in a single page and sometimes occupying entire segments of a given episode. Are you seeing real life as it happens? Real-life but edited and pre-recorded? Is it possible that if you pulled out far enough you’d see Suzie & co. on a soundstage and every bit of what you’ve seen would all turn out to be a lie? Nested in a whole nest of lies? A “lieception,” if you will?
I don’t think I’d ever go that far since it would arguably cheapen the whole experience, the way I often get angry at the “It was all a dream!” cliche if I’ve just spent two hours of my life invested in a movie. But “Wild” Will was fair game and not someone I believe I’ve presented in such a way that the reveal his adventures might be at least partly faked would be a huge shocker.
Still, it puts me in mind once again of that infamous art piece called “The Treachery of Images” by surrealist painter René Magritte, as pictured here:
“Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”
“This is not a pipe.”
A thoughtful reminder that no matter how authentic the image of a thing might be, it is not the thing. Yet we hear stories and watch them and read them and our minds and emotions can be swayed into the illusion of reality. I inevitably still get choked up at the ending of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan despite knowing on some level that “Ceci n’est pas une Spock.” Leonard Nimoy has been quoted in interviews as being grateful for his signature role but also mentions at least one tragic occasion where a mother thought he could heal her sick child with his Vulcan touch, and how heartbreaking it was that she had put her hopes in an illusion.
But there you have the matter of degrees. It’s almost an academic distinction for me to declare the “Wild” Will Show fake and the Zombie Ranch show real, because both are technically figments of my (and Dawn’s) imagination. And on the other hand, it makes all the difference because maybe one of those pipes is the one you much more feel you could reach out and grab.
Calendar
Writer’s Blog Archives