UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)
12

12 thoughts on “540 – Trick Hello”

  1. Scarsdale

    Called it, she figured he’d do this, if by choice or by zombie voodoo. I’m sure the “friendlier” questioning will start soon, if she doesn’t just kill him out-right. Or just add him to the herd.

  2. Crazyman

    Gotcha! 😉

  3. Zombatar

    This turn of events is a surprise only to Eustace. And, maybe, Eustace’s subconscious. After all, this way he doesn’t have to actually risk actually attacking Suzie, which gives him a greater chance of survival than actually attacking her. I wonder what he was promised/threatened with?

  4. ConcordBob

    Not to nit-pick, but since sights are on target, finger should be on the trigger. Especially this close.
    The usual rule is “keep finger straight and off trigger until sights are on target”.

  5. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Not to nit-pick, but since that was current philosophies regarding trigger discipline have evolved.
    Of course, it will depend on who you get/got your training from.
    Experiments have determined that the fraction of a second to go from finger off the trigger to finger firing when appropriate is insignificant, and the risk of firing unintended is greatly reduced.

  6. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    I did the google thing and I believe I saw how you reached this conclusion … but there are two parts to it – One should not omit the second part.
    “Trigger Finger Discipline: · The practice of keeping your finger “off the trigger” until your sights are on target AND YOU ARE READY TO DISCHARGE THE FIREARM.” (Caps are my own)

  7. Crazyman

    She wants him alive so she can question him; otherwise, he’d already be dead. 💀

  8. ConcordBob

    Good discussion on trigger discipline!
    His skin is very pale / gray. Is this malnourishment, or has he been poisoned with a mind-control drug? I would have to go back and look a t all various of skin tone.

    1. TKG

      On a prior page we discussed what he’s likely got running in his system. I suggested that it’s probably Borrochero (Brugmansia arbora) which is already used by Colombian cartels to eradicate the free will of their victims.

  9. ConcordBob

    Oh, the gray is just the dim light. Here is McCarthy eating dinner, and has the typical white dude flesh tone.
    https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/531-inquisitional-etiquette/

    1. Dawn

      Yeah, I was trying to show that it was dark. But went with the old Hollywood method of adding a blue grey tint over everything.

  10. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Now can we satisfy my curiosity? Colt, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, or other timeline variant?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

 

540 – Trick Hello
Posted on February 26, 2025 by Dawn

Suzie hearkening back to the last time Eustace was faked out. She probably regrets not being able to sneak the Lawn Ranger into the bedcovers to be the victim of the stabbing.

And with that, it's Episode 23 time! Welcome back to the Ranch, everyone!

Casting a long foreshadow…

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Clint
This week’s comic was our end of Episode 15, also marking our (eventual) intended endpoint for a Volume 2 trade paperback, assuming we can get that funded successfully next year. I kept promising some reveals and I hope they satisfied, even though the answers to some of the mysteries that have lingered for many years of this comic’s run might only raise more questions. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? In an ongoing story you don’t want to lay down all the cards, right? How do you reward the loyalty of your audience while also keeping them looking forwards to more? I think the best stories are ones that find a balance of that, and also the ones that can manage to evoke a sense of time well spent both in the casual fan and the fan that does a deeper delve and has been pondering and discussing small details not everyone noticed, or perhaps noticed and forgot. And sometimes the story itself becomes more satisfying in the course of its telling. Sometimes you as the creator(s) find a detail in your own work that informs upon that course in a way that you may not have laid out at the beginning but seems right and true. Sometimes, for example, Dawn draws a cover for Episode/Issue 4 where you’ve given her the basic layout but she ends up covering part of the photo you wanted with a gun, and then you start thinking about what might be under that gun… and that roils around and develops until you finally bring that photo truly “in universe” four issues later as you begin your second arc, and then you end that second arc with the same photo and it’s arguably now become one of the most important objects in the whole series because of what was hidden and now is revealed. Chekhov’s Gun is supposed to go off in Act 3, of course… but in a work of fiction with an indefinite number of acts (i.e. this webcomic), why not Act 8 or Act 15? And even then a creator can play… we can figuratively load up multiple bullets and distribute them point by point, so that as the smoke clears the audience now sees further but yet can’t quite make out the final destination. And I should probably stop there before I start hopelessly muddling my metaphors. I hope you enjoyed, and continue to enjoy.