UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

6 thoughts on “541 – Graverobbers”

  1. Crazyman

    “Oh, *that* kind of grave robbing? Lead on, Chuck!” 😈

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    What? I say “What”?

  3. Keith

    Heh, this is going to be fun. Tradition says you need to drink at least one bottle of MD 20/20 before going to the graveyard.

  4. Honzinator

    At first I was thinking of something like a potato battery … nope!

  5. Scarsdale

    If you take a dead “D” cell battery, take out the carbon rod from the center, cut a strip of galvanized sheet metal about an inch (2.7 centimeters), take a small jar for canning, suspend the rod in the center and the strip on the side, pour in drain cleaner, you’ll get 1.2 to 1.4 volts DC. 10 of those connected to an inverter will give you 120 VAC at 0.5 amps. Do NOT keep them in the same area you live in however, the fumes will burn your lungs. Just something I learned in chem class in high school. You’d have to top-up the jars every few days, however. Any type of acid will work, even salt water. I think the teacher was a survivalist…

  6. nbaldbiz

    Scheffler, Hovland and Conners Share the Lead at P.G.A. Championship
    Jordan Spieth, who needs a victory at Oak Hill to complete the career Grand Slam, and Justin Thomas, who won last year’s tournament, just made the cut at five over.

    Give this article

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541 – Graverobbers
Posted on March 19, 2025 by Dawn

WonderCon 2025 is coming soon, so the next comic is planned for April 9th.

In the meantime, relevant previousness for this week's page:

https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/223-surrounded-by-film-end-of-episode-9/

 

https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/483-solar-systems/

Parallel processing…

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Clint
WARNING: Very, very minor spoilers for The Last Jedi referenced below. In fact so minor I wouldn’t even bother with this warning except people have been threatening to flay each other alive over revelation of any content and I like having my skin where it is. So there’s this biological concept known as parallel evolution, which basically boils down to the idea that similar characteristics can develop among species that have no common ancestors, or at least no recent ones. Bats, for example, evolved wings to fly in much the same way birds do. When the ancestors of modern cetaceans gave up on this whole “walking on land” schtick and returned to the ocean, they went back right back to fins. Certain configurations just seem to be gravitated towards as the best solution without any conscious imitation going on. Similarly, I like to think variations on this happen in fictional circles. I mean nowadays it’s hard to imagine anyone being ignorant enough of Superman to come up with a super-strong flying dude and truthfully maintain they did so without any influence of previous archetypes, but we’re often all too quick to cry “rip off!” even in cases where it’s entirely possible that two similar characters or stories could be created by people who had no knowledge of the other work. Ideas blooming in parallel. After all, even if a bat resembles a bird and a dolphin resembles a shark, there are clear differences when you take a closer look. So case in point, The Last Jedi debuts a new character named “Rose” who is a non-skinny lady in green utilitarian garb with a toolbelt, a medallion that’s important to her, and technical know-how. Whoa, right? Except okay, she’s Asian. And more importantly, not particularly sneaky in manner. And… I mean if you took Rose and combined her with the attitude, ethnicity and mannerisms of Sombra from Overwatch, that’d be getting a lot closer to Zombie Ranch‘s Rosa, but still there’s that idea of parallel evolution. Legally speaking, copyright law says that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expressions of those ideas… which is why you can publish comics featuring nigh-invulnerable super-strong guys that fly so long as they don’t stray too close to the Big S. How close is too close? Well, that’s why lawyers and courts exist, and people tend to have much stronger cases if they can prove, for example, that Big Studio A had Script B in their possession for an amount of time before passing on it but then producing Movie C which was suspiciously similar. It’s all very messy and usually ends in the Studio paying the aggrieved party a “shut up and go away” settlement which they might or might not deserve. But anyhow, although shady rip-offs do happen, I feel that in most cases when someone comes up with a character or concept similar to yours, it’s best to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially when the differences are enough it’s a real stretch to say you would have even inspired them. At a certain point it borders on hubris. And hell, I long ago admitted that Rosa’s character was inspired by Tuco from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but she’s come quite a ways since then, enough that I’d hesitate to describe her just in that configuration. She’s evolved, in parallel or otherwise.