UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)
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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?

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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!

YMMV

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Clint
Your Mileage May Vary. A useful bit of idiom born originally out of the American automotive industry where that disclaimer was added to any estimate of a given vehicle’s gas efficiency. It has since become shorthand for “this was the case for me, but your own experience may be different”. I’ve used it a lot in this very blog, because I do talk a lot about topics that are ultimately subjective matters of opinion. TV Tropes has an entire page category for each of their work entries so as to allow for the quite possible happenstance that one fan’s “Moment of Awesome” is different from another’s. I bring this up because a fun thing happened a couple of weeks ago. One fan of the comic piped up with the notion that they really were starting to hate our character Lacey. Not long after that, another fan piped up with the notion that they really were starting to like Lacey. Both had read exactly the same pages and come away with two different opinions. And where a character is concerned, I think that’s great! It’s very, very rare that I intend to present anyone in Zombie Ranch as being “in the right” or “in the wrong”. Instead, I try my best to write them according to their personalities, circumstances, and motivations. It’s fair to say that I would perhaps give some side-eye to anyone who declared they really liked the Huachucas because “human flesh tastes awesome, you guys!”, but I’m not necessarily out there with an agenda of, say, always presenting Suzie’s decisions as the best and wisest. I feel like the author siding explicitly with a character can lead all too easily to a work degenerating into an author tract, or worst of all the specter of the Mary Sue. Then the situation can be compounded by the author feeling personally attacked when even one audience member offers criticism of that character, much less outright hatred. Even if you do largely agree with your protagonist’s perspective, I think it’s more useful and better for the story as a whole to keep a bit of distance for perspective. For instance, because of the author’s known political outlook you might expect Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta to be firmly on the side of its anarchistic, anti-establishment protagonist, and yet the story itself presents a much more nuanced take where V is shown at times to be as much a monster as those he fights. Admittedly, sometimes an author just shows that anyhow by complete accident in the course of trying to show how their hero is the bestest thing to ever best, but that’s a dividing line for me that’s the difference between something that makes me think and something I just laugh at. No matter how much you try to skew the presentation, if your fanbase is big enough there will always be at least some people who will be rooting for The Empire. But as long as that’s not because the majority are finding your heroes or story unintentionally dull, such should probably be taken as a compliment on how great your antagonists are. Your fans’ mileage will always vary. Your job as a creator is to make it a memorable trip.