UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)
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11 thoughts on “539 – A Knife In The Dark (END OF EPISODE 22)

  1. Why am I not surprised.

  2. Typical, it’s always someone else’s fault. Revenge is not just best served cold, but by stupid too. “This is all your fault!” Which is wrong, but in his head, it’s right.

    1. It’s also been heavily hinted he has already been brain washed by the zombie worshiping cult.

      1. Which, no doubt, made easier because of that under-lying feeling. People are always looking for a scape-goat…

    2. I don’t know if you got my callback by intent or not, but it’s great to see almost the same words echoed! https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/203-breaking-worst/

  3. Honestly, probably the first time he’s ever taken control of and done ever in his life. There’s a reason why they kept him. Give a dog that’s been beat all its life a whiff of conference and control, you got a problem.

  4. Imagine his surprise when he stabs a pillow. 😜

  5. He isn’t in control, RC – he’s probably drugged to the very dilated eyeballs, probably with Datura. Back on p.443, Eustace is shown holding a Mojave Rattlesnake on a stick while the Brujefe milks it into a glass. Mojave venom A is a paralytic neurotoxin, like tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin was thought to be part of the legendary Haitian “zombie powder”. The other part was Datura, which contains scopalamine, which messes with memory and concentration, and is supposed to render victims docile and suggestible.
    The question is, where did he get his current dose, and did a little drone whisper in his ear?

    1. Except Datura doesn’t do that. You’re thinking of the compound Scoplolmine (AKA the devil’s breath) which generally comes from a specific plant, Borrochero (Brugmansia arbora) that is native to Columbia that the gang in question probably would have had access to. It’s active compound obliterates free will, your conscious, you can function as normal but you are totally open to suggestion which is what happened to McCarty here. Datura just makes you trip mad balls and maybe die, but it does not make you a puppet.

  6. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Me lleva la chingada !

  7. I’m betting money there’s no one in that bed and it’s a ruse to get him caught.

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539 – A Knife In The Dark (END OF EPISODE 22)

Happy Holidays, all! That's a wrap (heh) for Episode 22 just in time for a Christmas cliffhanger! Hope we don't twist the knife too much...

See y'all in 2025 when Zombie Ranch continues!

Remembrances of scale…

WonderCon 2023 is coming up the weekend after this one over in Anaheim, CA, and I’ll be part of my first panel discussion since before COVID. Nice, eh? David (Lucarelli) whipped that up for us and also gets credit for pitching the panel to the powers that be. Having been there and done that, I’m more than happy to basically just show up with a head full of wisdom to dispense. Yeah, sure, that’s it. That’s the ticket… But seriously, you have to fight down your imposter syndrome for these things because you might just have something interesting to say. Hell I’ve sat next to Neal Stephenson and had him and the rest of the room at least pretend to listen to me holding forth on why the choice of what weapons a character wields can be just as important as the rest of their look. Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones has a revolver and a bullwhip. Cowboy weapons. ‘Cuz that’s what he is (cue Henry Jones Sr. lamenting “You call this archaeology?!”). I digress. With six people involved and plus the intention of a Q&A sesh I doubt I’m going to be speaking for long, but if I do it’ll probably be about the logistics of telling a long-form story. Really, really long form at this point. Seriously, if y’all don’t remember what happened five pages ago I can’t complain because right now five pages ago could be a few months in the past. Even my artist and dear wife may not fully remember. I have to try to keep it all in mind, though and keep the story rolling… because no matter how slowly the pages might be churning forth, they will eventually be collected together and they need to have a flow to them supporting that. True, five pages ago is a few clicks away (though I admit the navigation on that isn’t what it was — put that on the pile of things to try to still tweak after the template changeover…) but once someone’s holding a floppy issue or a trade volume it’s flip-flip-flippity-flip and they absorb that content just as fast as they want to. A panel by itself does not sequential art make, but a page, an issue, a volume? It’s writing to three different scales, and remembering things that happened years ago as if it was only yesterday — which it might well be for the characters themselves. Some of the writers I’m sharing the panel with do webcomics, and some do not. Some are self-published and some have worked for known companies like Dynamite! Some have up-to-date headshots and some are making do with a random convention picture snapped in 2019 (*cough*). Anyhow it should be a gamut of perspective, since the concept of scale doesn’t just apply to the writing process. We’ll just have to see how many folks show up at 6pm on a Saturday to listen.