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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!

Conventional evolution

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Clint
I haven’t done a convention review in awhile, but I think it’s time again. See, this past weekend was the Long Beach Comic Expo. The Long Beach Expo began as a smaller, early year adjunct to the Long Beach Comic Con, which, if you’ve been paying attention around these parts, was our first convention we exhibited at back in 2009. We started Zombie Ranch quite literally as LBCC started. Now the first Expo happened in February 2010, and was a very modest affair. In hindsight it was so modest it might be barely worth mentioning, but for the talent roster that was present in that small room. Subsequent years would see it expand out beyond, filling the lobby outside in an increasingly awkward fashion, until the 2014 Expo finally moved elsewhere in the convention center. I unfortunately could not call that move good, since Artist’s Alley ended up somehow even more cramped in its layout. I was glad our neighbors happened to be good friends of ours, seeing as we ended up crammed up so close together our chairs were touching. Couple that with a lack of a public address system and other issues and it seemed a case of one step forwards, two steps back, and even though the Expo expanded to two days that year the crowds and sales just didn’t seem to grow with it. Friends and peers had been bleeding away and I suppose I couldn’t blame them. I worried, I’ll admit it. Dawn and I had made an economic decision to scale back to local shows, and Long Beach represented two of those slots on our schedule. We liked the show, we knew and liked the management, we’d “grown up” with the convention, but… the company that ran the con was based out of New York. What if they just gave up, what with all the continual growing pains that seemed to be happening? Could I blame them, either? Well, thankfully that’s a question I hopefully won’t have to answer anytime soon. Instead of backing off, this year’s Expo doubled down, and as far as I can tell only good things came of it. Another move within the Convention Center put the show in a “Goldilocks” room — you know, not too big, not too small, just right? The entry area was posh, as was the area for panels, and the crowd was solid for both days. That was probably also because they massively stepped up their game with advertising, getting the word out early on major geek websites and even indulging in some radio and TV ads. Rather than bringing in something noisy and disruptive like a wrestling ring, the show reached out to the Girl Scouts of America and let them sell cookies on the floor as well as get out and experience the comics scene. I would not have expected that to be a good pairing until I realized how much I ended up craving the cookies. We bought two boxes. Meanwhile three girl scouts bought things from our table in turn. I think they came out ahead financially, but it felt nicely symbiotic, especially after seeing a couple of them dressed up in “Attack on Titan” gear. I don’t know if they earned their “take down giant naked cannibal” merit badges, though. The show also featured a touching moment of silence on Saturday in honor of Leonard Nimoy’s passing, and hosted a first ever presentation of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for diversity in comics. And for the first time I can remember in a long while, there was an after party worth checking out on Saturday night which was still going strong by the time we left for home around 10pm (hey, give us a break, we’re old). Anyhow, long story short, it’s the first time I felt honestly excited for the evolution of a local show since WonderCon, and for that to happen at the Expo was doubly surprising. They put a lot of effort into improvements and I think it really paid off. Hopefully it will continue to do so. They say that the fifth or sixth year is when exhibitors really start hitting their sweet spot. Maybe that applies to conventions as well?