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An online webcomic about a group of cowboys/cowgirls and their Zombie herd.
An online webcomic about a group of cowboys/cowgirls and their Zombie herd.
3 thoughts on “534 – Compliments To The Cook”
Anonymous
Of course, the sleezer gave them expired food XD
Anonymous
Chuck acknowledged that the bucket “survival food” was old, with the potential of being bad, but admitting it still had the potential for being good! 🤣
Con in Pasadena? I had to check, Cali, not TX, tho they have smaller shows at the college, I figured not likely, as Pasadena/Deer Park is in the news again, for all the wrong reasons (again), after an SUV crashed into a LNG pipeline, turning it into a blowtorch.
Anonymous
Dangit! I *know* I put in my name and info!
Latest Comics
#435. 418 – Making Huachucas Cry
41 May 29, 2019
#434. 417 – Need Aid? Grenade!
44 May 22, 2019
#433. 416 – Secs And Violence
38 May 15, 2019
#432. 415 – Thudding Optimism
42 May 08, 2019
#431. 414 – Gun Control
40 May 01, 2019
#430. 413 – AK O.K.
42 Apr 24, 2019
#429. 412 – Apology Deflected
41 Apr 17, 2019
#428. 411 – Nope A Dope
42 Apr 10, 2019
#427. 410 – All Downhill From Here
44 Mar 20, 2019
#426. 409 – And Don’t Call Her Shirley
43 Mar 13, 2019
#425. 408 – Watching The Huachers
42 Mar 06, 2019
#424. 407 – Talk To The Ranch Hand
43 Feb 27, 2019
#423. 406 – We Interrupt This Broodcast
43 Feb 20, 2019
#422. 405 – Harsh Reality
44 Feb 13, 2019
#421. 404 – Greenscreen With Envy
43 Feb 06, 2019
#420. 403 – All The World’s A Soundstage
42 Jan 23, 2019
#419. 402 – Have Sword, Will Travelogue…
44 Jan 16, 2019
#418. 401 – Zoological Anxiety
43 Jan 09, 2019
#417. 400 – It’s Curtains For Ya!
41 Dec 19, 2018
#416. 399 – Cleather ™!
41 Dec 12, 2018
Latest Chapters
Episode 22
Episode 21
Episode 20
Episode 19
Episode 18
Episode 17
534 – Compliments To The Cook
[EDIT: Dawn is nursing a sprained wrist so we'll be pushing back a week. Hopefully join us for a new page on Oct. 9th]
Hearkening back to the events of page 269!
Meanwhile, this weekend we're bringing Zombie Ranch to the wide-open spaces. Comparatively. The trade volumes will be among our offerings at the annual Pasadena ARTWalk at Booth #32 in the shady lanes of Green Street.
The next comic over…
“The Old West is such a ripe setting for horror themes, because of that tug of war between spiritual and mundane, civilization and savagery. It’s a borderland. It’s a Crossroads. And the Crossroads is where the ghosts dwell.”
But we don’t have to necessarily be talking straight-up horror so much as the injection of the fantastic, of characters and happenings beyond the norm. If you’re familiar with the old series The Twilight Zone you’ll know that not every show was based around something spooky or tragic, but it was always at least that subtle left turn from the “ordinary” world. Again, the concept is right there in the title, because what is twilight if not the crossroads between night and day? (well, there’s that other connotation of twilight in the last few years, but we won’t talk of that) This is why the particular genre known as the Weird West is such fertile ground for storytelling. And today, I’d like to bring up a fine fresh example I recently stumbled across, when I found myself in the Next Town Over. Next Town Over is written and drawn by one Erin Mehlos, who was nominated for an Eisner award back in 2005 and, if her current work is any indication, has only gotten better since then. The art is gorgeous, with a unique style meshing some of the best parts of American and Japanese comics/animation, lending itself equally well to subtle expressions of face and manner and not-so-subtle expressions of action and violence. But I’m a writer. Art in a comic by itself might catch my eye, but it won’t hold my attention in the long run; in fact, there’s quite professional comics I’ve put aside in disgust when I felt the art was going out of control and smothering the story trying to be told. I don’t mean by this that there have to be a lot of words (or even words at all), but if there’s a lot of flash that’s not helping the substance, I grow restless. Comics ain’t just about pretty pictures. Look at Next Town Over, and you’re going to see a lot of pretty, not just in the panels themselves but in the way those panels are arranged and framed. The crucial part is, the pretty serves a purpose. It draws attention, but not in a way I ever felt was working against the grain, and oftentimes in ways that actually accentuate the content. Close-ups of facial expressions are framed in oval filigree, the way you might have seen old photos displayed on your grandparents’ mantel. Right at the beginning, a phoenix-like rebirth in fire fades into red clouds overhanging a lone rider, in a page that also takes wonderful advantage of the need to scroll down when you’re viewing it online. Even given the short archive so far, the elements of fire and time have already emerged as major themes of the comic. I suppose the abundance of gear imagery might just be a retrofuturist affectation (yes, I’m picky about using the term “steampunk”, and if you must know why, you can read here), but whether or not it was Erin’s intention, it keeps me thinking of clockwork and the inevitable tick of time that represents. Her use of fire plays into the time element, as there are panels where the past quite literally is burning away the present in a sudden heat of memory; as if the events of now were only a fragile overlay of what’s gone before. It also conveys a rage in the protagonist’s soul that no amount of inner monologuing could have equaled. Matter of fact, I do believe I mentioned before that I don’t hold much with stoic Western characters who nonetheless feel some need to air all their inner thoughts to us. Erin shows us all we need to know (for now) about the relationship between her “black hat” and “white hat” through their interactions and some tantalizingly ingenious visuals. It’s really great stuff, and this before the comic is even much past Chapter 1, with a lot of mystery still to be resolved (hopefully, like the best ongoing stories, many of the answers will provoke still further questions). I can only hope that we’ll be this good after a few more years under our belts, but for now I’ll just put praise where praise is most definitely due, and tell y’all to go give Next Town Over a read. Just try not to judge our own humble efforts too harshly in comparison 🙂 Oh, and speaking of those humble efforts, we have some exciting news which we’ll be announcing in the next couple of weeks! In the meantime, though, if you’re around the Long Beach area this Saturday, come by and see us at the one day Comic Expo. Or if you’re around Anaheim the following week, we’ll be there for all three days of Wizard World. Hope to see some of you there, and if not, then we’ll “see” you next Wednesday!Calendar
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