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11 thoughts on “539 – A Knife In The Dark (END OF EPISODE 22)”

  1. Keith

    Why am I not surprised.

  2. Scarsdale

    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. steelraven

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

      1. Scarsdale

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

    2. Clint

      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. RC

    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. Crazyman

    Imagine his surprise when he stabs a pillow. 😜

  5. Zombatar

    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. TKG

      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. TKG

    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)
Posted on December 25, 2024 by Dawn

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!

Ghosts of zombie ranch past…

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Clint
It’s the holiday season, and Dawn is already happy as a zombie in brains because her Cintiq drawing tablet arrived. Unlike her previous tablet, the cat hasn’t chewed on the connection cord for this one (yet), so it should much improve her ability to color the comic. One tradition of the holidays seems to be just about any and every media franchise out there doing their own versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. You know the one, I’m sure. Scrooge? Marley? Tiny Tim? Bah humbug? Some are clever, some… well, some seem to just be done out of tradition, or at least the idea of “this script already exists, and it works, so all we have to do is shove our own characters into the roles, make a few pop-culture references for the kids, and we’re good”. If you’ve somehow avoided all contact with A Christmas Carol or any number of its derivatives, the basic premise is this: old miser is visited by the ghost of his equally miserly business partner and also ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, shown how the joyless greed of his life will lead to ruin, miser reforms himself and helps his downtrodded employee celebrate Christmas. And his little crippled son, too. In other words, it’s an age old morality fable, and that’s why it still can resonate today over a hundred and fifty years since its publication. Arguably it would have resonated with people a hundred and fifty years before its publication, as well. Maybe even a thousand years before, although they didn’t really have Christmas to speak of so some details would need changing. Certainly the morality plays of the Middle Ages would have recognized similar elements. The story has been told innumerable times since, but was also most likely told before. The trick is in the twists you bring to the tale, and the skill you have in presenting it. I’m getting somewhere with this, honest. There’s a well-known maxim that there are no truly original ideas, and even something as bizarre as people ranching zombies for profit falls into that realm. When we were searching for a domain name and title for our series back in September, we ran across the remains of a few fellow travelers. They are the Ghosts of Zombie Ranches past, and in honor of Mr. Scrooge I name them now. Fittingly enough, these ghosts are three in number. #1: I can’t quite call these folks fellow travelers since they’re the ones I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that have had the URL of zombieranch.com reserved since the year 2000 without having seemed to have done anything with it. Flying M Design, and their zombie ranching intentions, remain a mystery. #2: This is more like it, but as far as I can tell has been defunct since 2006. Someone’s school project from the College of New Jersey, now abandoned? Anyhow, some of the site either loads very slow or doesn’t load at all. The concept seems like fun, where you have to defend your own ranch “fortress” and your zombie herd while locating other ranches to mess around with. As for the larger world setting, who knows? All we really have to go by is the tantalizing “How to Play” page linked above. #3: Last but not least is the Zombie Rancher game from Invisible City Productions. It’s a boardgame which is still available as a free PDF for download and play, and if you feel like doing so I highly encourage giving it a try, because these folks had a great concept. Now I promise you, any similarities between their setting and ours are very coincidental. We are fellow travelers on a shambling, rotting path, but I do have to admit I opted for our zombies tasting terrible partially out of respect for what they came up with. The designer’s story of a combination of reading the Zombie Survival Guide and a visit to the Texas Land and Cattle eatery is golden. I really should try to track down Jonathan A. Leistiko and offer him a virtual beer, both for that, and for game design decisions such as “The hungriest player goes first”. So there we have it. We have been visited by three ghosts, although only one of them (Zombie Rancher) still seems to be around in some form that might be able to benefit from my pointing out their existence. And yes, I know, why use ghosts for all this when I could have used zombies. What can I say? Blame Dickens.