UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

6 thoughts on “541 – Graverobbers”

  1. Crazyman

    “Oh, *that* kind of grave robbing? Lead on, Chuck!” 😈

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    What? I say “What”?

  3. Keith

    Heh, this is going to be fun. Tradition says you need to drink at least one bottle of MD 20/20 before going to the graveyard.

  4. Honzinator

    At first I was thinking of something like a potato battery … nope!

  5. Scarsdale

    If you take a dead “D” cell battery, take out the carbon rod from the center, cut a strip of galvanized sheet metal about an inch (2.7 centimeters), take a small jar for canning, suspend the rod in the center and the strip on the side, pour in drain cleaner, you’ll get 1.2 to 1.4 volts DC. 10 of those connected to an inverter will give you 120 VAC at 0.5 amps. Do NOT keep them in the same area you live in however, the fumes will burn your lungs. Just something I learned in chem class in high school. You’d have to top-up the jars every few days, however. Any type of acid will work, even salt water. I think the teacher was a survivalist…

  6. nbaldbiz

    Scheffler, Hovland and Conners Share the Lead at P.G.A. Championship
    Jordan Spieth, who needs a victory at Oak Hill to complete the career Grand Slam, and Justin Thomas, who won last year’s tournament, just made the cut at five over.

    Give this article

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541 – Graverobbers
Posted on March 19, 2025 by Dawn

WonderCon 2025 is coming soon, so the next comic is planned for April 9th.

In the meantime, relevant previousness for this week's page:

https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/223-surrounded-by-film-end-of-episode-9/

 

https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/483-solar-systems/

What a Western Isn’t?

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Clint
A friend recently linked me to this blog post as possibly “relevant to my interests.” She was, of course, correct. What a Western Isn’t It’s not the easiest read and perhaps also not the clearest in terms of what the author is trying to say, which is perhaps unsurprising if you’re trying to define something by a negative. What does a black hole look like? Well, by definition we don’t really know, do we? We’re just making our best guesses based on its effects on what we can observe. But I think I would find agreement with him on what I believe is his basic thesis, which is that the classic Western is far more convoluted (and even subversive) than many might assume, even before the controversial “deconstruction” that was High Noon. Or, in our more modern era, we might see Unforgiven in the same way. I believe his main point is that a true Western is not a simple matter of sound and fury but of hard choices and complicated people. He doesn’t like the remake of 3:10 to Yuma and I agree with him, especially since I have seen the original and found it far superior in terms of having something to say, so to hear that the remake’s director was comparing cowboys to “Greek Gods in chaps” in his commentary is at the same time a WTF and also an insight into what went wrong. That comparison is far more apt to superheroes than cowboys. Now sure, we’ve got our Zorros and our Lone Rangers and our Man with No Name, but they’re all still a far cry from Superman and Wonder Woman. Get down to the “street level” of characters like Hawkeye and Daredevil and that’s a lot closer, but still, the classic Western at least is populated with heroes who may have extraordinary skills and/or determination but are very, very mortal. William Munny may slaughter an entire saloon full of enemies at the climax of Unforgiven and emerge unscathed but not long before almost died from a fever. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance may exhort “print the legend” but the classic Western depicts the more muddled circumstances behind the legend, the real story rather than the dime novel exaggerations and fabrications. The latter can be entertaining in its own right, but is it a Western? Well, I suppose I’m not going to die on the hill of saying what does and doesn’t count, but it seems to me that the ability to transplant a “Western” into other settings like feudal Japan or outer space means there are certain conventions of the genre that transcend the American Old West. The titular character of The Mandalorian is a badass but also a man dealing with a rickety ship and a recalcitrant toddler and who sometimes gets the crap kicked out of him despite his skills. Plus he’s trying to live by a code in a largely lawless frontier, which doesn’t always hold up when faced with the murky realities and relationships of his profession, and all of that just screams “Western” to me far more than six-guns and stagecoaches ever will.