UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)
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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!

Voice to the voiceless…

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Clint
So let’s continue the discussion on dialog, because why not? A lot of people struggle with it. Any help those of us who don’t struggle with it (or don’t struggle as much) is probably welcome, assuming we can express our assistance properly. That part’s the rub, isn’t it? Last week I talked about how I’ve been writing all my life, over and over and over, but it seems like the greatest cop-out to tell someone having trouble to “just write.” Again I’ll equate it to the thought of Dawn telling me to “just draw.” Some more guidance than that would be appreciated, wouldn’t it? But when you’re so familiar with something, you have to go back and take it apart and try to figure out some of the underlying things that you think would help a newbie. These past few weeks I’ve been attempting to do that. So let’s talk a bit about what I’m just going to call “voice.” Do you hear your characters’ voices in your head? You really should. In fact, you might even want to speak your dialog aloud and see how it sounds. In the early days of Star Wars Harrison Ford is supposed to have famously told its creator, “George, you can write this shit but you sure can’t say it.” Do all your characters sound the same? They shouldn’t. True, groups of close friends will often develop a certain unifying vernacular, but if everyone’s just a generic quip machine that’s going to ring hollow after awhile. Quirks of speech aren’t just for determining who’s talking from off-panel, they can be downright crucial in establishing a sense of verisimilitude for a reader. Nothing’s worse for me than a bunch of twelve-year-olds talking like they were 35. You might even need to go listen to some actual twelve-year-olds for a refresher. I don’t want to say this isn’t hard, because for someone having trouble with it it’s of course going to be hard. So maybe start with the broad strokes, so to speak. Extreme characters and extreme situations… how would Characters A and B respond to Character C’s declaration of a risky plan? Character A: “Have you quite taken leave of your senses?!” Character B: “Dude! Are you nuts?” Without even seeing them represented on a page, these characters have formed a picture of who they are in your mind’s eye just by virtue of their words, haven’t they? So maybe do that several more times. Take one of your characters and imagine what they might say when threatened… when exhausted… when in love. Then take another character and do the same. Now put them together and let those different reactions interact. It’s alchemy of a sort, to be sure, but writers have been rediscovering the formula over many centuries, so I have a feeling you can, too.