The Born Loser

Last updated

The Born Loser
The Born Loser Logo.png
Author(s) Art Sansom (1965–1991); Chip Sansom (1989–present)
Current status/scheduleDaily
Launch dateMay 10, 1965;59 years ago (May 10, 1965)
Syndicate(s) Newspaper Enterprise Association
Genre(s)Humor, family life, work

The Born Loser is a newspaper comic strip created by Art Sansom in 1965. His son, Chip Sansom, who started assisting on the strip in 1989, is the current artist. The strip is distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association. The Sansoms won the 1987 National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award and the 1990 Newspaper Comic Strip Award. [1]

Contents

History

Art Sansom created The Born Loser after spending 20 years churning out the illustrations on his syndicate's serious strips. He originally titled it The Loser, but under the urging of the syndicate, renamed it The Born Loser. The dailies started May 10, 1965 while the Sundays premiered on June 27. [2] Initially, the strip had no recurring characters but now focuses on the Thornapple family and the few people in their lives.

Characters

Main characters

Brutus Perry "Thorny" Thornapple is the born loser. He simply cannot get a break, whether it involves his job, his family, or just plain everyday life. He's rather old-fashioned, and the modern times seem to run him over. His birthday is November 29, 1951, though the May 10, 2011 edition proclaimed it to be his 46th birthday.

Gladys "Hornet" Thornapple is Brutus's wife; she is even more old fashioned than Brutus and does not seem to be very bright, especially with popular culture or technology. Taller than Brutus, with blond hair, she is rather similar to Edith "Dingbat" Bunker. She can be a bit critical of Brutus, often scolding him or getting into fights with him that he simply cannot win. Nevertheless, their relationship always seems to be intact.

Wilberforce Thornapple is the son of the Thornapple family. He's a very curious boy who looks up to his father and often turns to him for advice. He is friends with his neighbor Hurricane Hattie and enjoys baseball, but he is not very good at it. He currently wears his blond hair in a crew cut but in the 1970s, when boys and men tended to wear much longer hair, he wore his hair in sausage curls, and wore sailor-type suits with shorts. His appearance looked much more boyish with the new hairstyle as his wardrobe was updated with jeans, sweatshirts, and tennis shoes.

Secondary characters

Rancid W. "Rank" Veeblefester is Brutus's boss, a rich tycoon. A very cranky, unpleasant man, he works in an office surrounded by money bags and does not seem to do any real work. He always scolds Brutus for being incompetent and seems to enjoy tormenting him. He loves to give a seemingly nice remark to Brutus to get his hopes up, and then turn it around as an insult (one example being that the only empty cubicle in the entire office belongs to Brutus). It's often a wonder how Brutus, who dubs him "Chief", manages to escape being fired by him; this implies that Veeblefester is satisfied with Brutus' work and simply enjoys terrorizing him. Even in their home lives, nothing changes (such as when Brutus wants to borrow the lawnmower and Veeblefester tells him not to take it out of the yard). His wife's name is "Lividea", a play on the word "livid"; presumably she is as unpleasant as her husband. The character's name is a variation on veeblefetzer, a word popularized in the 1950s by Harvey Kurtzman in early issues of Mad .

Ramona Gargle is Gladys's mother. A stereotypical mother-in-law, she often visits to pepper Brutus with insults and emotional anguish and criticizes Brutus over his weight. However, Brutus does occasionally gets his own jibes back at "Mother Gargle".

"Hurricane" Hattie O'Hara is the mischievous girl next door. She delights in menacing pretty much any adult she encounters, namely Brutus and her teacher.

Uncle Ted, Brutus' uncle, and thus Wilberforce's great-uncle.

Plot

The Born Loser began in 1965 as a strip with no central characters that revolved around the loser theme. Gradually, it developed a stable cast of Brutus Thornapple, his wife Gladys, his mother-in-law Ramona Gargle, his boss Rancid Veeblefester, Brutus and Gladys's dim-witted son Wilberforce, and the mischievous neighbor Hurricane Hattie O'Hara. [3]

Development

On November 1, 2021, Chip Sansom took a two-month sabbatical from the daily requirements of producing the strip due to the unexpected surgery he underwent. As a result, The Born Loser panels were temporary reruns from past strips. On December 27, 2021, he returned to the daily strips. Later on in January 30, 2022, he returned to the Sunday strips. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dilbert</i> American comic strip

Dilbert is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title character. It has led to dozens of books, an animated television series, a video game, and hundreds of themed merchandise items. Dilbert Future and The Joy of Work are among the best-selling books in the series. In 1997, Adams received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and the Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work. Dilbert appears online and as of 2013 was published daily in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.

<i>The Boondocks</i> (comic strip) American comic strip (1996–2006)

The Boondocks was a daily syndicated comic strip written and originally drawn by Aaron McGruder that ran from 1996 to 2006. Created by McGruder in 1996 for Hitlist.com, an early online music website, it was printed in the monthly hip hop magazine The Source in 1997. As it gained popularity, the comic strip was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate and made its national debut on April 19, 1999. A popular and controversial strip, The Boondocks satirizes African American culture and American politics as seen through the eyes of young African American radical Huey Freeman. McGruder's syndicate said it was among the biggest launches the company ever had.

<i>Blondie</i> (comic strip) American comic strip starting 1930

Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).

<i>Little Lulu</i> 1935–1944 American comic strip

Little Lulu is a comic strip created in 1935 by American author Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, debuted in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding and mischievously strewing the aisle with banana peels. Little Lulu replaced Carl Anderson's Henry, which had been picked up for distribution by King Features Syndicate. The Little Lulu panel continued to run weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944. A later variation of the character is Little Audrey from Harveytoons.

Pibgorn is a webcomic by Brooke McEldowney begun in early 2002. The title character is a fairy whose adventures span the fantasy and real worlds. McEldowney also creates the syndicated comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane, occasionally crossing over to Pibgorn, which explores stronger themes of sexuality and violence.

<i>Brenda Starr, Reporter</i> 1940-2011 American comic strip

Brenda Starr, Reporter is a comic strip about a glamorous, adventurous reporter. It was created in 1940 by Dale Messick for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, and continued by others until 2011.

Buckles is a comic strip by David Gilbert about the misadventures of an anthropomorphic naïve dog. Buckles debuted on March 25, 1996, and ended on March 21, 2021.

<i>Baby Blues</i> (comic strip) American comic strip

Baby Blues is an American comic strip created and produced by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott since January 7, 1990. Distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995 until January 2022, and distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication as of January 2022, the strip focuses on the MacPherson family and specifically on the raising of the three MacPherson children.

<i>Diesel Sweeties</i>

Diesel Sweeties is known as a webcomic and former newspaper comic strip written by Richard Stevens III. The comic began in 2000, originally hosted at robotstories.com. From January 2007 until August 2008 it was syndicated to over 20 United States newspapers, including major daily newspapers like The Detroit News and Houston Chronicle.

<i>Scott Pilgrim</i> Canadian graphic novels

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels by Canadian author and comic book artist Bryan Lee O'Malley. The original edition of the series consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. It was later republished by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins. Full-colour hardback volumes, coloured by Nathan Fairbairn, were released from August 2012 to May 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newspaper Enterprise Association</span> American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service

The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news service to the Scripps Howard News Service; it later evolved into a general syndicate best known for syndicating the comic strips Alley Oop, Our Boarding House, Freckles and His Friends, The Born Loser, Frank and Ernest, and Captain Easy / Wash Tubbs; in addition to an annual Christmas comic strip. Along with United Feature Syndicate, the NEA was part of United Media from 1978 to 2011, and is now a division of Andrews McMeel Syndication. The NEA once selected college All-America teams, and presented awards in professional football and professional [NBA] basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramona Fradon</span> American comics artist (1926–2024)

Ramona Dom Fradon was an American comics artist known for her work illustrating Aquaman and Brenda Starr, Reporter, and co-creating the superhero Metamorpho. Her career began in 1950 and lasted until her retirement in January 2024.

<i>Arlo and Janis</i> American comic strip by Jimmy Johnson

Arlo and Janis is an American gag-a-day comic strip written and drawn by Jimmy Johnson. It is a leisurely paced domestic situation comedy. It was first published in newspapers on July 29, 1985.

Jimmy Johnson is an American comic strip cartoonist who writes and draws Arlo and Janis.

Arthur Baldwin Sansom Jr., better known as Art Sansom, was an American comic strip cartoonist who created the long-running comic strip The Born Loser.

Arthur B. "Chip" Sansom III is an American comic strip cartoonist.

<i>Piranha Club</i> Comic strip

Piranha Club was a comic strip written and illustrated by Bud Grace. It was originally called Ernie, but the title was changed in 1998. The club is meant as a parody on Lions Club International, and the strip made its debut in February 1988. In 1989, the Swedish Academy of Comic Art awarded Bud Grace with the Adamson Statuette. Grace received the 1993 National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work on the strip.

Candorville is a syndicated newspaper comic strip written and illustrated by Darrin Bell. Launched in September 2003 by The Washington Post Writers Group, Candorville features young black and Latino characters living in the inner city. Using the vehicle of humor, Candorville presents social and political commentary as well as the stories of its protagonists.

Cul de Sac is an American comic strip created by Richard Thompson. It was distributed by Universal Press Syndicate/Universal Uclick to 150 worldwide newspapers from 2004 to 2012.

<i>Flapper Fanny Says</i> American comic strip

Flapper Fanny Says was a single-panel daily cartoon series starting on January 26, 1925, with a Sunday page following on August 7, 1932. Created by Ethel Hays, each episode featured a flapper illustration and a witticism. The Sunday strip concluded on December 8, 1935; the daily panel continued until June 29, 1940.

References

  1. NCS Awards National Cartoonist Society, 2008, Retrieved November 30, 2010
  2. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 80. ISBN   9780472117567.
  3. "About the Born Loser Comic Strips - GoComics".
  4. "Healthwatch: Mallard Fillmore, the Born Loser". November 30, 2021.