Happy Tuesday

"What's with you?"
August 6, 1974

Hold on. It's still Tuesday. Let's keep that giant, wide-open smile for Thursday or so.

I like how, due to the bad scanning of the newspaper, it looks like they are coming into focus because it's Tuesday.

Deal with it. People are going to think he's special needs or something. Where'd he get those, anyway? He's clearly not holding them and there's not enough time between panels to run upstairs to his room. God, I just want to punch this kid.

1238: At Least Brutus Is the Star of a Comic Strip

I first started blogging back in 2006 on little site called LiveJournal. I got the idea to start blogging and to use LiveJournal from a friend and coworker. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to talk about so I just kind of blathered on about things I liked. Shortly after I started a MySpace account, I became online friends with another blogger named AwesomeZara who wrote about her life--personal and some private, work, pop culture stuff, sex, stories and things that interested her. Taking a page from her book, I wanted to do that too but I did that on MySpace. I talked about my life, my family, what was happening in my relationship at the time along with stories and pop culture related things. Soon after my breakup, I wanted to move onto something else. I began a website at www.losersaremadenotborn.blogger.com and began following the footsteps of the dozen or so other bloggers I read that did comic strip commentary. Doing that earned me a decent following and some good online acquaintances who I still try to support as best as I can.

These are just among two of the several.

After a few months, I began Tauy Creek and tried to branch out to other stuff while continuing the commentary. There have been a couple times where the commentary went on hiatus but I've tried to keep that going since that was what gained me readership in the first place. With the advent of social media, I can get my site out to more people and, to a point, gear it toward who I want. I try to make posts universal so anyone can enjoy them. If I don't succeed at that, I don't blame readers if they don't read something.

A lot of my readers probably don't care about Kansas but I will shove it's history
and picturesque landscape down your throats!

I wanted to use this site as a way to get my writing out there and hopefully have it lead to bigger things and that is what I plan to focus on from here on out. While the comic strip commentary will be there at the bottom of the post, the main draw will be what is above it and I plan on phasing it out over the next few months. If you would like to support me in making this site a true writing and pop culture haven, then send me suggestions on what to write about or send me something from my Amazon Wishlist located in the sidebar. If there's enough interest, maybe I can throw up a Patreon account in the near future. In the meantime, please enjoy what I do have and please tell your friends about this website.

Reading this comic strips every day for the last...90?...years had led me to one conclusion. The Born Loser can be pretty depressing. It is definitely a strip for people at or above Brutus' station in life.

1217: I Do Believe That's His Real Name

For those of you who watch it, Orange Is the New Black premiered back on Friday and in the first episode was a flashback showing Poussey (Samira Wiley) reading a Calvin and Hobbes book with her mother. The book was The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes and the strip they focused on was this one:

This strip is later called-back when Poussey sees it later in the newspaper and thinks of her mother. And that, dear people, is the strange beast that is the comic strip. A single strip from 1988 that ended in 1995 can still be seen in a newspaper in 2015. That not a slight on Calvin and Hobbes but more on newspapers and the syndicates.

While Brutus' future consists of basically the exact same thing that is happening in today's strip, but BlondGuy McWaterDrinker's future will continue as an ancillary character mostly in the background until being replaced by a similar blond guy who can curl his lip in that manner.

1166: Another Day Older and Deeper In Debt

When comic strip characters talk about work, I often wonder what jobs the cartoonists had or have. Has Chip ever even had a real job?* He started apprenticing with his father at a young age so I don't know where he may have worked. I'd be interested in finding out. I should've asked him that during his Twitter Q&A last year.




*For the record, I do consider cartooning a real job. It's just a joke. I can't even draw so I'm probably just jealous.

1162: Such a Sympathetic Wife

Oh my god, Gladys, your husband is screaming inside for help and you're just making a fat joke. Seriously though, if you're feeling drained physically, mentally and/or emotionally and think you just can't go on, there are people you can talk to that aren't like Gladys.

Does Brutus' Neck Look Fatter Today?

I understand why Brutus is depressed this morning and it's not because of work. It's because my comic commentary is coming to an end on Friday.

I know I've said that a lot but trying to keep something going that hasn't filled anyone with joy since 2011 is just a sign of insanity. I hope to have something new up as soon as possible but in the meantime, there is still The Point of Beginning.

Things Get Dark

This isn't funny. It's sad. When I read the funnies, I don't want to be reminded how terrible and depressing life can be. I want to laugh. I can even handle getting sentimental or thoughtful as Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes is wont to make people do. But this. This is just depressing. Brutus should just shoot himself in the second panel and the third panel could just be his dead, bleeding body.

Brutus Is Suicidal....Again

"Yo, Brutus! What's up?"

"GAAHHH!! Where the hell did you come from? I thought we locked the door."

"I have my own key."

"How'd you get...?"

"Why do you think there is no Father Gargle?"

Bears. Brutus. Battlestar Galactica.

I originally wasn't going to post today because my day was pretty full with getting cookie ingredients, fixing our Christmas lights and trying to get our tree lights to work. Then I had to get back out to get cookie cutters and a really cool Lawrence, Kansas Christmas ornament. If you want to see it, check it out on my Twitter.

The point of this post is to point out one of the best panels I have seen this year. It comes from today's Mark Trail, which is a strip I normally don't follow so all of this is completely out of context:

If you want context, here is the rest of the strip:

Interestingly, I have no idea what happened to the blue background when I cut down the image. Either way, I hope to use this image of the bear in future posts. For example, today's Born Loser:

See? Isn't that better? And you can happily think that the bear is going to tear Brutus limb from limb then slog off upstairs to do the same to Gladys and Wilberforce.

Just Kill Yourself Now

LAMNB will be hiatus for this week but stuff will be popping up that I already have written and ready to go. There will be an Editorial Comic Review on Friday and The Born Loser returns on Sunday. Have a good week.


Wow! Brutus is depressing today. This is the most pessimistic thing I have ever heard and I've known my share of pessimists. Obviously those $225 per session therapy visits are not working.

Losers Are Made, Not Born

I'm assuming Brutus' analyst is the psychiatrist Brutus (and Veeblefester) always go to. You would think an accredited therapist would not tell Brutus to be himself but would try to figure out why Brutus is a born loser and what he could do to stop being a born loser.

And is it me or is this the most depressing strip we've seen in a while?

The Noose Tightens

I've only ever had one dream--it was an elaborate dream but it was a dream. I wanted to be a known author--not rich or famous but known. I also wanted to be married to a wonderful woman who would love me forever. Also, three kids--two girls, one boy--and two cats. Maybe a dog if we lived on a farm.

Looking at Brutus just depresses me in ways I can't even explain. To perk up our spirits, here's Secret Asian Man.

More Depressing Anecdotes

Here we go again. In today's strip, Brutus is talking to himself this time about running into someone from high school who either used to bully him or was Brutus' rival in everything (possibly even Gladys' heart? I think it's time for a flashback). The thing I don't understand is why Brutus tried to think of a put-down. If I ran into an old nemesis from high school I wouldn't try to insult them, I'd try to 1-up them. Brutus could stretch the truth and say he's Rancid Veeblefester's right-hand man (I'm assuming Veeblefester is TBL's equivilent of Lex Luthor) and that he's married to a "statuesque blond" and you have to admit that Gladys is a statuesque blond.

Man, everything about today's strip just seems very depressing....