The Pros Get Paid Millions

Panel One

Wilberforce rings a doorbell with his hockey stick and he looks pretty pleased about it.  I'm glad Chip chose this image instead of the original of Wilberforce ringing the bell with his "hockey stick".

Panel Two

Wilberforce calls Hurricane Hattie 'Hurricane' which is kind of weird but I'm not a nickname kind of guy.  I've just been calling her Hattie.  Hattie acknowledges Wilberforce's greeting with a "Yo" which shows just how bad and tough she is.

Panel Three

Let's take a moment to ponder what the hell Hattie is wearing on her neck.  Is it one of those Lord Fauntleroy tie things?  Only in pink?  Considering Hattie is supposed to be a tough little girl, the fact that she is wearing a pink tie, light blue shirt and what I consider jeans just hurts her case.

Panel Four

Hattie's nose also protrudes from between her eyes as evidenced in the obligatory close-up panel.

Panel Five

In this panel, I have come to the conclusion that Chip does use a cut-and-paste feature and just redraws the faces.  How do I know this?  Every image of Wilberforce looks exactly the same.  

Even the little things that should not look the same panel after panel do look the same.

Also, Hattie's freckles change position from Panel Three to Four.

Panel Six

Hattie couldn't care less about actually playing hockey.  She just wants to wail on the other players and they won't let her play football.

Panel Seven

Point for Wilberforce but...

Panel Eight

...the game goes to Hattie.

But, women usually win in these situations.  Wilberforce, however, will bludgeon Hattie with his hockey stick.

Brutus Loses a Torso

Kids Wilberforce's age don't care about the economy.  And normally parents try to hide their financial worries from their kids.  Not me however, I bring it to attention in the hopes that my son will get his own job to help out.  So far, it hasn't happened but I'm sure it will someday.

Who's Brutus Talking To, Yet Again.

I'm assuming Phlegle is pronounced FLAY-gull.

Also, Phlegle must play for the Kansas City Chiefs who are on target to be the worst football team this season.  Normally I don't care but they's the local team around here and we're all pretty disappointed.

Note the small Christmas tree on the TV.

Chip Sansom's In Cold Blood

The lonely house stood atop the hill.  It had been abandoned since the 1970s when the owners, an elderly farm couple, just disappeared.  Their house still looked, aside from the normal wear and tear and some incidents of vandalism, like the farmers will be home any minute.  The house was miles from the nearest town and was the only house within a square mile.  You could scream bloody murder and no one would hear--or find you.

Brutus and Gladys Thornapple had been driving since eight this morning and they were about to pass out as Brutus glided the car around a curve on the old country highway.  It was almost midnight and they weren't sure when the next town was--and if it'd have a hotel.  Finally, Brutus just pulled over and into a long winding driveway surrounded on both sides by trees.

"Where're you going?" Gladys, his wife, asked looking out all of the windows, seeing only glimpses of the scenery.

"I saw that there was a house up on this hill.  Maybe we can stay here if someone's up.  I can't drive anymore and I have no idea when we will reach the next town," Brutus yawned as he pulled around the old house.

"This house looks abandoned, Brutus," Gladys said as Brutus put the car in park an shut off the engine.  "I don't like this.  Let's go.  I can drive for awhile."

"No, Gladys.  It's probably just a couple of kindly farmer's house.  Born on this land, will die on this land.  Let's go," Brutus smiled and took Gladys' hand and led her up the stairs.  As they approached the front door, they noticed it was slightly ajar.  "Oh, it's open.  I guess no one really does live here."

"I told you.  Come on, let's go.  I can drive for awhile."

"Wait.  Let's take a look.  It doesn't look that bad, maybe it has a bed we can stay in at least until morning," Brutus said, pushing the front door further open.

"I am not sleeping in an abandoned house," Gladys shreiked.

"Oh, Gladys, it'll be fine.  I'll protect you from the big, bad ghosts," Brutus mocked.

Coming down the same highway were Albert Finch and Rupert Huff.  They were driving a lot faster than Brutus was but they were more familiar with the road.  Huff was antsy.  He wanted to get to where they were going.

"How much longer?" Huff asked.

"Shouldn't be too long now," Finch replied.

"Do we know where the money is hidden?" Huff asked.  According to a local rumor, there was $15,000 stashed away in the walls of the old house.  Most people just wrote off the rumor as just that but Finch knew it was true.  It had to be.  "It's a pretty big house from what I heard."

"We'll just keep smashing until we find it.  It can't be too hard."

"What if someone catches us?" asked Huff.

Finch turned his head to Huff and sneered.  "That's why we brought the gun.  And those sledgehammers would kind of hurt, too," he chuckled evilly.  He quickly braked and turned onto the house's driveway and slowly proceeded to the house.  They drove around the other side of the house, not even seeing the Thornapple's car.

Inside the house, Brutus and Gladys slept soundly, not hearing the car engine or the door slamming shut...

The creepy house in the first panel led to this.  I have nothing to say about the eating of celery in bed except that Gladys should be happy her husband is eating healthier food which is more than I can say about her.

Working Vacation

Yes, I'm doing a quick post because I miss doing this.  I've been setting up posts to post (?) in the future but I hate not seeing the fruits of my work.

First off, never order liver and onions at a sleazy diner.  I mean, look at that guy's arm!  We've seen this guy before but he had a soulpatch.  He has since shaved it off.  I think it's time for Brutus to shave off his mustache.  Listen up, Chip.

Superman: The Man of Steel #29 (Jan. 1994)

written by Louise Simonson

pencilled by Jon Bogdanove

inked by Dennis Janke

The greatest villian of all time was introduced in these here pages.  Bloodthirst's debut was mentioned and discussed several times in previous issues and it all led up to this.  A black leather tank top clad, green gas emitting Dr. Frank-N-Furter-esque alien thing.  Now, I'm sure everyone at Superman Central thought that Bloodthirst would be an amazing villain as he was apparently the cause of every war and assassination in history but his first--and only

--appearance was a complete failure.

The story is also riddled with a stupid battle with Hi-Tech who 

was fighting Superman in the issue of Action Comics preceding this issue.  As you can see, the art still isn't the best as this is an issue of The Man of Steel and the result of the issue is pretty slapped together because you get Jimmy Olsen and Ron Troupe being attacked by Hi-Tech, Superman swooping in, punching Hi-Tech, getting attacked by Bloodthirst and...well, that's pretty much it.

I think Bloodthirst had the potential but I learned that you never introduce a character or storyline in an issue of The Man of Steel.  What ironic is that two of the best Superman storylines (The Death of Superman and The Trial of Superman) started in The Man of Steel (Numbers 18 and 50, respectively).

And yes, you probably will see plenty of Man of Steel issues in here but next

 time I hope to do a Marvel issue so we'll just see.

Post No. 300

Well, made it to the 300th post. It seems like yesterday that I started this blog when in reality it's been almost a year. A year of Born Loser and other comics and writings and stories and whole lotta love. I'm taking the next two weeks off and focusing on my writing and getting a second blog started up plus introducing a couple other things for this blog. I'll still be around checking in from time to time but I'll be back on December 14th and I have a posting coming later this evening.

What a note to end on.

Can everybody see the seven dots of five o'clock shadow on Brutus' cheek? I was originally going to mock that Brutus is drawn as clean-shaven until I noticed those seven dots I originally thought was monitor burn.

168: Nanowrimo 2008 Comes To an End

As Nanowrimo comes to an end this year, I feel the need to clarify a few things about my novel.  I didn't get a whole novel written (Nanowrimo requires 50,000 to constitute a novel) I did get part one of my novel written which if I would've followed my original plan of splitting Wilbur and Kolak into four seperate novels, I would've gotten a novel finished.  I haven't started on part two yet but am about two chapters or so into it.  If I ever get them written I plan on posting them especially The Big Chapter.

I'm hoping next November I'm able to do more writing as I plan on being done with Wilbur and Kolak by the end of 2009 so maybe next year I can get my third and best novel written.

Peanuts 11/24/08-11/30/08

I've decided to bring this Peanuts thing to an end.  It had a decent run but I just can't compare these older strips to my life because these strips are all pretty Snoopy-centric.  I like Snoopy, I just like late eighties, nineties Snoopy.  Anyway, onto the final entry.

And so Snoopy attempts to listen for worms.  Snoopy has had quite a bit of identity crises over a span of 50 years.  Bird, vulture, WWI flying ace, just to name a few.  They all get pretty tiring and I find them annoying and not at all funny.  Moving on...

"Wait.  No.  It was just ash from the nitrogen plant just outside of town."

Fa la la la la, la la la laa.

Damn dog.

Born Loser for 11/30/08

While I hate to admit it, this is true. Comic strip creators seem stuck in the fifties and sixties and I don't know why none of them try to shake things up. Are they scared? Do they not know how to place themselves in modern times? Do they submit edgy comics but their editors say 'No!'? I want to believe that the creator figures that since the space allowed is so small and anymore, the comics page is so trivial that they just don't bother doing anything that will make headlines.

Or they are a bunch of golf-playing morons that really are stuck in the 1950s. I don't know...


However in Chip's defense, he seems to be trying in some cases and I do like Gladys' response to Brutus in the last panel. The chef's hat is a bit much though.