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. 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. 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. References The Born Loser's Guide to Life, 1990. () Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. . Horn, Maurice. 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. Gramercy Books, 1996. () External links The Born Loser "The Born Loser Celebrates 40 Years as America's Favorite Underdog" – press release (pdf) The Born Loser at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. American comic strips 1965 comics debuts Gag-a-day