View source for Loss (Ctrl+Alt+Del)

{{short description|2008 webcomic}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Loss (''Ctrl+Alt+Del'')}}
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[[File:Loss comic.jpg|thumb|"Loss" by Tim Buckley for the webcomic [[Ctrl+Alt+Del (webcomic)|''Ctrl+Alt+Del'']]]]
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"'''Loss'''", sometimes referred to as "'''loss.jpg'''",<ref name="NYMag" /> is a strip published on June 2, 2008, by Tim Buckley for his gaming-related [[webcomic]] [[Ctrl+Alt+Del (webcomic)|''Ctrl+Alt+Del'']]. It is part of a storyline in which the main character Ethan and his [[fiancée]] Lilah are expecting their first child. Presented as a four-panel comic with no dialogue, the strip shows Ethan entering a [[hospital]] where he sees Lilah weeping in a hospital bed after suffering a [[miscarriage]]. Buckley cited events in his life as inspiration for the comic.
It has received negative reception from critics and webcomic creators, especially for the shift in tone in the webcomic, and as an example of "[[Women in refrigerators|fridging]]"—showing a killed or injured female character with the intention of provoking a male character. It has been adapted and parodied by numerous other creators and garnered a legacy as an [[Internet meme]].
==Background==
''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del (webcomic)|Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'', abbreviated as ''CAD'', is a webcomic series by Tim Buckley. Created in October 2002, the comic focuses on characters Ethan, Lucas, and later Ethan's love interest Lilah.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3145208|title=Will Strip For Games|page=2|last=Maragos|first=Nick|work=[[1UP.com]]|date=November 7, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060528063739/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3145208|archive-date=May 28, 2006}}</ref> Prior to "Loss", ''CAD'' focused on gaming humor, alternating between multi-strip story arcs and one-off gags, often featuring characters sitting on a couch riffing about the game they were playing. Brian Feldman of the magazine ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' described the earlier tone of the strip as "amusing at best and puerile at worst, resorting to violence as a punch line with noticeable frequency."<ref name="NYMag">{{cite web|last=Feldman|first=Brian|date=November 6, 2015|title=Talking to the Man Behind 'Loss,' the Internet's Longest-Running Miscarriage 'Joke'|url=http://nymag.com/selectall/2015/11/longest-running-miscarriage-meme-on-the-web.html|access-date=June 4, 2018|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820064609/http://nymag.com/selectall/2015/11/longest-running-miscarriage-meme-on-the-web.html|archive-date=August 20, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2008, during a storyline where Ethan and Lilah were expecting their first child, Buckley posted the strip "Loss", a dramatic tonal shift from previous ''CAD'' strips. The strip was a four-panel comic with Ethan entering a hospital, asking a receptionist for directions, talking to a doctor, and finding Lilah crying on her side in a hospital bed, implying that she had suffered a [[miscarriage]]. There were two more comics set at the hospital in the storyline, before ''CAD'' returned to typical material.<ref name="Gimlet" /> When he published "Loss", Buckley wrote a blog post explaining that he had planned the storyline years in advance. Personal experience in his life inspired the strip, namely an unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage with an ex-girlfriend in college.<ref name="NYMag"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cad-comic.com/news.php?i=1636|title=So then... let's chat|last=Buckley|first=Tim|date=2 June 2008|website=Ctrl+Alt+Del|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610182634/http://www.cad-comic.com/news.php?i=1636|archive-date=10 June 2008|access-date=19 September 2019}}</ref>
==Reception==
[[Image:Krahulik Holkins, Comicon 2009.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Penny Arcade]]'' creators [[Mike Krahulik]] (left) and [[Jerry Holkins]] (right)]]
"Loss" was received negatively by some webcomic creators and critics. The creators of webcomic series ''[[Penny Arcade]],'' [[Mike Krahulik]] and [[Jerry Holkins]], were asked about the strip during an interview with ''[[Joystiq]]''; both men criticized it, with Holkins describing Buckley as the "[[Antichrist]]", humorously citing "Loss" and its storyline as the [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse|first horseman of the Apocalypse]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/02/pax-2008-the-penny-arcade-interview/|title=PAX 2008: The Penny Arcade Interview|last=Miller|first=Ross|work=[[Joystiq]]|date=September 2, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080902233828/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/02/pax-2008-the-penny-arcade-interview/|archive-date=September 2, 2008}}</ref> [[Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]], creator of the video game review series ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'', referenced ''CAD'' in his episode on video game webcomics, where he mentioned that having a story line where a character miscarries in a webcomic known for humor would be considered "an awkward tonal shift at best and hugely disrespectful of the subject matter at worst".<ref>{{cite video|url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/108-Webcomics|title=Webcomics|last=Croshaw|first=Ben|author-link=Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw|work=[[Zero Punctuation]]|date=July 2, 2008|access-date=June 3, 2018|archive-date=August 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804162322/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/108-Webcomics|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''[[Kotaku]]''{{'}}s Mike Fahey, formerly a self-declared fan of the webcomic, agreed with Croshaw's complaints, mentioning being unable to read the series like he used to.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://kotaku.com/zero-punctuation-takes-on-ctrl-alt-del-5021521|title=Zero Punctuation Takes On Ctrl+Alt+Del|last=Fahey|first=Mike|work=[[Kotaku]]|date=July 2, 2008|access-date=June 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126182625/https://kotaku.com/zero-punctuation-takes-on-ctrl-alt-del-5021521|archive-date=January 26, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, Fahey would call the strip a "miscarriage of comic publishing".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://kotaku.com/in-2007-video-game-memes-took-a-dark-turn-1846654309|title=In 2007, Video Game Memes Took A Dark Turn|last=Grayson|first=Nathan|work=[[Kotaku]]|date=April 9, 2021|access-date=July 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516201815/https://kotaku.com/in-2007-video-game-memes-took-a-dark-turn-1846654309|archive-date=May 16, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
The strip also faced criticism for being an example of "fridging", a term coined by the website [[Women in refrigerators|Women in Refrigerators]] where an author uses the trauma of a female character as a [[plot device]] in a male character's story.<ref name="NYMag" /> The two strips that followed "Loss" in the story showed Ethan reacting to the miscarriage with his male friends and did not show Lilah or her reaction.<ref name="Gimlet" /> Buckley said in a 2015 interview that he did not regret creating the strip, and stated that women had told him that the story line had helped them. He said that he told the story from Ethan's viewpoint because that was the only reference he had, reflecting that he was afraid of miscalculating a woman's perspective on the subject and was not confident in his writing abilities to do it justice. Buckley later remarked that, if the situation was brought up again in the webcomic, he would do more research on the effects miscarriages have on expectant mothers.<ref name="NYMag" />
==Legacy as an Internet meme==
[[File:Minimalist loss.svg|thumb|A minimalist version of "Loss", consisting of only seven lines]]
After the strip was published, it immediately became an [[Internet meme]], with users from sites such as [[4chan]] and [[Tumblr]] creating edits of the strip, recreating it using scenes from other works such as ''[[Futurama]]'' and ''[[Pokémon]]''. 4chan's video game board /v/ would later ban users who created new threads about these edits.<ref name="NYMag"/> Parodies of the strip became more abstract, representing it with objects placed generally in the same position as the characters, such as [[hot dog]]s, pipes from ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', or the text from "[[For sale: baby shoes, never worn]]".<ref name="Gimlet" /> A [[minimalist]] version of the meme involves the sequence in the same four-panel style; first panel with a single vertical line, second panel with two vertical lines, the second line slightly shorter, third panel with two equal vertical lines, and the fourth panel with a vertical line and a horizontal line. A response to recognizing the meme, a meme in of itself, was "'''Is this Loss?'''"<ref name="NYMag"/><ref name="Gizmodo"/> The meme saw a resurgence around 2017.<ref name="Gizmodo" />
Brian Feldman declared it as "the Internet's Longest-Running Miscarriage 'Joke{{'"}}.<ref name="NYMag"/> In 2016, the podcast [[Reply All (podcast)|''Reply All'']] discussed the strip in their analysis of a variant of "Loss" that was used as a joke about the results in the [[2016 United States presidential election]]. The hosts described it as a pattern that viewers would never recognize unless they were already familiar with it, and said that because the strip was stark and iconic, that also made it easy to parody.<ref name="Gimlet">{{cite podcast|url=https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4hemk/80-flash|title=Flash!|work=[[Reply All (podcast)|Reply All]]|author1=Vogt, PJ|author2=Goldman, Alex|number=80|date=October 27, 2016|access-date=July 12, 2018|archive-date=September 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928004303/https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4hemk/80-flash|url-status=live}}</ref>
On June 2, 2018, the tenth anniversary of "Loss", the original strip was replaced by an edit of the comic titled "Found".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cad-comic.com/comic/found/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602025859/https://cad-comic.com/comic/found/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 2, 2018|title=Found|date=June 2, 2018|access-date=October 15, 2024|last1=Buckley|first1=Tim|work=Ctrl+Alt+Del}}</ref> While almost all of the comic remained the same, in the last panel Ethan instead [[Fourth wall|looks at the audience]] with a smirk on his face. A day later, the original strip was restored with no explanation for the replacement.<ref name="Gizmodo">{{cite news|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/one-of-the-nets-longest-running-webcomics-has-done-some-1826508119|title=One of the 'Net's Longest-Running Webcomics Has Done Something Weird to Its Most Memed Strip|last=Muncy|first=Julie|work=[[Gizmodo]]|date=June 2, 2018|access-date=June 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202041119/https://io9.gizmodo.com/one-of-the-nets-longest-running-webcomics-has-done-some-1826508119|archive-date=December 2, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Julia Alexander from [[Polygon (website)|''Polygon'']] considered "Found" to be an acknowledgement of the status "Loss" had achieved as a meme, comparing the evolution of the strip to [[Pepe the Frog]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/6/17430838/ctrl-alt-del-loss-found-memes-tim-buckley|title=Ctrl+Alt+Del's 'Loss' and 'Found' comics prove artists still struggle with meme-ified work|last=Alexander|first=Julia|work=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]|date=June 6, 2018|access-date=June 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113040452/https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/6/17430838/ctrl-alt-del-loss-found-memes-tim-buckley|archive-date=January 13, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, on June 2, 2019, the strip was replaced by an edit of the comic titled "Cross". This edit replaced the last panel with one where the birth was successful; however, the child's face is a minimalist version of the comic itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cad-comic.com/comic/loss/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602080154/https://cad-comic.com/comic/loss/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 2, 2019|title=Cross|date=June 2, 2019|access-date=September 19, 2019|last1=Buckley|first1=Tim|work=Ctrl+Alt+Del}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [https://cad-comic.com/comic/loss/ The original strip]
[[Category:2008 in webcomics]]
[[Category:2008 works]]
[[Category:Internet memes introduced in 2008]]
[[Category:Fiction about medicine and health]]
[[Category:Comics set in hospitals]]
[[Category:Miscarriage]]