The compromised cat eyes haven’t really been working out. They’re difficult to draw balanced and eat up a whole lot of time trying to get right, and ultimately they’re less expressive because they’re not as mutable. So for a while I’m going to try almond eyes on all the cats. Hopefully, if all the cats have almond eyes, It won’t necessarily make anything seem gender-specified. (Nobody claimed Fiddler looked female on last Wednesdays comic, so I think this is a good bet)
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And this is why you never talk at book premieres
Heh, silly Max. He shouldn’t JOKE like that to hardcore fans.
Actually… I kinda like the almond eyes myself. And it’s fun to see A bigglesworth and Marvin, actually, it’s just fun to see all the characters… Still missing out on some in the new style though, but they’ll get here eventually.
And, of course, Great comic XD, I remember this little thing going around with the Harry Potter books =P
lol I did the exact same thing when book 7 of HP came out… lol shouting “Ron get’s killed in Chapter 3″ really agitated people.
WHY ARE YOU MAD? I JUST SAVED YOU $20 AND FOUR HOURS!
“So worth five dollars…”
Yes! It helps pay for the book ^___^
*MGS alert noise*
HAHAHAHA
I LOL’d 2
on the second frame, i was like.. noooooooo what are you doing!!!!!
and i love how the background cats look at him
I still… Don’t like the eyes. Now they look too SrsBsns and make them look completely old. I mean if your going for reality-wise looks, my cat has some pretty wide eyes her pupils are like 0 and eyes like ( ), I don’t think changing the shape is what did it, It was more of changing the Pupil/Retenna, but Okay.
i think i like the almond shaped eyes better, they look much more catlike too me
I wish the style would become just a bit more cartoony again… Some realism is nice, but now with the new eye shape I think it’s a bit much…
MAN, I couldn’t hit it the nail! but you got it. Exactly it’s just too realistic, which doesn’t need to be especially since it’s a webcomic. I liked the more cartoonish feel of it.
yepp. and Grape looses her cuteness.
Grape isn’t really supposed to be cute…
Haha, Peanut hides his wallet in his collar?
Where else would he put it? He does’nt wear pants!
I really don’t want to think about any OTHER possible hiding place…
I LOVE that he hides his wallet in his collar. That is so cool
When I first saw it, I wondered… What else do the pets keep in there? It’d be interesting to see who keeps what in their collar.
Now we know why their collars are so huge! They’re CARGOS!
‘Featuring our patented elephant zucchini weave system, a complex inner netting is guaranteed to meet all your pet’s small storage needs…!’
Good idea to introduce the almond eyes in a strip with a LOT of cats. It looks a lot less gender-specific when you can see how an obviously-mixed crowd appears.
I like’em better, myself. I read the strip before the comment, and without pinpointing just what had changed since Friday, thought to myself, “wow, Rick’s really settling into the new style. Everyone looks very feline.”
Oh, and I love Grape’s expression in the last panel.
Rule One at Book Premieres: KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT! If you don’t, you very likely to get mauled by a horde of angry cats!
Oh Max you’re the devious one
Look at that sh*t eating grin on Max in panel 3!
Also I love the exclamation points above everyone’s heads in panel 2. He aggros the entire room with a single statement.
Yeah, but too bad he’s not the tank…
Shardul could be the tank.
Where IS Shardul, anyway? They would give him vacation days for this kind of thing, right?
Heh, I could have done that for HP book 7. I work at UPS and some of the boxes “accidentally broke open” and it was nearly a week before the book came out XD
awww, you need to get around the internets more. it was SO done. but having some more reliable sources to stop all the infighting and BS around “fake” (or otherwise) versions would have helped.
I did very much enjoy finding the actual, accurate preview (done stoled from UPS like yours) and baiting/trolling a couple of insanely obsessive friends about it (can’t stand Rowling myself, it’s like trying to read Brown or Jacques… reasonable storylines but the standard of english kills it – someone REALLY needs to hire a good subeditor). To the point where they actually had me tell them all the things because they couldn’t believe anyone got past the “oh so tight” security to leak it on the interweb.
Hehehe… every single big-turning-point reveal matched up page-for-page in the copies they brought home, all the deaths, betrayals, the way it ends… Felt like a bit of a git afterwards, but hey – I didn’t tell them the details til they asked me. Besides if it left them slightly less hooked in, that’s probably a positive thing.
I don’t know why but in that panel Grape just looks so feminine
It’s probably just the face.
I think it’s the way she’s standing: Back arched forward , hand on hip, other hand out with a loose wrist.
Approved. You may continue.
haha this is why max is awesome
Grape is cute in this one xP
okay, NOW im getting used to the fact that Grapes a girl. She looks so cute in the last panel.
I miss potter crashing :<
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
*gasp*
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I’m just going to chip in and say I love the eyes here. Honestly, I hadn’t specifically noticed the change until I read the comment below – I think the new style works well for your strip. ^^
Also, I love Mr. Bigglesworth, Max, and Grape in this comic. Yes, all three. So cute.
This strip is full of awesome expressions, I have a favorite for every pannel. But of corse, Grape’s is by far the cutest.
I wonder if all of the Mr. Bigglesworths have glasses, or just this one? (and also, how many of them are there? at least 4 for sure)
and finally, MYSTERIOUS CHEETAH MAN WITH A MASK!!!
i really like the almond eyes, myself. they look very feline, but also seem emotive enough. less mixup between a dog with perked up ears and a cat now, i think.
AH, so that’s where they keep their wallets… must be uncomfortable XP.
Love this strip, I can relate with friends who shout out “spoilers” to annoy people… unfortunately most of them were true XD.
Well, that’s one way to draw aggro…
I like the almond-eyes, personally… also the little touches like fur raising on the back of the angry kitties’ necks. Nicely done. :3
Yaaaay for more Pridelands beefcake!
B-but what about cheesecake? T.T
Max is amazing xD I love him.
And the new eyes/style in general looks great.
WAIT A MINUTE…. FIDLER IS A GUY???
o_O
i gues noone complaind about that becase everyone saw him as I did… completly female…
btw almond eyes are nice… even thou Grape realy lost some of her cuttnes….
now u realy can’t tell the difference betwen cat and a tomcat…
and a nice MSG joke u’ve made, nice indeed
Yeah, that was kind of my reaction…. I clicked back a couple strips to last wednesday, and well … I thought that was Fids was a she-cat. Didn’t comment on it because, well … it’s not the 19th century any more. A feminine character? Out by herself without a good gentleman accompanying her? OUTRAGEOUS!
However if they all had the almond eyes we’d just assume they were all siamese or something and such definitions would disappear. Plus dogs usually get assumed as more masculine and cats as feminine anyway, so it would sort of fit.
Could it be or is it just my imagination that Grape looks like a fox in this? oô
Bit of a “Snape Kills Dumbeldor” parody, eh? And Peanut should have known better to take a bet like that, lol.
As a side note, don’t do something like this at any premier release for a book/book series that’s incredibly popular – you may very well get mauled for real by rabid fans, roflmao.
That’s why you do it as a driveby, mate….
or web forums/IRC/irritatingly obsessive friends are a particularly rich mine of it.
I want this book.
Plus I think I’m going to do something like this when the newest harry potter movie comes out. Im going to run out drop on my knees and yell. “Oh my gawd Dumbledore is dead!”
Nice idea.
Mwahahahahahahhahahahahahhaha!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, this is the first time I see Grape as female, due to the face expression. I really need to study the feminine’s of this world a bit more, when it comes to face expressions :l
Hehe, I Max is awesome. XD
I like this new art now….0.0
wait that that was fiddler two weeks ago? I thought he was a she. :S
Max got his smile back ^^
Just to add my two cents, I’d say the almond eyes actually look better on the cats. Grape only looks female in this one cause of her pose, but to tell the truth, I’ve kinda always guessed Grape was a girl since I started reading Housepets. Anyways, Grape’s shout seems a bit long in this one, but other than that, it’s good. (Oh, and Mr. Bigglesworth there with the glasses is pretty neat; cat glasses. Who woulda thought.)
I’m sorry, I meant snout, not shout.
Okay, now the new style is looking good. I like the cats having this almond shape better, plus I really do think Grape and Peanut are looking older. They look less childish and more like they’re teens.
i love the almond eyes ^^ and haha poor peanut. *pets him*
in the third frame you can practically hear all the cats growling like a chorus of chainsaws.
i’ve done that so many times!
They just seem to be coming off as androgynous in either gender’s direction. Maybe you’re looking at this as too much of a species issue. Depend on ear shapes and snout length to differ those, while giving the men rounder eyes and the women these almond shapes. Give the women softer jaws and the men slightly more square ones.
The claws coming out as well as the bared gums and raised hackles, nice touch
Someone’s coming out of this with ugly scars!
Or maybe they’ll do Max a favor and make his ears a bit more symmetrical
I for one like the eyes. The new style is fine to me, but people don’t like change… don’t let it discourage you!
NO YOU FOOL, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!
And I had a lovely flash back to the Deathly Hallow’s release. Rather than kill time at the bar I wandered around the bookstore for EIGHT hours, much to my bf’s chagrin. Finally everyone starts getting their books. Then we have this charming idiot although very smart with his strategic place by the door shouting at the top of his lungs, “TONKS AND REMUS BITE IT!” The lil bastard got away before anyone could get to him mainly because we were either stuck in line at the cafe or too busy trying to see if he was lying.
The almond eyes are a nice change. The new looks are slowly growing on me.
The facial shapes work fine by themselves. The eyes should be and should have been left alone. In this comic penuts eyes are what all characters eyes should be. Really. They give the best expression and personality and won’t confuse the difference between a cat and a dog. You’re getting to picky.
After reading other people’s comments I’d have to say that it seems everyone will agree with you no matter what you do except for me…. take pictures of real cats and dogs and put a text bubble over the heads and everyone will still say “I like the new look, Penut is soo cut” lol…
I’m for distinguishment but haveing the cats eyes anything other than what penut’s eyes are now takes away from the comic being a comic, to me at least… All I ask is that you try one comic with cats haveing regular eyes and see what people think. As long as the facial and body features are as they are the eyes can be regular. Regular eyes have the most emotion any way. Thanks.
Personally, as an artist, the ones in the first panel seem the best suited for your cats. If anything, they make them seem very smart! Then again: The mix of glasses and the eyes are awesome!
In other words:
You’ve come a long way and can only go further! Keep it up!
meh, the looks okay. I like the eyes the way they were.
also, forgive my stupidity because ive been out of the literature realm for a little while now, but is this actually a series?
I wish. It’s far too fun to make up fictional works of fiction.
awww poo… and here you got me thinking its something like the Warrior series.
Oooh, I wouldn’t want to be the one spoiling books for cats. Cats are sharp.
And the saddest thing is how the anthro king cheetah (?) in the background stole most of my attention when I read this one – I like king cheetahs all too much.
However, the rest is certainly not bad either, and the current cat eyes look perfectly good to me.
i don’t think it was worth five dolars. and that got to hurt!
LOL poor max XD
I love the hand on chin, elbow in hand look of Marvin… a gesture I do all too often to ignore when I see it, lol!
I wonder what he is speculating…
And the only slight facial change and removal of the hand is all that it takes to express derailing the train of thought, it makes me smile!
Wow, Peanut looks really angry on the last panel 0.0
It’s scaring me! Dx
Love the king cheetah poster in the background