Does anyone feel that the comic has changed its style dramatically over the years?
It's only to be expected that the comic does not remain stagnant, but I could definitely sense the shift. It was subtle at first, but now it is definitely different in some way. I don't know if it is better or worse, or if it is all in my head.

I read the comic when it was snowing (somewhat heavily) outside, so I must have connected the comic with the season winter and snow. Is it my personal bias or do you all notice it?

It's gotten a bit more story driven as it's gone on and some of the characters have become a bit more complex. That's probably why it seems to have changed.

'Course, I think that's a good thing. Keeps it engaging.

Oh I meant more of this entire comic year felt a lot different, not the story part. I believe that started long ago.
It's lost something you know... actually I don't know. I just know that it's different.
I'm leaning more to not liking it, though I'm not sure why.

I dunno, I think Housepets!'s premise is broad enough that lack of ideas isn't likely to be much of a concern. I think the shifts are just Rick trying to keep it interesting and establish a distinct identity for Housepets!

Every comic changes its style over the years; Even Shulz's Peanuts.

Personally, I like it, and agree that we've seen character development. Now we get to see some more play & interaction with those characters. Maybe the character development hasn't gone the way you liked or thought . It's all in fun; Personally, I'm not taking it too seriously, and if there's ever a plot hole, I'll shrug and smile and say "At least they are funny, entertaining, fuzzy, cute, and move around a lot doing "interesting stuff".

Star Blazers is an old TV cartoon I really like, and it has plot holes big enough to navigate an interstellar battleship through without scraping it's sides. However its still a cool, in a retro kind of way. Story telling can sometimes be like making rock & roll: It can be gritty with bungled lyrics & mistimed drums and still be a hit. So I'm letting Rick tell his story his way~ We might just get an improv solo out of him when the muse grabs him.

As for me, I am fine with the direction of the comic. The arcs have been shorter on average, but I find them quite fun still, and there have been promises of a really long one. The characters are still fun and the plots are chugging along and not stagnant.

speaking of art style ...


they have changed a lot
puberty changes everything...

Yeah the changes were definitely for the better. I love ya, Rick, but your early characters looked way too similar.

Agreed, when I read the strip for the first time, I couldn't figure out who was who until the style change that TC just pointed out.

Plus I think it just looks better anyway.

ummmm I have done some research about the number of comments, and this is the theory.
(I have never learned real statistic stuffs before So I really don't know how to explain this well, it's totally going to be in broken English, as always)

More comments indicates how much the comic is bringing attention/Interesting.

Factors are; Numbers of comments from a very first comic strip from each arc, Number of comments from a Last comic strip from each arc and numbers of comments from comic strip containing most comments from each arc.


Bigger image click the option button on the bottom of the screen and click the download full size to view the full size chart.


The Blue line indicates the number of comments from very a first comic strip of each arc
The Purple line indicates the
The Red line indicates the numbers of comments from comic strip containing most comments from each arc.

What we can see in the chart, it's at its decline stage.

I still have to do some more research about it. I'll come back with some more informations. It Took me 3 hours to do it, I had to go through every single strips.

The art style has certainly changed a lot over time. The change early on was quite obvious of course, and several times since then Rick has mentioned he was changing how he did the inking. Something I've noticed is that the cats used to have whiskers pretty much all the time, and now I hardly ever see them. Just look at this arc versus this one.

I think the changes Wanderer was alluding to have more to do with the theme and humor of the comic. The comic started out more with examining the crazy hijinks of anthropomorphic pets and how they interact with the world in ways similar to or different from real-life humans and pets. Recent arcs have been perhaps more general, and we of course have our U&U themed arcs. The Mall arc really was more in the theme of the older arcs in a way.

I don't see this as positive or negative, it is just natural. I personally enjoy the comic as much now as when I first started reading it. Although that wasn't very long ago.