RATINGS SYSTEM:
There are three ratings system I've
- THE STORY METER
Which judges how good the story of the arc in question is.
- THE ART METER
Which judges the art of the story.
and last but not least, the CHARACTER METER
Which judges the characters' actions and what not.
IMAGINATE
I RATE IT 7/10 (STORY) 9/10 (ART) + ?/10 (CHAR.)
The very, very beginning of the comic (unless, of course, you count Rick's old Bino strip |which was never even published in the first place| or the 2007 prototype comics Rick posted to DeviantArt as 'canon'.)
Peanut and Grace are pretty much unchanged from the rest of the comic in terms of personality, though, notably Grape becomes far more feminine and prone to angry outbursts later in the series, basically becoming prototype King. I sometimes wonder if Grape was meant to be a girl from the very start or if Rick just came up with the idea much later. (Should be noted that the original cast page never even uses any gender pronouns for her!) Peanut is also more... How do I put this?... Mature than his later incarnations, much more like a middle schooler than the little kid he gradually becomes as the strip goes on.
I still firmly believe that Rick's original style for the comic was the best (somewhat shoddy character design withstanding) It managed to capture both the cartoony early feeling of the comic, and the warm, slice of life, simplistic storytelling it was going for. The only gripes I really had with it was the dog characters' ear designs: it looked like every single dog in this universe broke their ears or something. Also, pretty much every cat looked exactly the same, regardless of breed or sex, but we don't even see many cats anyway so no bother.