History ArtEvolution / ComicStrips

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' was a little more detailed in the earlier years, with a more three-dimensional feel, including frequent three-fourths views. By about the late 1950s and early 1960s, Charles Schulz had settled into his signature minimalistic style. Characters and objects were never shown from anything other than front or side views, and the face/head designs changed from ovals to circles. This further evolved a looser, scratchier style in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to Schulz losing fine motor control as he aged.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Crabgrass}}' gradually underwent a slight change in design. Most notably, Kevin and Krystal originally had red hair instead of orange, Miles had a different hair style, and both boys had rather pointy ears. Compare [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2019/04/05 the first comic]] to [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2021/03/02 this one]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' was a little more detailed in the earlier years, with a more three-dimensional feel and frequent three-fourths views. By about the early 1960s, Charles Schulz had settled into his signature minimalistic style. Characters and objects were never shown from anything other than front or side views, and the face/head designs changed from ovals to circles. This further evolved a looser, scratchier style in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to Schulz losing fine motor control as he aged.

* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' changed artwork styles wildly over its run. From a rough-looking beginning (no background, slightly odd-looking but serviceable character design) the characters and background became slowly much more detailed and realistic to the point where the attention to detail and shading seemed extremely obsessive and a little intrusive. But interestingly, now that the comic has been rebooted (reworking certain installments), creator Lynn Johnston had to relearn her old art style, so that it doesn't force a contrast between the new strips and the reruns.

-->'''Luann''': I always wondered... what was with [Delta's] shades?
-->'''Delta''': What was up with [Luann's] hair?

* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' is also a very extreme example. In the first year, the art was very blobby and scratchy, and then it started to ape ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' for a while -- something that even Berke Breathed himself admits to. Over time, it gradually became much finer and clearer, with Berke putting more detail into his inking and crosshatching at times. The fine, crosshatched style carried over to successor ''Outland'', and by the time he made ''Opus'', he even changed up his coloring style drastically.

* Popular Norwegian comic ''ComicStrip/{{Pondus}}'' made a huge art shift from flabby caricature drawings to a more realistic style early in its run. Compare ''[[http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/TV2/archive/00509/pondus_1_uke39_509216a.JPG this early strip]]'' to ''[[http://www.adressa.no/multimedia/archive/01135/pondus-stripe_1135756a.gif this recent one]]''... and yes, the black-haired man ''is'' the same character.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' has this in spades. When they first appeared in ''ComicStrip/{{Jon}}'', Jon had a more humanlike face with a visible nose, Garfield had a very lumpy design with massive jowls and no stripes, and Odie (then named "Spot" ) looked more like an oversized Chihuahua. As the strip turned into ''Garfield'', he went from a [[http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/06/19/ thick-bodied, beady-eyed creature]] to the more symmetrical, [[SphereEyes goggle-eyed]] form seen [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Garfield_the_Cat.svg here.]] Ironically, even though he's a cat, the original design of him looked more catlike than his refined design. Also evolved was the style - the strip originally looked slightly more realistic in its designs of people and animals. By 1983, the style became more cartoony.

** Watterson's dinosaurs show marked improvement, thanks to him [[ShownTheirWork reading up on and adapting to]] then current dinosaur research. Compare [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/calvin-hobbes-dinosaur-005.jpg this early strip]] to [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/e5/00/73e5009ebe8e752af06310089ce9a283--dinosaur-illustration-t-rex-humor.jpg this later one]].
* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' changed artwork styles wildly over its run. From a rough-looking beginning (no background, slightly odd-looking but serviceable character design) the characters and background became slowly much more detailed and realistic to the point where the attention to detail and shading seemed extremely obsessive and a little intrusive. But interestingly, now that the comic has been rebooted, the artist has had to relearn her old art style, so that it doesn't force a contrast between the new strips and the reruns.

* ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'', in its earlier years in the early 1970s, used a much more cartoonish and loose art style matching the "gag-a-day" nature of the strip. As CerebusSyndrome took hold, the art also became far more realistic -- though this is also when the cast developed almost permanently depressed facial expressions. A flashback storyline in 2010 in which the middle-aged Funky meets his teenage self places the drastic art style change in much starker light, as even the youthful Funky was drawn in the modern style instead.

* Comicstrip/LittleOrphanAnnie used to have huge red hair which was a white girl's afro, which later shrank to a realistic size. And the rest of the art grew more consistent and less sketch-like, too.

* ComicStrip/{{Striker}} was originally hand drawn, but nowadays is rendered in 3D using a computer.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' famously went from a [[http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/06/19/ thick-bodied, beady-eyed creature]] to the more symmetrical, [[SphereEyes goggle-eyed]] form seen [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Garfield_the_Cat.svg here.]] Ironically, even though he's a cat, the original design of him looked more catlike than his refined design. Also evolved was the style - the strip originally looked slightly more realistic in its designs of people and animals. By 1983, the style became more cartoony.

** And Jim Davis' other comic, ''ComicStrip/USAcres'', went from a cutesy, round style similar to early-1980s ''Garfield'' to a loose, cartoony, frenetic style.

* ''Eek and Meek'' by Howie Schneider was consistently well written and funny throughout its run, but concerning the art style, the characters eventually became so abstract that a new reader probably couldn't tell they were supposed to be ''mice'' without being told.

* In the ten years who ''ComicStrip/{{Mafalda}}'' lasted, Quino's drawing went from crude and slightly OffModel to refined and fine-line drawing, with a more consistent character design.

** Opus the Penguin had his own Art Evolution, looking very much like a penguin when he first appeared as a minor character, only to grow a much larger beak/nose for no particular reason as he became the central character in the strip.