Prickly City by Scott Stantis for July 15, 2014

Wow. Nice to see your drawing skills have improved over the years. Or you hired good draftsmen.

But I still love these early Prickly panels the best!.Among other things, there was character development..Not to mention, the hope that this strip used to give me – that conservatives and liberals could have a civilized discussion – regardless of the bent of artists, writers, and commentators..Which, in a nutshell, seems missing today.

I remember when this started. At the time, Scott was still the political cartoonist for the Birmingham News. And it’s not unusual for skills to “improve” over time, only it’s not really so much “skills improving” as it is details changing/being added. Compare the earliest Garfields to today’s Garfield.

All my strips are disappearing! How sad

According to the Wikipedia entry for Prickly City the strip is currently being not being drawn by Scott Stanis but by someone named Eric Allie. That might explain the evolution in the drawing style over the years. No mention of the strip shutting down.

I prefer Stantis’ style to that of Allie’s. That scratchy look is something you just don’t see on the comics page very often apart from Cul de Sac.

Plus I can’t resist characters like Carmen who have big ol’ noggins like that.