Heart of the City by Steenz for April 30, 2020

Heart the fashionista.

What is it with trends? People are pretty much just listening to strangers for no real reason.

Adios, adieu, farewell!

I wore hand-me-downs pretty much exclusively in middle school, and this strip would have made me so happy back then! This is lovely and fun. I look forward to my kiddos having Heart as a friend on the page. <3

I love the new art style! I liked the former one too; I especially adore how two artists can each tackle a world in their own beautiful styles. This is gorgeous. I can’t wait for your stories, Steenz! ❤️

They sort of look like Lego brick characters.

Since I only have an older brother my hand-me-downs made me look like a tomboy.

The colorized version on the side panel isn’t as painful on the eyes….

Hand me downs rock

I believe I’ll continue to follow this strip. It has potential. I’m still waiting to see Heart’s mom and other characters. Even with the change in artists, four days in, this stirp is still better than the new, bland colors Nancy, Aunt Fritzi, and the dumbed-down for ‘humor’ Alley Oop.

I tried to like it. But the characters all look like they’re from the Archies. It’s just not the comic strip that I’ve grown to love. I get what you’re trying to do, but it’s just not the same. I’m gonna have to drop out.

If you want to avoid having to modify the URL pointed to in my earlier comment, save the HTML shown by my next comment as an HTML file (color.html is a suggested filename), open that in your browser, and click the link.

Hmmm… trying to give this a chance, but the characters look so bland and generic now. Even the humor seems kind of like a retread—wasn’t there a TV show about a school survival guide?

Ms. Steenz, I owe you an apology. I was too critical to fast. As a cartoonist myself I know how hard it is to please “anybody” much less “everybody.” You’ve taken on a beloved comicstrip and it’s going to take folks time to get used to the charges. I wish you the best of luck with the new Hear of the City … GO GET ’EM!"

Sad immediate decline of a once lovely strip. Off my “Favorites” list.

I’m not ready to bail yet, but four days in and I haven’t even figured out which one is Heart.

No more of this, I’m outta here

It gets better every day. It’s almost like a Dr. Who regeneration. At first you really miss your guy, and then you come to love the new gal just as much.

I’m afraid with the artwork I’m going to have to pass.

WOW – totally different in color. I still miss my cute quirky Heart. This, to me, is a completely different strip.

It’s much easier to read in color.

Is this change in the look of the characters and strip permanent? If so, I will probably not be following this comic anymore. This is not the “Heart” that I love!

Steenz, you don’t need my encouragement but I just want to let you know that I am just fine with your art and your writing. I’m sure you knew this would be a wrench for many and that they would leave the building. S’arite. People have and make choices. I liked the “old” Heart; I like your new Heart. I incidentally like the “new” Alley Oop, which is evolving into funnier and more adventurous territory daily (plus giving Ooola far more screen time and snappy dialogue that she richly deserves). New takes getting used to. I wrecked my old car 3 years ago and bought a new car that I am STILL getting used to. Same make and model but years younger and it’s like they switched everything around. I still get the headlights mixed up with the wipers (muscle memory).

You’re doing fine, Steenz. Keep on keepin’ on.

Sorry gave it chance, goodbye

I still firmly believe that Steenz would have done far better to have started her own original strip, rather than taking up “Heart”. Just my opinion.

I don’t know what happened, but I don’t like it. I will quit following it.

Anime style is not for me. I said I’d give this a week but I miss the old Heart and this ‘Toonist does nothing to capture my interest. So long Heart - I’m gonna miss the real you

The strip isn’t getting any better. The artwork looks like it came out of a clip book, the characters are unrecognizable and, worst of all, the strip isn’t even funny. One more day and I’ll bow out, regretfully.

In our case, the kids wore uniforms throughout their school days, but they did have a “civies” day once a month, and what a headache it was!!! I was so glad that we didn’t have to search for a slew of new outfits every so often. Nowadays it would have been so easy with us having so many second hand places all around… Shoes, though, was another matter, since gym was the only place they could show off that they had something that was “in”…

I just unfollowed. It’s not funny, it’s hard to read, and I realized that it was way more annoying than amusing – not something I need these days.

Potato Nose Girl looks very happy in the last panel. I guess she likes the handbags and the glad rags that her poor old granddad had to sweat to buy her.

Zoot alors!

Wow. When I read it about an hour ago, it was still B&W. Now in color. Previous days as well. The shading is better, not the fairly large dot zipatone. Overall better.

Okay, I have to ask. I know Kat, Dean and Heart but who is the other girl on the left side picture above Steenz name? Even as I think of the characters from before I can only remember certain characters.

I’m a new follower (never got into ❤️ before, just Lio) thanks to the addition of color now and seeing this strip how it was meant to be seen.

Woo! Color really made a difference! I shall hang in there with hope.

Color makes a world of difference! Keep the uncolored strips. Since they are now gone, they’ll be worth something someday. Sometimes trends change faster that you can shake a pencil at. Glad I decided to hang around. This looks like it could be a lot of fun.

I am glad someone likes this ‘style’

adore is a pretty strongword for a comic ofdubious veneration

MUCH better with color!

Noticed the strips are including color now (including archives back to Feb ’17). Anyone know why Heart was never in color before (save for Sundays)?

Just wanted to say hi as I’m a new reader who just became aware of this comic because of the artist change! I follow Steenz’s work, which is why I’m here. Putting the strips in color was a good idea and are now a lot clearer to read, as far as immediately being able to tell who’s who. Looking back at Mark’s final strips, I see that there was a pandemic storyline and I think that would’ve been really interesting and impactful to continue, as we can all relate and are looking for some levity in this situation, but I understand wanting to start fresh with a more generic storyline. I’m going to go back and read from the beginning as I can see what was so charming and funny about Mark’s strips!

High school fashion trends are like the SF Bay Area weather. Wait a few minutes and it’ll all change.

I don’t even understand this strip. So what is so funny about Heart wearing a jacket and she finds out hand me downs are in? Sorry, but I don’t care for this strip any more. Good luck, everybody has different tastes.

I loved the old Heart – it was genuinely “cute”, and I will admit that I’m skeptical about the new Heart. That said, I will continue to give it a chance. A few days is not long enough to determine whether a comic is good or not. I’ll reserve my decision until after I see some direction that the new artist is going to take Heart, and until after I see a few story arcs, rather than basing my opinion on a week’s worth of one-shot strips.

I sincerely hope the best for the new artist and for Heart, Dean, etc, and I promise I will give her a fair chance to fill Tatulli’s shoes.

Put the comic back the way it was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The style IS a complete change from Mark Tatulli’s and the tone seems to be also. I’m perfectly willing, though, to give it a test run (a month) to see if the new Heart suits me. I do like strips like Big Nate, Luann and Curtis so I can see where this fits. (Our newspaper in Seattle started running Breaking Cat News and I said ‘What?’ but I gave it a chance, and now I look forward to reading it every day). Good luck, Steenz. I hope this is successful.

I’ve posted before that I don’t care for the new drawing style, but that’s just my subjective opinion.

I’ve been thinking about this specific strip since I saw it earlier today.

I don’t like it because it’s simply not true to its main character.

Anyone familiar with the original strip knows that Heart Lamar is being raised by a struggling single mother. Struggling single mothers seldom raise “fashionistas”. They typically buy clothingfor themselves and their children from thrift shops.

“Classic” (if I may) Heart would be fine with that. She’s an outlier.She’s first, last, and always, a performer—-an artist. She wears what she likes, and that’s that. She’s a nerd, and it doesn’t bother her.Never in a million years would “classic” Heart care what some“influencer” who she’s never met, influence her fashion choices.

I keep hoping that this arc is jut another of Heart’s dreams/fantasies.

I DO NOT LIKE Kat’s nose. But I’m not that easy to get rid of. I mean, seriously, that’s one facial feature out of like 18?

I am looking forward to seeing her mom and Mrs Angelini. And Spock. He was always a cool cat.

Color! Yay. It looks great.

All these naysayers. This really isn’t bad. Like I said yesterday, it’s going to be nice to see Heart’s world through the eyes of someone who experienced being a young teen girl firsthand. It’ll be refreshing (no offense to the previous artist!)

Interesting. They went back to Monday, colored them, and removed the intrusive half-toning.

I love Kat’s nose so much.

Why are these kids in school? At least last week’s ending few panels included isolating as a main ingredient. This is just lame. Please don’t say I should just not follow. I don’t follow… I see Heart in my local digital paper, it’s in black-and-white, the clarity is very poor… I had to come to my account in GoComics to find out what happened. Don’t care for the new artwork, looks too much like Archie.

I like it even more with the colors. Great job! Mark should be proud.

At the end of the day actors in tv shows have replaced the “original” actor, comic strips have switched artists (looking at you Nancy!), and even bands have replaced their lead singers and other members (looking at you Van Halen, Journey, Genisis, Foreigner, Styx, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Judas Priest, AC/DC, The Pointer Sisters, etc).

What do fans do when their tv show, comic, band changes hands? They either hate it or love it. The bottom line is that things change and Heart of the City isn’t the first and won’t be the last. It will get new fans who may actually prefer the “new” way and it may lose old fans who wish it could “go back to the way it was before”. There’s no reason to squabble. You either like it or don’t.

Thanks for asking (because I know everyone is on the edge of their seats wondering my opinion…just kidding): Yes, I did unfollow Heart of the City recently because I got tired of her fantasies that would last weeks on end (it seemed) but I still absolutely LOVE Lio. I came back when I heard Tatulli handed this strip over to another artist. Now I think I’m here to stay as I like her vision, so far. That’s no hate on Tatulli as he’s a great artist and I still enjoy reading Lio and even bought a Lio book; I’m just excited to see where Steenz will take this strip and have opted to re-follow for the journey.

The color makes a huuuuge difference …. I’ll hang on

Thought that might be Kat….As for the new style, I miss Hearts old Hat. Also I find that Heart and Kat appear a bit… ‘Rubinesque’ although Tatulli did draw them thinner so I wanna see what happens. Don’t jump ship yet Folks.

The new look caught me completely by surprise. However, my newspaper only publishes the daily comics in black and white. So until I viewed the strip online in color, I had no idea who the “new” old characters were. I suspected something was happening because suddenly it appeared over awhile that Heart and Dean were suddenly aging, but had no idea this was happening. It will be interesting when the other characters, such as Mom and Mrs. Angelini as well as Spock, show up. Assuming Spock has not aged into the grave. I suspect I will have to go online again to figure out who they are. I have serious doubts that this comic will last for long with such a complete change in style.

Wait, I don’t get it….