Wooooaaahhhh.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Whistling_in_The_Dark/

The shift from black and white to colored scheme was a pleasant surprise, along with the line thickness variations. The art has definitely improved since the start. Though i have to admit i had to skip the earlier strips because i cant read the text, too darn small.

I like the fact of having a grandpa character in the strip and a pretty cool one at that, makes me wish i grew up with one.

Id say this strip is okay, the humor could still be improved though, on my opinion. Dialogues range from "i dont get it" to "freaking hilarious", all in all a good read.

And the artist has gotto update soon, the fans are starting to get cranky.

Art: I'm a fan of stylized art, which this comic definitely has. Hence, I generally like the art here. I slightly prefer the original style, but that's a personal preference. The only minor thing about it that bugs me is that occasionally the characters with thin necks (Baker and Mike, I believe?) also have extremely long necks. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. But that could be just me.

Writing: Not bad. Not brilliant, but better than a lot of the humor strips I've seen lately. I can see why people with that particular sense of humor would enjoy it. Also, the caricatures are quite good, and that always helps.

Peeves: The one thing that bothered me, that always bothers me, was the amount of spelling and grammar errors. It got better later on, but it's still really disappointing to see a reasonably professional looking comic with those kinds of mistakes. In this case, I don't think it's a matter of typos, as it happens in the author's notes as well, and most of them are common mistakes. I recommend getting multiple people to proofread.

Art: Pretty good. You keep the characters looking the same throughout. The color looks a lot better, and you're introducing new characters which stay consistent from panel to panel. Overall it's serviceable art.

Story- Now here's where the problem is. I liked the little arc that revolved around Bush and all, but I don't really see what this comic is about. Most of it just seems to be the two characters standing around in a void, sometimes sitting on a couch, sometimes inviting people over, etc. It just doesn't have that sort of hook that you need. You need story-arcs or something if you want to get readers. You've got the art down, but you need a pull in your story that keeps people coming back. So far I don't see that.

Also you might want to get rid of that banner on top of all the comics. It's just kind of annoying to scroll down through.

I ran through this comic yesterday and today. Overall, I wasn't impressed. Here's my open ended review.

All categories are rated on a positive number if I liked it. The more, the better. Negative points means I didn't like something. Some categories are made up on the spot. But ending up with a positive number is a good thing.

Art (+1): Overall it was okay. Nothing overly complicated, nothing really bad. It would have been a +2, but there were pages where the Text was too small and hard to read on my small monitor at work. A comic writer should keep consistant the size of the text on any single page. Makes the eye more relaxed.

Comedy (-2): It sometimes hit, but mostly misses. Most seemed like personal issues with the artist rather than trying to hit on anything funny.

Hardassness (-2): It is labeled as a comic for hard asses. ...in a sea of comic for hardasses it doesn't stand out. There are better comics out there for this. This one just seems to be following the trend of negative pessimistic views on the crazy things in the world. It reminds me of someone who will sit on the internet movie database and keep adding negative reviews to a movie and wont shut up about it. It's not being a hardass, its being just plain negative.

Standoutishness (-1): This comic didn't jump out at me. It was more like background noise and after reading it, I probably wouldn't go back and make it a favorite.

Story (0): This type of comic has story arcs not a story. No real points assigned either way.

Characters (+1) The characters were unique in a typical way. Unique enough to warrant a point, but unfortunately the subject matter has been hashed out and they dont shine.

Total: -3 (Meh), Pass - Though it might still appeal to some people.

Edit: Oh yeah. Get rid of that huge banner at the top. Annoying. ;)

...wow...it got reviewed huh? Wow. Much too little, much too late. Anyway, future people don't need to review Whistling in the Dark, aside from Phil not one of the characters will be moving on into new projects. I've been working on Four Blobs pretty hard lately. I think that comic could sell.

The only reason I started back up with 4B in the first place is it was featured. I was very honored and worked hard to make my brain work on it with new gusto. But Whistling is dead for now. So, I suppose that means you can cut off this review...or switch it to Four Blobs.

Edit: Man...I put that comic up for edit like an Effing year ago...a year ago, this would have been more helpful...man.