Nobody in the Dusin family should know real human affection. I forbid it

Dustin, 1/18/24

I think my record on the themes and narrative content of Dustin is pretty clear -- I find them extremely objectionable, perhaps more than any other comic in my daily rotation -- but I generally don't say much about the art. It's -- well, "good" might be pushing it, but it's generally perfectly workmanlike and occasionally shows flashes of charm. The one thing about it I don't like is the weird way that the character's eyes switch back and forth between stylized pupils-and-sclerae (as in panel two here) and simple black dots (as in panel three). Maybe this doesn't jump out at you in black and white (which I still consider the canonical format for a daily strip), but in today's scenario it honestly feels like we're going from them talking normally about teenage boy trouble to their eyes suddenly going inky black and their voices shifting to an ominous thrumming as they say in unison "THE HANDSOME LAD, THE PRETTY ONE ... HE HAS WRONGED US AND HE MUST BE DESTROYED."

Gil Thorp, 1/18/24