New comic? Possibly.

[VolkswagenFox]

That was great.

[Astro]

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

[Tom Flapwell]

(Googles "fanny" and "british")

[Bocaj Claw]

The british fanny is on the opposite side of the body as the american fanny.

[CodeCat]

I always wondered how Weird Al could wear something called a 'fanny pack' considering...

[Zaaphod]

(But be warned that "Fanny" means something completely different in British English!)

Heh, that it does.

[Steve the Pocket]

Quest for improvement!

Old:


New:


Plus, bonus:

[Rooster]

That last one about aliens is a bit like a strip I was going to do, but my punchline was "americans" instead of cats

[Fritz]

[CameronCN]

That last one about aliens is a bit like a strip I was going to do, but my punchline was "americans" instead of cats

The problem with "american" jokes is that most Americans don't get them...

Frank appraisal time! You ready, Octan? Here goes.

Okay. First off, your artwork is very professional. I like the style, your characters are consistently rendered and well-designed. The only problem I see with artwork and composition in these three strips is that in the second, redrawn one the other dog's elbow is not on anything. She's not positioned right for it to be on the banister. But otherwise they are essentially perfect.
The area where I see trouble is in the writing. In your strips which I have read so far (and I think I have read all of your comics) the jokes have seemed predictable, cliched (I swear I've heard that cat joke somewhere before), and somewhat contrived--like instead of the characters talking it's you putting words into their mouths for the punchline's purposes. Sorry for sounding harsh.
Now I'm not really sure what to suggest to fix it. What I do know is that, though art is important, writing is what makes people love a strip. So I would suggest not doing as much worrying about whether the art is good (like you seem to be doing now--not that that's bad, of course), and more time thinking over your dialog and punchlines--about how your characters interact. It's like Watterson doing Calvin and Hobbes--he threw away probably hundreds of strips' worth of scripts that he thought were not good enough. Sometimes it's good to be picky. Of course, the point is to have fun, so such worry and concern over relatively minor points like this would not be important for most. But I think, Octan, that you want to create stuff that is top-notch. So I hope you won't take this wrong.

Now, lest anyone think I'm a hypocrite, I would like to mention how bad my writing is. So far in my comic, I've had pompous, obscure, incorrect, and inconsistent dialog and narration. When I make the book, I'm going to go back and rewrite the first 10 pages or so. And fix all those off-model character drawings in pages 2-5.

[Bocaj Claw]

That sounds like cats

YOU KNOW TOO MUCH!

[Steve the Pocket]

The area where I see trouble is in the writing. In your strips which I have read so far (and I think I have read all of your comics) the jokes have seemed predictable, cliched (I swear I've heard that cat joke somewhere before), and somewhat contrived--like instead of the characters talking it's you putting words into their mouths for the punchline's purposes.

I've noticed that. Moreso with this comic, possibly, than any other I've done in my life (and there have been PLENTY). I'm not sure why it's happening... well, I do: it's because I'm mostly reusing gags from another strip altogether ...but what I don't understand is why it's so hard for me to get inside these particular characters' heads and write original strips for them.

Last time I created a wholly original comic was "Podunk U." I started out with no cast in mind at all. All the main characters just sort of popped in because I needed a vehicle for the gag I wanted to write. All I did was make sure, each time I created a new character, to determine vaguely what their personality would be, maybe just a little bit of backstory. And of course to make sure the role I'd just thrust them into that particular week matched that. Oddly enough, the result was that as the strip continued, I found more and more that I could write new strips around the personalities I had already created for them rather than the other way around. They really started to come to life.

Or maybe I'm just imagining it. You seem to be a good judge of how strong characterization is; why don't you try assessing said comic for yourself. I might be way off here.

The point is, though, that I'm not getting that this time around. Getting original ideas is harder than I ever remember it being before. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

...Help?

[CameronCN]

I said I think I've read all your comics. I've read Podunk U, anyway. I included it in my assessment before, but I think you may be right about the characterizations improving.
*Imagine gravelly Oxford professor voice here*
The problem with comic strips is that building up characters is hard, because the joke is the point and characterization has to work with that. Podunk U has a relatively (relatively) small archive, so it's hard for the reader to pick up on some of the things, you, as the creator, already know. You can spot trends even before they happen. But I was reading more casually, not as a critic. Heck, I never read 'as a critic.' Just criticism sometimes occurs to me later.
The important thing is, it was fun to read, and presumeably fun to make too. There you go.
And admittedly I'm hard to please...Few comics send me into transports of delight...So not surprising yours didn't.

[Rooster]

My advice dude is to write a story, or to think of a situation for your characters. Then, as the story progresses you start to already second guess what your characters would do in any given situation.