This is another WSJ cartoon in which a lot of drawing detail was mysteriously lost in the reproduction. As I mentioned previously in a reply to a comment on another WSJ cartoon, there was a period of time when, for some strange reason, the "Pepper . . . and Salt" cartoons were appearing so faintly that they almost disappeared. I remember a few Joe Mirachi cartoons that looked like a bunch of chicken scratchings, and you could barely tell what the drawings were supposed to represent. My guess is that the WSJ was experimenting with different scanning or copying techniques, and somewhere between the original drawing and the printed cartoon, almost all of the detail was being lost. I know I hadn't changed my drawing style or tools, so it certainly wasn't anything that we cartoonists were doing differently. I also recall that the problem prompted at least one sarcastic Letter to the Editor complaining about the "disappearing" cartoons.
I'm glad to say that the glitch, whatever it was, was finally resolved and the cartoon reproduction returned to normal.