This is a very odd strip (in the early strips especially) because of the use of black. To explain, I’ll have to take you back to high school, where a teacher told me that the things that add value or make something “artistic” in illustration are: use of blacks, and variable line weight.
This was one of the main reasons in Bruno that I used neither. I was young, it was a stupid reason, but the end result was that I learned a hell of a lot.
Give yourself good limitations or a nasty crutch, and you’ll be amazed at the solutions you can fine.
I have almost zero artistic training, but I’m going to venture an opinion anyway…I think you have above average skills at composition, line and use of contrast and black space when it’s appropriate. Here, it sets the mood and makes the focal area, the characters, project into the foreground.