Certainly something happened with the color processing.
I hate to say it, but there's another angle as well-- as readers, we naturally sort of assume that other readers across the States / International Scene will see exactly the same version as we do, but in fact, there's a looong history of various strips being censored or even fundamentally altered by the local publisher, anticipating their readership' reaction.
I trust I don't need to explain any further in this case. (note, I'm only throwing out some possibilities, and don't know for sure about THIS particular strip)
