Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 07, 2017

Some days it’s harder to read it than others.

Even Cartoon-Boy needs to get away from all the bad news now and then.

please make this the featured comment!

Wildfires….

writer block is quite a curse

…and the shots penetrated the fourth wall.

Never expected Pearls would bring a tear to my eye.

Maybe he’d feel better if he had Guard Duck blow someone up or the Crocs eat goat or Rat bash someone in the head with a ball bat.

All of the above is why the world needs a savior, Jesus Christ, and comic strips to help us laugh in the pain. And do I help them, yes I do!

That last frame is very touching. You’ll always have Pig, Steph.

well, shoot!

Where’s a balloon when you need one?

Now they want to make sure there are more guns. Family Values? Pro LIFE? Hum Bug!

Hard to write? Give it a shot!

Serenity Now

I thank you and the other cartoonists who are able to give us brief escapes from reality every morning.

Word, my brother. Some days.

Those events are “false flags.” Research that term and you’ll see.

i hear you pastis…..just a suggestion, ask yourself, what would Watterson draw (wwWd)?

I have always come to the comics to escape, and I quickly drop those that bring the garbage with them. Of course, there are the couch scholars who think they have to inject politics in every comments section.

But thanks for the reminder, Stephan. It is hard on you guys to keep us smiling sometime.

Reminds me of a Tom Toles cartoon. http://www.gocomics.com/tomtoles/2016/11/09

I think it was one his masterpieces.

Dear Mr. Pastis, why don’t you bring back Guard Duck and the Crocs? And the cyninism of the early years? I got it that you more or less took these things out of the strip because you felt it inappropriate with what is happening in the real world. I think that’s a wrong think. We need those more than ever to be able to view what is happening in the world with a dispassionate eye and not get sucked in by all the crap. Even in the nazi concentration camps, cynical black humor was what often kept them from succumbing to the true evil they were experiencing on a daily basis. (Though, you’re deeply humane and sensitive strips from time to time is a welcome counterpoint.)

throw down some jokes about annoying-guy triathlon bob, or make fun or vegans and crossfitters. as a triathlete, i can laugh at jokes at my expense.

This is why I could never be a cartoonist: be funny on demand.

Great one Mr. Pastis.

Yep, we’re right here with you…..

So sadly true.

Yup, these days it just gets harder and harder.

I miss Mr. Snuffles as assistant to Li’l Guard Duck. Between them, they’d create an A-Team type violence (for younger readers, think Star Wars storm troopers); lots of sound and fury, very little injury to anyone.

I’d find hanging with Pig over the edge of that precipice more scary….

Best Pearls ever

Mr. Pattis, Your work matters and is appreciated. Thank you, most sincerely. Robert L.

Perhaps some solace Stephan: What you do helps the rest of us cope.

“In times like these, it’s hard /not/ to write satire.”—Juvenal

I just hope this isn’t going to be something Pastis does on any kind of regular basis. I’m pretty sure things are going to get worse before they get better.

One scoot closer….

Yup.

YoPeace to my dads friend who died in the new zealand massacre.May allah give you rest