Stephan Pastis elated at reader criticism of is Pearls comic strip and upset at syndicate censoring

Arnold Buckley
   Comic artist Stephan Pastis loves to provoke and for the editors of many newspapers and college publications one of their number one complaints is the content of Mr Pastis Pearls before Swine comic strip. Pastis himself loves criticism of his content and if he doesn't hear about some through the internet he gets upset as was his twitter response from a group at Penn University wishing to have his comic strip taken out from the school paper. The letter to the Patriot news read as follows "

This letter is not about earth-shaking political, economical, military, medical or environmental issues. I'm writing politely and sincerely to ask The Patriot-News to please find a more decent wholesome and innocently humorous comic strip as soon as possible, to replace that travesty called "Pearls Before Swine".
Every week I read it and I keep hoping the content gets better, but most of the time, I end up very disappointed, to say the least. The humor is often plain sick, sometimes downright disgusting. Although I haven't taken a poll, I'm probably not the only one who feels this way about the so-called "comic strip".
The Patriot-News should do its part to improve the cultural landscape and find a comic strip that is truly family friendly".
   Of course this discourse and criticism of Pastis and his neurotic ad eccentric comic strip is something the artist loves and this was his twitter response...
Stephan Pastis   

✔ @stephanpastis

I am not decent or wholesome. God, I live for these letters. http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/05/pearls_before_swine.html#incart_river_home …

10:14 AM - 12 May 2016

Pastis was also dismayed that a strip  back in   July was censored and not allowed to run in papers as apparently Stephan Pastis believed a  joke about a terrorist organization beheading people and committing genocide somehow warranted a joke about are national agency working diligently to assure America doesn't experience more of this evil.  Pastis thought this joke was harmless and that censors  not allowing this bad comic to go out to the public. Pearls runs in newspapers across the country, and Pastis, who says he’s never run a repeat in 15 years, files completed strips weeks or months ahead of their publication date. After he submitted the “ISIS” panel, a representative of his syndicate contacted him to warn that if some kind of terrorist event occurred on or near the day that the strip was slated to appear, he’d become a “lightning rod for readers’ anger and sadness.”Pastis thought this was bullshit and obviously didn't like the idea that outside forces can disrupt his creative genius. In Pastis comic world terrorism is not an event likely to affect him or his loves ones and thus dark humor of it is acceptable and criticism of it not warranted.