Another jewel cast from “Pearls”

“Pearls Before Swine” is my favorite comic strip. It has remained on my blogroll for about as long as I have written in this space. The egotistical Rat, his dense but lovable friend Pig and a seemingly endless cast of characters which include the creator, attorney-turned-cartoonist Stephan Pastis, himself populate one of the most unusual “funny” of today’s funny pages.

But just as Pastis pokes fun at himself and the funnies world in general, he likewise produces strips that aren’t always simply funny and are often incredibly poignant. The not-so-funny pages he has produced generated complaints and threats to cancel subscriptions. Still, Pastis draws powerful statements with help from his simple friends who don’t even have to speak, as is the case with Monday’s strip.

It took me maybe a minute or more to get it. There set Rat and Pig, staring at the endless stars that spelled out what, after counting, came to 20 names. The tally was the names of those little children, innocent like those very twinkling stars, who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook massacre last month in Connecticut.

Stephan, through his work, proves that often the simplest sentiments are the most powerful.