Cartoonist Stephan Pastis on the art of staying irreverent

The first thing that Stephan Pastis notices when the Skype interview starts is the background noise Is that traffic he says almost unbelievingly For someone who has nearly become deaf to the cityrsquos honking habit Pastisrsquos observation seems quick Yet why should that surprise Over the last 15 years the lawyerturnedsyndicated cartoonist has wooed many the world over with his irreverent comic strip Pearls Before Swine thatrsquos an astute observation of the world we live in even if the observations arenrsquot always politically correctPIC COURTESYSTEPHAN PASTISAnd leading this charge is the striprsquos main hero mdash Rat Pastis who on Saturday will meet students and other fans at Goarsquos Birla Institute of Technology says despite remaining a cynic Rat has grown with him over the years He changes with me As I have become a dad I have become mellow a little bit conservative he says On the opposite spectrum is Pig mdash naiumlve In fact almost too naiumlve Both of them are me Pig represents the sweeter side All your characters have to be a part of youYou are the only person you know best he says adding Irsquom probably closer to Goat more than anyone Hersquos smartOver the years the California resident has introduced tons of characters in the strip Therersquos Guard Duck Larry the Croc etc While he canrsquot put a number to them the core and recurrent characters are about 11 Itrsquos mostly the humans who seem to have names though mdash Jeff the Cyclist and Neighbour Bob When we point this out Pastis laughs I didnrsquot notice that Well maybe Irsquoll add a character just called Human If one is introduced you know it was mentioned here first To drive home a point about the irreverence of the strip we search for a punchline Itrsquos not hard to find Therersquos Ratrsquos map of stupid people on the planet thatrsquos been entirely dotted black therersquos also Ratrsquos discover of the secret to happiness mdash a total lack of empathy for others And these are just the milder onesStephan PastisHow does he manage to stay politically incorrect especially in these times Well I donrsquot mean to be offensive I just write what I think is funny he says adding that while several love his strip not all are always amused Once someone wrote in saying that my representation of Jeff the Cyclist was hateful and I must not spread hatred towards cyclists Then there was a 14yearold who wrote in saying that she loved my strip but felt that I was an ae he laughsBut he isnrsquot worried about offending people If I was afraid that what I wrote would affect people I have a blank page staring at me Itrsquos important to ignore that he says The irreverence extends to himself as well He has in the past talked about a separation from wife Staci in the column ie and that wasnrsquot a reflection of his marriage I was surprised by the number of phone calls we got It was crazy but a nice experiment he addsIn Goa Pastis who has also authored the childrenrsquos book series Timmy Failure says he plans on doing all the touristy things I have been watching a lot of Bollywood films mdash Gangs of Wasseypur Queen Swadesh Chake De India he says asking for more recommendations He didnrsquot have any public meetings scheduled in Mumbai but he promises therersquoll be a next time