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''Pearls Before Swine'' is a Comic Strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis . Although created in 1997 , it was not published until 1999 , when United Features Syndicate ran it on its website. Its popularity rose after '' Dilbert '' creator Scott Adams , a fan of the strip, spread the word to his own fans. Another cartoonist also assisted Pastis in moulding his comic strip; Darby Conley (creator of '' Get Fuzzy '') helped him with the technical aspects of cartooning. The strip became popular enough to be launched in Newspaper s (beginning December 31 , 2001 ). As of 2004 , the strip appears in more than 150 newspapers worldwide. STYLE ''Pearls Before Swine'' is controversial, mainly because of its dark humor. It is a " Meta-comic " in that it often satirizes the comics medium, and allows its characters to "break the Fourth Wall " from time to time. Characters from other comics frequently appear in ''Pearls Before Swine'',as in a story arc that featured members of '' The Family Circus '' sheltering Osama Bin Laden , unaware of who he really was. The children from '' Baby Blues '' made a guest appearance when the older girl (Zoe) and boy (Hammie) went out to get beer for rat and ended up killing the kid (Jeremy) from '' Zits ''. He also had the youngest daughter (Wren) cursing to her mom on the phone. Characters from '' Cathy '', '' B.C '', '' Dilbert '', and several others have made guest appearances as well. In an odd reversal, '' Get Fuzzy '' creator Darby Conley used a week of ''Pearls Before Swine'' strips verbatim in place of his own comic. Conley pasted stock illustrations of ''Get Fuzzy'' characters over the ''Pearls Before Swine'' characters -- making a plot that was very nonsensical for ''Get Fuzzy''. On April Fool's Day 2005, Pastis, Conley and FoxTrot creator Bill Amend published the same comic storyline (involving a Ouija Board ) with each strip's respective characters. CAST ''Pearls Before Swine'' has only a few main characters. Their interactions provide the bulk of the strip's story arcs. "Rat" is critical, self-centered and a schemer. "Pig" is naive, child-like, and well-meaning. His lack of intelligence makes him a constant target for Rat's ridicule. "Goat" is the intellectual of the group, often exasperated by their silly schemes. "Zebra" must be constantly on guard against his carnivorous but dim-witted neighbors who are constantly trying to eat him. His neighbors, the "Crocodiles", constantly plan elaborate traps to catch Zebra, but their plans fail miserably time after time. Friends, relatives, and toys of the main characters appear from time to time. This includes "Seal" and "Whale" (a killer whale), in which the latter wants to eat him, and Pig's plastic army men and vikings. MEANING OF THE TITLE The title ''Pearls Before Swine'' refers to "Neither cast ye your pearls before swine", which is an advice that . In the context of the comic strip, Rat, who considers himself to be a genius, must cast his pearls of wisdom before Pig, who is the only one naive enough to listen to him. STUDENT NEWSPAPER CONTROVERSY As an April Fools prank in 2004, a student newspaper from Carnegie Mellon University ran a fake "Pearls Before Swine" strip called "Pearl Necklace", featuring original artwork but altered dialogue that was alleged to be racist, provoking controversy. {Link without Title} BOOKS Regular Collections
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