Planned Pearls, Ziggy jokes lost due to mix-up

Wednesday’s Pearls Before Swine was the culmination of a story-line regarding Rat’s protest that the Ziggy character never wears pants. Pearls creator Stephan Pastis writes on his blog that he had a telephone conversation with Ziggy cartoonist Tom Wilson explaining the story-line and asking if on December 16, if Ziggy could wear pants to coincide with his comic.

He writes about the conversation:

By the end of the series,” I told him, “Rat is going to declare victory, saying that you – Tom Wilson – have agreed to put pants on Ziggy. Do you think there’s any way you can put pants on Ziggy that day in your strip?”

“Sure,” he said, accommodating as can be. He could not have been nicer.

So I did my strips, told Tom that the key strip would run on December 16, and he sent me an email confirming that “Ziggy will wear pants on Dec. 16th.”

If you read Ziggy on that date, you’ll note Ziggy was pant-less, but on the 17th, the Ziggy cartoon referenced complaints about him not wearing pants.

According to Tom’s Twitter, there was “an unfortunate mix-up in cartoon placement for this week.”

Stephan responds on his blog:

Fine, he still isn’t wearing pants. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.

And sure, Ziggy creator had agreed to put pants on Ziggy yesterday, but maybe he needed to warm up to it. Take a few baby steps.

And today’s strip is that first step.

One small step for Ziggy, one giant leap for decency.

The “Pants on Ziggy” people’s movement has borne fruit.