- This article is about the comic strip character. For the real-life author, see Stephan Pastis.
Stephan Thomas Pastis appears self-reflexively in the strip. He is often seen with Rat, who makes him the brunt of criticism about his artwork and jokes. Pastis also is subjected to Rat's odd whims from time to time, such as when Rat poured beer on one of his drawings and caused it to blur (an effect Pastis said he could only achieve on Photoshop) and stole all of his clothes. In the strip, Stephan expresses common sense, unlike Rat and some of the other characters. His character has also expressed his hate of being an attorney, which was his former career. As the strip went, his personal appearance on the strip changed. One of Pastis' memorable appearances in the strip was on Sunday, February 7, 2010, when he mourned his father-in-law, Rick Daniels, and received a hug from Pig, which reminded him of the love, acceptance and optimism Daniels had. It is also a running joke that his wife Staci, does not love him and even traded Stephan for a pizza. In one event, Staci left him for another man and Stephan just sat in Staci's front porch waited for her to take him back.