Despite what some cartoonists say, approving someone else's work is not the same as doing it yourself. All strips are supposed to be entertaining, but some strips have a point of view and a serious purpose behind the jokes. When the cartoonist is trying to talk honestly and seriously about life, then I believe he has a responsibility to think beyond satisfying the market's every whim and desire. Cartoonists who think they can be taken seriously as artists while using the strip's protagonists to sell boxer shorts are deluding themselves. The world of a comic strip is much more fragile than most people realize or will admit.
Believable characters are hard to develop and easy to destroy.
When a cartoonist licenses his characters, his voice is co-opted by the business concerns of toy makers, television producers, and advertisers. At that point, the strip has no soul. With its integrity gone, a strip loses its deeper significance. My strip is about private realities, the magic of imagination, and the specialness of certain friendships. If I were to undermine my own characters like this, I would have taken the rare privilege of being paid to express my own ideas and given it up to be an ordinary salesman and a hired illustrator.