Simpsons: 'Tasteless'?

11/20/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

After a scant 3-week run in its pages, the Chicago Sun-Times has canceled "The Simpsons" comic strip, a print spin-off of the popular Fox show, calling it "tasteless and excessively violent" in a note to readers. Editor-in-Chief Nigel Wade said several readers complained after the paper ran the strip on the front of its Sunday comics section. Some panels showed a mouse disemboweled and a cat impaled by a Christmas tree. (It was a takeoff on "It's a Wonderful Life," called "It's a Wonderful Slice," starring series characters Itchy and Scratchy.) In the note in Tuesday's paper, Wade said he means "no disrespect" to fans of "The Simpsons" TV show, but what works on the tube does not always translate into print.