Pearls Seeks Enlightenment: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury

by Stephan Pastis

Join award-winning cartoonist Stephan Pastis in his comical, careening journey to enlightenment, featuring 18 months of daily comic strips from 2020-2021 along with an introduction, reflections, and strip-by-strip commentary by the author.
Stephan Pastis is no ordinary cartoonist. In his two decades of writing and illustrating the blockbuster daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine, the award-winning humorist has traveled the globe, co-written a film for Disney+, and authored several hit book series, but always stopped short of total enlightenment—until now! Throughout the 256 pages of this treasury, Pastis provides commentary on each and every comic strip, along with photos, behind-the-scenes insights on the creative process, and meditations on how the tumultuous past two years have affected his life and work. Loyal readers and comics fans of all ages will be rewarded for digging into the uplifting, enlightening, and downright hilarious pages of the newest Pearls Before Swine treasury.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Nonfiction, Comic Strips, Adult, Cartoon

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2023

About the author

Stephan Pastis was born in 1968 and raised in San Marino, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 with a degree in political science. Although he had always wanted to be a syndicated cartoonist, Pastis realized that the odds of syndication were slim, so he entered UCLA Law School in 1990 and became an attorney instead. He practiced law in the San Francisco Bay area from 1993 to 2002. While an attorney, he began submitting various comic strip concepts to all of the syndicates, and, like virtually all beginning cartoonists, got his fair share of rejection slips. Then, in 1997, he began drawing Pearls Before Swine, which he submitted to the syndicates in mid-1999. In December, 1999, he signed a contract with United.
Pearls Before Swine debuted in newspapers in January, 2002, and Pastis left his law practice in August of that year. Pearls Before Swine was nominated in 2003, 2004 and 2007 as "Best Newspaper Comic Strip" by the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) and won the award in 2004 and 2007. Pastis lives with his family in Northern California.

Reviews

[Ben Philpott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously, Pearls Before Swine is this generation’s Bloom County. Maybe not as overtly political, but he makes plenty of points about the current state of the world with his wonderful characters. Go read all his books….now.

[Joseph Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best comic strip

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a compilation of the Pearls comic strips from 2020 and 2021 - the COVID years - with lots of footnotes that add a bit more humor and context. When I saw Stephan Pastis at Changing Hands, I came away with his kids’ book Looking Up and my friend came away with this one, so we traded after we finished reading our own books. I’ve long since given this back to her so I can’t look back at it for anything more specific. If you enjoy the comic strip, you’ll enjoy the book.

I don’t know why I didn’t add it to my GR list when I read it - maybe because it’s a bunch of comic strips, it didn’t seem like a real book to me? I’m also guessing at the date. I’m not sure why accuracy about that matters to me, but it does.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment is consistently funny, but there aren't nearly as many laugh out loud strips as previous Pearls Before Swine treasuries. It also felt like there were fewer pun strips than normal.

This treasury contains the strips from 2020 and 2021. So there's a lot of strips of Covid, which do wear a bit thin after the fact. There's a sequence of strips that had to be delayed due to the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. I can totally see why those were delayed; even if Pastis thinks they are pretty tame, there would have been huge blowback if they can come out immediately after that event.

The new character here is Wise Ass on the Hill. These were probably some of the weaker strips in the collection. I guess it provided an outlet for some messages that couldn't be delivered by the existing characters.

I still love how self-deprecating the commentary is in these treasuries. Pastis will often point out when he was lazy or made a mistake with the artwork. He also has some running conversations with his editor in the comments. This part is why I read Pearls Before Swine exclusively in treasuries.

If you're already a fan of the strip, then you know what to expect. If you are unfamiliar, there are strong collections to start with but you won't go wrong with this one.

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never pass by a new Pearls Treasury. This is a little odd one, taking in the times of Covid and the Washington Riots. There's a few less jokes, and a few more touching strips. Saying that, all the usual stuff is still there. Some of the worse jokes and puns you'll ever hear, and you laugh yourself silly when you read them. How much do I love this? Well for some reason the Kindle version is released 3 months before the paperback, and I'll still end up getting both. Quite possibly the finest daily strip still running

[Bunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearls during Covid.

I adore Pearls before Swine, not least because Stephan Pastis loves puns even more than I do.

But more than that, his characters are all perfect embodiments of the biggest parts of my personality. And I see myself way too often in them.

Especially Rat.

[Dannan Tavona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled puns for everyone

Comic collection

The commentary with the cartoons was fun. As one of those deviants who love puns, this book was a fun read. If you don't like puns and don't believe it's one of the highest forms of humor, trying to read this will be a punishment. Oh, that was too easy! Enjoyed.

[Kay Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

I'm fairly new to Pearls Before Swine and find the strip always tickles my funny bone. The puns in particular are hilarious and so well-thought out. This is the first treasury I've read, so having Stephan's comments too with the strip is icing on the cake. Don't hesitate, buy these books!

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful comment: Stephan’s feet look weird on the cover of the book. They look like the feet Stephan draws in his comics. This is exactly the level of commentary you paid to read in your Goodreads feed. You’re welcome.

(Also, this is the pandemic collection. A treasure of a treasury that will keep on giving.)

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury by Stephan Pastis – I bought it for a father’s day present, but it doesn’t mean I can’t read it first! Death by snobby puns this time lol! Happy Reading!

[Mira Klein]

What a fantastic treasury. Extra special since I got to meet Steph and he signed my copy for me and we got to chat a bit. Loved this collection. Brought a lot of much needed laughter during hard times.

[Veronique S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gosh, I love this comic. Rat is my favorite with his sarcasm and hate of people. I did miss the Crocs a little. They were not as present as in the past. Lots of laughing out loud moments.

Warning, tho, this one covers covid, and it was done fairly well, but it might not interest everyone.

[Neil White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pandemic era laughs

Nobody wants to go back to 2020, but it was fun to remember the little bits of laughter that helped bring a little bit of joy in a dark time. I've enjoyed Pearls for years, but this is some of Stephan Pastis' best work.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the Pearls strips from the covid era. Man, talk about bringing back memories, more than a couple unwelcome, to mind. Not all the strips are funny, they're not meant to be. But, all are wonderful and some are as funny as any strip I've ever read. Kudos, Stephan.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intro was not my favorite of his, but the comics are great and I love the commentary.

[Cary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laughed all through the book!

[George Morrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not up to Pastis' usual standards of creativity and wit.

[Dick Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephan Pastis is one of my favourite cartoonists. This book while good has a lot of COVID themes in it which for me is something I no longer want to read. I do look forward to another book though.

[Michael Golightly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!

[Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some good laughs, but I didn’t enjoy re-living 2020.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Pearls

I love puns and Pearls has them chock full till the end. I have no idea what that means, but it sounded profound and insightful.

[Bookreaderljh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearls before Swine is my favorite comic strip daily. Reading through these old strips (from the pandemic years) just made me laugh out loud all over again. And the "editorial" statements from Stephan Pastis throughout just added to the enjoyment. I did get this collection signed by Stephan and with a hand drawn picture of Rat on the title page!! So cool for a book that is great for just having around to enjoy the wacky wisdom of Rat, Pig, Goat, the Crocs and (especially) the Wise Ass on the Hill.

[Janet Sketchley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun, a satisfying read. Interesting to look back on cartoons from the troubles of 2020.