Pearls Before Swine : BLTs Taste So Darn Good

Pearls Before Swine #1

by Stephan Pastis

" Pearls Before Swine is my favorite comic strip." Pearls Before Swine is the hilarious new comic strip tale of two an arrogant, egotistical Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn't know any better. Together with Zebra, the activist, and Goat, the reluctant brain, Pearls Before Swine offers caustic commentary on humanity's quest for the unattainable. Smart, witty, and sometimes painfully honest, Pearls Before Swine mocks the flaws and shortcomings of human nature with cynical humor.

Pearls Before Swine has been syndicated by United Feature Syndicate since January 2002 and now appears in more than 100 newspapers worldwide. In panel after panel, Pearls Before Swine causes readers to lose themselves in laughter.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2003

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

[Greg Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously twisted humour. Death is a frequent theme.
The anthologies that collect two smaller collections are how I purchase Pig and Rat books now because Pastis adds personal comments to most of the strips. They are kind of like the extras in a DVD but you can get through them faster, and unlike many of the DVD extra features, these are funny, enlightening and often twisted too.

I have a few of the anthologies in my Young Adult collection ... no parental complaints yet.
They seem to appeal to a certain kind of student ... a Calvin & Hobbes kind of student. @ the library that's ok by me.

[Wyatt Trunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pearls Before Swine may be my most favorite comic strip of them all, second only to "The Far Side." The wisdom and sarcasm of Pastis is well depicted in good work.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of comic books but i make an exception for this series.. absolutely amazing.. About a naive pig and a cocky rat who are roommates, also starring the endangered zebra, the artsy goat and on rare appearances, the jocks of the crowd, the crocodiles. I recommend it to anybody who enjoys a good laugh.

[bsolt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny comic. At times it made me smile, at others it made me laugh out loud. Some of the strips were not too funny, but overall it was a nice departure from the literature I usually read. It reminded me of all the Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield I used to read back in the day. My favorite character in the strip was the zebra.

[Kelaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

written by a lawyer, but you'd never know it except for the contract scenes with the zebras and crocs...very funny!

I ordered them all for the library at the recommendation of one of my TAB members.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the early "Pearls Before Swine" books, sans very many Zeebas and Crocs but fun with Rat and Pig and many more fun characters. Lots of jokes about jobs, what to eat, and horrible accidents. Worth quite a few giggles and nice for poor sick people stuck at home.

[Elleonora Tambunan]

One of my all time favorite strips :)

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny comic!

[Katie]

pp. 65-71 - B&W

Summary:
This comic finds the humor in everyday situations and use play on words to create jokes. The images appear to be for younger audience, however, the language and content are more suitable for teens and up. Readers will likely find the array of characters relatable to their own social circle.

Visual Keywords:
- multi-panel
- sequential

Text Style:

Potential Readers:
- mature upper middle grades
- teens
- adults
- animal lovers

Awards:
- none noted

Other:
- Many strips are appropriate to early middle grades, but should be screened to match the reader.

[Ben Kalman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a fan of PBS, and this was amusing - but you can tell it’s the first anthology. Once Pastis for his feet under him and refined the humour and added the flavour of some of the different characters - and of course began to delightfully torture us with his intricate puns complete with gloriously long setups - it went from above average to excellent.

A good view into the beginnings, though.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Pearls Before Swine collection, and its filled with the great humor of the strip. Far more bleak and nihilistic than the later editions this has a lot more dark humor which I enjoy. This is one of my favorite comic strips of the more recent years.

[Álex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tierno, en ocasiones explícitamente escabroso, pero aún le queda un poco para ser esa tira cómica de punchline certero que es hoy en día.

Y en este libro aún no están los juegos de palabras de canciones populares, que es lo que me chifla 😂

[David Leemon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give this book three stars because there really was nothing wrong with it. It just didn't delight me. I do like the zebras, though.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. This is one of my favorite comics.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book wasn't great (obviously Pastis' beginning comic strips), but somewhere in the middle, he found the "Zone." After that, he was off and running!

Love this comic strip!

[Doelnig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, Pearls is our best modern funny.

[Ethan West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4. This is the first anthology of Pearls Before Swine and it was great. I can't wait until we get into the strips where they use the whole strip to setup a pun and then rat goes to Stephan Pastis and tries to take him out for making another pun. I absolutely love those.

[Mike Chesnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's almost as if Pastis is related to Scott Adams and gleaned from Animal Farm (Orwell).

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those "emperor has no clothes" comics strips, for me. I constantly marvel that anybody is taken in by it. There is the NANCY AND SLUGGO drawing, the seldom funny and often mean "humor," the development of strips published after this book that removes the fourth wall in a desperate attempt to grow. Fie.

This book reprints the early strips. While it is still badly drawn and still more mean than funny, it is the best work by Pastis that I have seen. He seems to have been trying to be good, and now is just coasting. The material published now would be rated with a single star.

I marvel that people who knows anything about comics tolerate this strip. Many do, and even like it.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read Pearls Before Swine in the newspaper, but this was my first collection. I enjoyed reading a bunch of the strips all in a row and read this book in almost one sitting.

The humor here seems simple, but has an underlying complexity. Topics include morality, death, the meaning of life, and the mysteries of friendship.

Pearls Before Swine is not for everyone. A seventeen year-old I know thought these strips were mildly amusing, but I laughed out loud more than once.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just plain funny. It's the reproduction of a series of cartoon strips, but since I hadn't known about the cartoon before, it was all new to me. A rat and a pig are friends who live together. Other characters that make appearances are a zebra, a goat, and a pregnant cow. All have very distinctive personalities, and there are some running gags that keep reappearing.

[Streator Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this is Stephan Pastis' first compilation, released back in 2003. While the artwork isn't as refined as it is now (really!), it is still a hilarious collection. The funniest strip out there right now, I believe.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite Pearls book, but still very funny!

[Adelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastis has a certain wit and humor in his comics that everyone can relate to. If you enjoy a good humored joke, punch line, you will enjoy the Pearls Before Swine comics

[Karyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's comic strips. Read it in an hour and it's decently cute.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very hilarious, in a *groan* kind of way. But unfortunately inconsistent. I'm willing to bet that the series gets much better, though...it just seems sort of unpolished.

[Matt Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite comics.

[Michael Bacon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Generally not even a little bit funny.

[Will Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review goes for all of his books, they are all HILARIOUS, and super funny. Read them.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids love it