Because Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand: A Pearls Before Swine Collection

Pearls Before Swine #12

by Stephan Pastis

True to Pearls Before Swine tradition, Because Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand brims with Stephan Pastis's cynical humor, sharp wit, and clever commentary. Always together--and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters--the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature.Picturing daily and Sunday strips that ran between summer 2009 and spring 2010, all the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs, who have since sent Larry back to school, where he proves to be the dumbest beer-drinking student ever to enter the fourth grade. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself.In its tenth year of publication, Pearls Before Swine now appears in 600 newspapers worldwide, boasts an ever-growing online readership, and is a two-time winner of the National Cartoonists Society's Best Newspaper Comic Strip award. Pastis's Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand is sure to add to the funny-page phenomenon, for it gives Pearls fans more of what they know and love: satirical logic and hilarious wit.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels Comics, Collections, Graphic Novels, Cartoon

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2012

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

[Ashra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a huge fan of Stephan Pastis. His comics are so funny! The character look so huggable too, which maybe isn't the intent but I love the vibe. Pig especially. Adorable!

I used to read these a lot as a kid, so it was fun to sit down and simmer in a whole book of them. Some of the comics are ruthless but others are so wildly heartwarming. A lot of fun!

[Derek Ithen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5

[Laurla2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out: A (Freaky) Pearls Before Swine Treasury

[Declan DURLING · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Pearls Before Swine collection. I love all of the character and just good book.

[Melissa Lee-Tammeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never read this comic series before and after reading this, I realized how much I was missing. Now I am hooked. Cute, silly, and sometimes just plain dumber than dumb funny (which is right up my alley!) I laughed out loud at some. Then I shared them with my 12 year old son who loved them too. Excellent comic to share across the genres and ages. Too fun!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness it was only the cover Stephan wanted to draw with his left hand. All of our regular idiots are quite well represented here as the true idiots they are, Love the puns Pastis! Keep up the good work, and no matter how many time's Rat feels he has to pound you I will still be supporting you, kind of like a lame jock strap.!

[Norah Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, my "Mother's Day gift" (yeahhhhh) got me off my doldrums and remembering why life is funny. No one else quite has the touch of "Huh? Wait - what???" that Pastis does. And when I am in solidarity with my teen nephew over admiring weirdness: all to the good. Besides, the cover is awesome!

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection!

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really laugh with Stephan Pastis. Love the puns. Love the silly jokes he sets up and love the crocs vs. zebras.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the element where the characters interact with the artist. I imagine there is a little bit of him in most of these characters, but somedays he's more Rat than anyone else.

[Mark Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastis just gets better and better. The most original and irreverent cartoonist going today, but one ever mindful of hs predecessors.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this much more amusing than I thought I would. Gotta pick up some more of these..

[Giordana Chirissi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the left-handed book cover:)

[Noelle VanVleet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent bathroom reading. ;-)