Pearls Before Swine (comics)

Origin of phrase

Pearls Before Swine refers to the admonition "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Given by Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew 7:6.

History

Prior to creating Pearls Before Swine, Pastis worked as a lawyer in California. In law school, he became so bored during classes, he started to doodle a rat, eventually casting it in a non-syndicated comic strip he called Rat. The title character of Rat would later become one of the main characters in "Pearls Before Swine." The "Pearls" character of Pig also came from a failed strip called The Infirm, about a struggling lawyer.

In 1999, he submitted Pearls Before Swine to syndicates. Several expressed interest and about three accepted it, but they could not convince their sales staff that it was marketable. However, Amy Lago, an editor at United Media, saw the strip's potential and launched it on the United Media website in November 2000 to see what kind of response it would generate. Pastis recalled in 2009,

United signed me in December 1999, and they put me in development ... where the syndicate says, OK, you were funny in your submission packet, but for all we know, it took you 10 years to come up with these 30 strips. So we want you to keep drawing, and we’ll watch you. If you’re good, we’ll agree to put you in newspapers. A development period can be anywhere from two weeks to a year. Not all cartoonists have to do it, but most do.

When Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and supporter of the strip, told his fans about "Pearls Before Swine", interest skyrocketed, and the strip was taken to print. Aiding Pastis in the artistic elements of the strip was Darby Conley, creator of the comic strip Get Fuzzy.

Comic strip influences

Pearls' style and humor are inspired by several comic strips, chief among them being Peanuts, Dilbert, Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County and The Far Side. Pastis regularly puts tributes to them in his strip. When asked in an interview about whether his profession as an attorney inspired the humor in the comic, Stephan said, "I was very unhappy as a lawyer, and humor is a reaction to and defense against unhappiness. Also, the law inspired me because if you dislike what you’re doing to the extent that I did, it gives you the impetus to get out." Pastis also regularly parodies comics he finds stale or unfunny, including Cathy, The Family Circus, Garfield, and others (although in the case of The Family Circus, Pastis actually is a fan). The frequent comedic jabs at long-running comic strips has earned Pastis the disdain of many comic artists, which Pastis referenced in a storyline where the Pearls cast is not invited to the 75th anniversary crossover party of Blondie.

Rat

Rat (debut: December 30, 2001) is a narcissistic, misanthropic rat, and is an antihero. He frequently breaks the fourth wall, as well as being aware of his existence as a fictional comic strip character. Because of this, Rat is often critical of the comic strip's style and artwork as well as the other characters in the strip and many other living things. Often self-employed, most of his businesses involve either punishing or defrauding people for their ignorance, much in the same vein as Dogbert, though with a darker humor. He rarely smiles at all in the strip. His political views are right-wing, especially in foreign policy, and he has a particular hatred for the nation of France. Rat is often rude, and he can usually be found criticizing or insulting someone.

Rat is an insensitive character in the strip, whose interactions with others are typically sarcastic, condescending, self-centered, insulting and sometimes violent. It's stated during a storyline where Rat dies and subsequently returns that nobody really likes him other than Pig. When breaking the fourth wall he will berate his creator on various topics, including joke writing, artwork, or the general content of the strip itself. Rat has beaten up and possibly tried to kill his creator, but has also asked him to simply retire early. In one strip, Rat makes a puppet of Stephan and mocks him.

In his spare time (almost always on Sunday), Rat writes one of four types of stories:

Pastis has mentioned that the character of Rat is his "voice" and that he identifies himself with Rat more than any other character.

Pig

Pig (debut: December 30, 2001) is the character that receives the most abuse from Rat (though ironically, he is Rat's only friend). He is kind by nature, but extremely naïve. Pig's jokes generally involve his incompetence and not knowing his true surroundings; Pastis once stated that Pig is easy to write for because he misunderstands everything that's said to him, and when it's explained, he misunderstands that too. His on-again-off-again girlfriend, Pigita, who often misunderstands his naive statements. For instance when Pig and Pigita were playing Monopoly and Pig at some point said that he had cheated. She got angry only to have Pig tell her that he did not pay her the entire rent for landing on one of her properties. Her dad has also experienced Pig's naive nature in the strip when Pig and Pigita had gone to a baseball game. Their seats were located behind second second base and when talking to her dad over the phone, he said "I'm trying to get to second base." In the last frame, he said to Pigita, "He's not happy." But she stays with him despite this. Pastis says that Pig has a habit of talking to inanimate objects such as food, stop lights, bait, and various other things. His dimness is often exhibited in the strip. Pig's least appropriate characteristic is his love of pork products; He likes bacon, ham, corn dogs, and so on, making him a cannibal, although he appears to misunderstand this. He is also sometimes able to tell which member of his family has been made into the food product. Pig is one of the few characters that does not constantly utter mock profanity in the strip; however, he has done so on rare occasions. Possibly the most notable example of Pig swearing in the strip is the July 15, 2010 strip, in which he curses BP for the recent oil spill. Pig has also sworn after Rat told him that, due to the fact that comic censorship is still the same as it was in the 1950s, many topics can not be discussed.

Goat

An intellectual goat who interacts sparingly with the other characters, Goat (debut: January 18, 2002) usually appears whenever there is a small issue dealing with a character or a conflict to be mediated. Goat has an equally hard time dealing with Pig's incompetence and Rat's cruelty and occasional ignorance. Goat maintains an internet blog that, as Rat likes to point out, receives no hits. Goat in turn tends to criticize Rat's forays into writing, often telling him not to write them at all. In early strips, Goat had a beard; he first appeared without it in the March 31, 2004 strip.

In a few strips, he is seen telling Rat and Pig about various philosophical, political, and social issues. However, Rat and Pig don't pay attention, instead usually starting to talk about something else such as baseball or The Apprentice.

Goat dislikes conversing with the other characters at all; he much prefers reading. However, it seems that he most tolerates talking to Zebra; he is least tolerant when talking to Rat (although he tends to be equally hostile towards Pig). It is actually debatable if he dislikes talking to Rat or Pig more, Rat for his ego and self-centered remarks, which anger Goat greatly; however, Pig's stupidity has, on multiple occasions, equally driven Goat over the edge, particularly when he attempts to explain something simple to Pig, and Pig continues moving further and further into the wrong direction and misunderstanding everything Goat says. Goat's real name is revealed as "Paris" in the September 21, 2007 strip, claiming "Goat" is his stage name.

He is the only character that has catchphrases, which are "I give up", "Never mind", "Check please", and "I'm leaving/going", usually at the very end of the strip in a resigned sort of mood or "Let's start over" usually to Pig.

Zebra

Zebra (debut: February 4, 2002), also known as "zeeba neighba" (zebra neighbor) by the Fraternity of Crocodiles next-door (Zeeba Zeeba Eata), is a zebra who is often seen trying to patch up relations between his herd back home and its predators, lions, crocodiles, and sometimes hyenas. Pastis has also stated that the only goal of Zebra is to avoid being eaten by his inarticulate next-door neighbors, the Fraternity of Zeeba Zeeba Eata crocodiles.

Because Stephan Pastis was once unable to draw lions, these particular predators were not shown in the strip until May 31, 2007, when two were shown moving next door to Zebra, on the opposite side from the crocodiles. Prior to their appearance Zebra has been seen corresponding with them via letter, attempting to give them more culture than just eating zebras and to establish a friendship between their species. Instead, the lions' replies are always terse responses, often featuring them taking his advice the wrong way by eating a zebra. Zebra's lion neighbors, however, are male lions, which do not hunt, and they seem to like Zebra, often giving him advice on how to avoid their wives, who actually would hunt him down if given the chance. However, the lion neighbors also caused some bad things to happen to Zebra (albeit unintentionally), such as suggesting that Zebra redecorate his house with "Girls gone Wacky" ( a parody of Girls Gone Wild) merchandise to be more macho when his mother comes over to the house once.

One time, the crocs sent a cat to Zebra, but in the first years, the cat, which was named Snuffles, was harmless to Zebra. However, in spring 2008, Zebra was arrested by the FBI because of the cat's terrorist activities, although Snuffles loves Zebra, and he didn't mean to put his owner mistakenly in jail. In one strip, he was revealed to be a big fan of Peanuts (a strip Pastis cites as one of his many influences), which the crocs attempted to exploit, without success.

In the Pearls Sells Out collection, Pastis explains that Zebra has three neighbors: The Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity house, Larry the Croc and his family, and Max and Zach, the Lions. Larry's house is, in fact, behind Zebra's house (the houses are next to each other via backyards) while the Lions and the Zeeba Zeeba Eata are on either side of Zebra's house.

Guard Duck

The Guard Duck is, as his name implies, is the "guard duck" for Pig and Rat's home. Pig has described him as "very sensitive and having an anger management problem". He's known for a short temper and a violent streak. He has gone to several anger management seminars, but he leaves with more issues than he had before.

His first appearance was March 14, 2005, when Pig bought him instead of a more expensive guard dog for the house. In Guard Duck's early appearances, a running gag was that Pig would introduce him to one of his neighbors. The neighbor would then laugh at the idea of a duck being a guard animal, and the strip would finish with Guard Duck responding with violence. He often suggests militaristic solutions for neighborhood problems, often getting him locked in a clothes hamper by Pig.

Originally, Guard Duck was a violent duck with anger management problems, but he eventually transformed into a duck associated with the army, seeing the world as his battlefield. He has occasionally referenced the Vietnam War and war movies such as Apocalypse Now. In one of his "missions" that he was given, he teamed up with Zebra's cat Snuffles to invade Cuba, but mistakenly invades Jamaica. While in Jamaica, he also shoots a sheriff. The moment he gets to Cuba, he and Snuffles are arrested, but released. He is also a member of the Order of Panelwalkers and taught Pig how to panelwalk. In a series of strips, Guard Duck is seen training gophers to use grenades which causes problems in the neighborhood. Most recently, the Grenade Gophers went renegade and joined the Crocs as assassins.

It is also mentioned that Guard Duck has a girlfriend, Maura, who leaves him from time to time and once in particular (after a trip to Paris) to become a corporate spokesperson for Aflac.

In the treasury The Crass Menagerie, Stephan Pastis remarks that the Guard Duck has become so popular that he's become a sixth main character (after Rat, Pig, Goat, Zebra, and the crocs).

Crocodiles

The Fraternity of Crocodiles are described by Pastis as "inept and inarticulate neighbors" of Zebra and while they are indeed on very poor terms with all five main characters (with the possible occasional exception of Rat), they are usually involved in various attempts to kill and eat Zebra, all of which fail. The fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "Zeta, Zeta, Epsilon" in their first appearance in a botched attempt to fool Zebra). They have very bad grammar, speak in upper- and lower-case captions (most Pearls characters' captions are in all-capitals) and also have an expanded and a slightly smaller font size.

The Crocodile Family

In addition to the Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity of crocodiles, there is a separate family of crocodiles that live in the neighborhood and are also neighbors to Zebra. The family consists of Larry, his wife Patty, and their son Junior (originally named Billy). Larry and his pals [such as Burt, Bob etc.] are a group of typical dumb crocodiles in the strip, speaking in the same language as the fraternity ("Croc-ese", which is actually the reader's own language spoken with exceptionally improper grammar and spelling), which he is often seen with plotting to kill Zebra. By contrast, both his wife and son are intelligent, with Junior being particularly gifted. Also, Larry seems to have come from a well to do family because his parents speak impeccable English. In one strip, it is shown they had spent a huge amount on Larry's education [52000 for his tuition fees] which he instead spent on a closet full of beer. Larry is (or at least was) a huge fan of the Wii and tried to encourage his son to drop out of school so he could play with him. He is also very childish, appearing when ever Simon says to do so, and is easily convinced to do stupid things such as when he stapled his head to a wall on a bet and shut off Zebra's water pipes in an attempt to force Zebra to drink from the fraternity's swamp, unaware that Zebra bought his water from Sparkletts. Larry doesn't care about his wife Patty because in one series of strips, Zebra kidnaps Patty for a peace proposal with Larry and he is shown happy because of this (although Zebra did return her). Larry was "eaten" by dolphins on January 18, 2013 and secretly escaped. He was later eaten by a shark on May 21, 2013. He was reincarnated as a crab and eaten by Zebra on May 22, 2013. He was reincarnated again as Jeffy from Family Circus on May 22, 2013 as well. He reappeared on May 4, 2014

Patty is a housewife with a bob haircut (originally an Afro, then a beehive) who loves both her husband (although she did once leave Larry because she thinks he's a failure because he has not killed Zebra) and son, although she is continually frustrated with her husband's failed attempts to kill Zebra – which more often than not, result in Larry being forced to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and purchase food, which he eats by himself in shame while in the closet (although Patty does do some grocery shopping and Larry once stole a frozen zebra from a pair of male lions that also moved into the neighborhood, which he claimed to catch). Also she, like Junior, does not speak Croc-ese (although, she used to at the start on the strip). She claimed she cut her hair to better express herself, as she demonstrated in a strip where her beehive interfered with her speech bubble.

Junior is the most intelligent and perhaps most refined member of his family. He is a vegetarian who can't understand why his father constantly wants to kill Zebra, believes that crocodiles should wear clothes because being naked is undignified, and is friends with his neighbor. Despite all his faults, Junior loves his father as well as his mother, but infuriates them with one small action - his love for a zebra (specifically, Zebra's niece Joy, of whom he dated). Junior is also strong friends with Zebra, since he consoled Zebra with a photo of the Great Plains in Africa and played football with him (when his mom told Junior to "stop playing with his food"). Surprisingly, despite her attitude, Patty is much more offended about this than Larry, considering it an embarrassment to her family and believing that simply grounding him will cause him to stop (although all it did was cause Junior to run away) However, it is expressed that Larry and Patty do not like Junior being a vegetarian, with Larry telling Zebra that Junior was "a big disappointment".

Stephan Pastis

Stephan Pastis appears self-reflexively in the strip. He is often seen with Rat, who makes him the target of criticism about his artwork and jokes involving puns. Pastis also is subjected to Rat's antics from time to time, such as when Rat poured beer on one of his drawings and caused it to blur (an effect Pastis said he could only achieve on a computer) and stole all of his clothes. In the strip, Stephan expresses common sense, unlike Rat and some of the other characters. His character has also expressed his hate of being an attorney, which was his former career. As the strip went, his personal appearance on the strip changed from an unseen character, an arrogant, successful cartoonist, and a version of himself that chain-smokes. Stephan in the strip is separated from his wife, Staci.

In the strip of Sunday, February 7, 2010, the Pastis character mourned his real-life father-in-law, Rick Daniels, and received a hug from Pig.

Snuffles

Snuffles (also known as Mister Snuffles) is Zebra's cat. Originally, he was adopted by the crocodiles on September 30, 2007, to kill Zebra because he was the cat at the shelter who scratched and bit the most, but the plan backfired and Snuffles grew to like Zebra. This has not stopped Snuffles from getting into trouble, as he hid weapons of mass destruction for the Syrians and Iraqis, concealed Osama bin Laden in his kitty tree, used Zebra's credit card to binge purchase beer, fenced stolen property, ran an illegal booking operation, scalped tickets, and various other illegal doings. Snuffles is often seen with Guard Duck.

Lemmings

A few strips shows a group of Lemmings [count is 4 or 5, usually 4] on the edge of a cliff speaking out their purpose just before they are about to commit their mass suicide. The confessions and feelings spoken out during these gossips bring humour to the strip .They are usually on top of each other and had sworn on an oath that each would jump once the suicide session is initiated by the topmost member [named Fred]. Apparently, he does not seem to be entirely faithful as shown in one strip where he opens up a parachute just after the jump.

Semi-regular Characters

Setting

The strip is set in a fictional suburb in Albany, California. Places where the characters can be found at are: a brick wall, a beach, a curb, a bar, and a diner.

Style

Artistically, Pearls is extremely simple. Pastis stated, "People say that they like my strip's simplicity, but I'm doing the best I can to just to get up to that level. I'm not dumbing the art down."

Pearls is also a meta-comic in that it often satirizes the comics medium, and allows its characters to break the fourth wall and either communicate directly with the author or with characters from other strips. Pearls will often also mock older strips, such as Cathy and Family Circus. Pastis will often employ a shaggy dog story, using a great amount of dialogue to spin an elaborate yarn often resolved with a character's unforeseen death or near death. A variation known as a feghoot builds to an intentionally bad pun in the penultimate panel, with the final panel showing the cartoon version of Pastis as the target of criticism, hostility, or even physical violence from the characters, usually Rat. The characters also frequently acknowledge the fact that they are in a comic strip published in newspapers; the strip published on January 14, 2008, had "roof fish" sitting on top of the panel fishing for the characters, and other strips have had such events as smeared newsprint or beer affected the appearance of the strip or strips in which it seems as if the paginators had laid out the strip wrong. Other comic strips are often the butt of punchlines, and several cartoon characters from outside Pearls have appeared,

Pearls uses dark humor, at times involving topics such as death, depression and human suffering.

Other media

In an interview on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that aired February 7, 2008, Pastis mentioned that he had been approached by producers about an animated TV series based on Pearls.

In 2009, a line of Pearls plush dolls was released by Aurora World, Inc., featuring four characters (Rat, Pig, Zebra and Croc) from the comic, to which Pastis jokingly said he would use for reference when unsure how to draw the characters.

On October 20, 2010, RingTales launched their series of animated "Pearls" strips on Babelgum. Pastis has since begun to release these cartoons on YouTube.

Bill Watterson appearance

From June 2–6, 2014, Bill Watterson collaborated with Stephan Pastis to make a series of comics centered around a girl across the street named "Libby", later shortened to "Lib". This was exciting to both fans of Pearls Before Swine and Calvin and Hobbes because it was the first time Watterson had made an appearance in comics since his own had ended 20 years before. Stephan met Libby when she knocked on his door, telling him that she needed to interview a cartoonist for a school project. The comic ends with Libby insulting Pastis by asking if he knew a cartoonist. Later in the week, she continues to blatantly insult him (she tells him he writes and draws like @#*#), and then tries her hand at drawing "Pearls" for 3 days, where she continues to insult Stephan by drawing better than him. At first, Pastis is annoyed and just wants her to leave, but then he changes his tune when she draws him as a hunk surrounded by scantily clad women. After that, he wants her to keep drawing his comic strip, but she tells him that "there's a magical world out there to explore" (a direct Calvin and Hobbes quote) and never returns again. Those three comics that "Libby" drew, however, were drawn by Bill Watterson. Stephan tells his story of meeting with Watterson in his blog and how shocked he was to collaborate with him.

Technical aspects

Cartoonist Darby Conley, creator of Get Fuzzy, helped teach Pastis the technical aspects of cartooning. The two remain friends, sometimes poking fun at each other in their strips. In Pearls Blows Up, Stephan says that he replaces some of the usual squiggle-marks indicating swear words with a poorly drawn picture of Darby Conley's head. In a Get Fuzzy strip, Rob asks Satchel if an annoying lawyer named Stephan called. Satchel has a Pearls book next to him. Conley also drew Pastis in his strip twice during a week where the two cartoonists decided to play a prank on their syndicate by having Conley copy and paste Get Fuzzy characters over Pearls strips. In the story Conley accidentally receives some unpublished Pearls Before Swine comics in the mail and decides to use them after running late with his strips. Later Pastis calls up Conley wanting to talk about how his strips are similar to his that week. First Conley pretends not to speak English and later he tells Conley to call him back but blocks his number. Pastis said that the prank fooled readers of both Get Fuzzy and Pearls, with fans of his strip writing to him saying that "some jerk" (Conley) was ripping him off.

Books

There are more than a dozen Pearls Before Swine books, mostly collections of strips published during a specific nine to ten-month period.

Awards

Pearls Before Swine won National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 and 2006, with nominations in 2002 and 2008 as well. Pastis was one of the society's nominees for "Cartoonist of the Year" for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Pearls Before Swine also won the 2015 Reuben award for best newspaper comic strip.