Pearls Sells Out: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury

Pearls Before Swine #7-8

by Stephan Pastis

Stephan Pastis has done it again with Pearls Sells A Pearls Before Swine Treasury . This edgy comic is the perfect collection of insight and observation on humanity's pitiful plight as seen by an arrogant rat, a half-wit pig, and their insane entourage. Pearls Sells Out gives fans their much-needed dose of humor, wit and biting sarcasm. The book also features thoughts and sly comments from Pastis about the strips in running commentary throughout the book.

"There's an artful, edgy rebellion being waged in the funny pages, and one of its brightest revolutionaries is Stephan Pastis." -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"The cartoon Pearls Before Swine is written by a psychopath." --reader complaint, Wichita Eagle

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

261 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2009

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

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps I'm too easily impressed, but I adore the Pearls Before Swine treasuries. The strip itself is one of my favorites, but what I love specifically about the treasuries are the comments that Pastis includes regarding selected strips. It's like getting the director's commentary on a DVD. Are they worth spending the money to buy the treasury if you've already bought the two books compiled therein? Each reader will have to answer that for themselves. I know what mine is though ...

[Robert Risher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastis is the best thing since Jim Davis, and this volume holds up to all the others.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

With these strips from 2006 through 2008, Pearls Before Swine really starts to enter its final form. You can tell when an old strip pops up as the lines and letters are much different than the rest of the strips. The humor is far more consistent than even just the previous treasury, The Crass Menagerie. A few more puns start to sneak into the strips, foreshadowing the spectacular puns to come. The Crocs really round into form, dropping their lisp and becoming more memorable.

This treasury features the first appearance of Snuffles the cat. It's a short-lived appearance, to be sure, but it's always neat to see the origin of a character who became far more prevalent.

This treasury also features the first appearance of Zebra's other next-door neighbors, the Lions. I'm actually not sure these stick around for the long run, given I can't recall any modern strips with them. Their jokes are fairly similar to the Crocs, but not as consistently funny.

There are even some more poignant strips, such as Rat diagramming how every path through life ends in death and the impermanent nature of time. Nothing is as touching as later strips like Larry's relationship with his son, but it still gives Pearls Before Swine a nice balance.

Finally, there are a lot of cameos by other comic strip characters. Most notably, Linus from Peanuts appears a few times. These strips are always fun and offer a cool metatextual element to Pearls Before Swine that I don't see in any other comic strips.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. I do not have the strip in my newspaper in Jamaica (West Indies) so my sister who lives in the US introduced me to the Pearls and I have to say, good move Sis. I like the comics themselves (big fan of irreverent and dark humor) but the commentary at the bottom of some of the strips is an added bonus because it shows that more than just ideas guide the weekly creation process, legal considerations, potential negative reader feedback and specific times of year content can be printed all have to be taken into consideration. So my enjoyment is for both the actual strip and the logistics and historical information. I fully recommend this strip because it is SOOOO FUNNY. I am so glad that I have found this now because there is a back list of previous publications that I can go through at my leisure. Looking forward to spending many hours enjoying the Pearls as I go find the other books, and may Stephen write many more.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fantastic treasury. Pearls Before Swines has quickly become one of my favorite comic strips in recent years. Its deep, philosophical, and ultimately very intelligent and exuding an understanding of the human spirit. From the way the characters like Pig, Rat, Goat, and Zebra handle their philosophical selves and their entities and moralities (or lack thereof) and the existence of their lives; swinging then to the hilarious for how stupid their actions are of the Crocs, Lions, and other characters like Guard Duck (and once again Pig). It touches all the bases it needs to and it works perfectly. Pastis has an incredible sense of character, of humor, and most importantly of people.

[randomPfp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearls Sells Out is weird. I still stand by that it's fantastic, hell, this is the only time the series ever attempted a multi-plot convoluted story that is still one of the highlights of the series for me, though I do feel like noticeable cracks are starting to form in the joke telling. I hesitate to say it's getting formulaic, but the patterns were becoming increasingly obvious. I am going to say straight up the back half of this book is FAR superior to the front. Overall better than the debut, and the best is the absolute finest the series has to offer, just some issues I have I guess.

Also this cover is fucking amazing lol

[Laurla2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

-contains the collections: macho macho animals (2008) and the saturday evening pearls (2009).

-authors quote:
"its strips like this that make easily offended people write newspapers with comments such as 'please tell me why it is funny when a sewing machine professes his love for satan.' i think its funny that i've made someone write a letter to a newspaper that includes the phrase 'a sewing machine professes his love for satan'."

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful collection of strips from one of the best strips currently going. As always it ranges from the dark to the sweet, to the unbelievably convoluted puns. As usual with the treasuries, this is complimented with a commentary underneath a lot of the strips.
This edition also contains a few bonus unseen strips, where either the wording was changed, or the strip was pulled for a variety of reasons.
As always, this is well worth the read

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the comments he makes. I laugh out loud reading the comics. Scares my dog.
Picked this up for my nephew who is a huge fan since he was young. Had to read it before I give it to him for his 18th birthday.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for providing some much needed laugh out loud moments.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very funny comic strip series.

[Dietrich West-Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute but not great.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Many LOL moments, entertaining and thoughtful.

[LordSlaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearls Sells Out is very funny. The treasury is enhanced by creator cartoonist Stephan Pastis' commentary on a number of the strips: his inspirations, the reception of the strips, the sorts of complaints newspapers received because of his comics, amusingly self-deprecating remarks about his drawing ability. My favorite characters are the crocs. Poor 'zeeba neighba', in this volume he has them to contend with and some new-neighbor lions as well. Very entertaining.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pastis is kind of a rarity, as he's a cartoonist who is just as funny with paragraphs as he is with comics. In this collection, he comments on some of the comics throughout, providing an origin story for a comic, giving insight to what works and what doesn't or just randomly talking about something related. He's a funny dude, so anything he writes is just as funny or funnier than the actual comic.

A lot of comic strip treasuries have commentary, but it's kind of slow-going most of the time. This one almost makes you feel like Stephan Pastis and you are drinking beer together and going through his old cartoons with him just pointing out whatever comes to his head. It's pretty rad.

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked it up for the Spouse who reads the comic regularly. And then, you know, I was in one of those moods when nothing else seemed to appeal. Early on I was more fascinated by Pastis' commentary than by the comics themselves: there are a lot of jokes that he knew didn't really work before they were ever published. But that's the nature of a daily comic, I suppose. Gradually I really began to enjoy the travails of Zebra and his surrounding predator neighbors, much more so than the Pig and Rat ones. But there were a some more involved storylines that killed. As well as some one offs.

A mixed bag, but fun overall.

Library copy

[Cheryl Gatling]

One of the common themes of Stephen Pastis's commentary on his own work is how often he got angry letters and emails. I just checked the Wikipedia article on Pearls Before Swine, and it mentions that the strip is controversial because of its treatment of touchy topics. I don't know. I have been living many years in a household where nothing is considered off-limits, humor-wise. I guess I have been ruined. I found nothing offensive here. Just funny, funny, funny. Often stupid. Occasionally touching. But still funny.

[Naomi Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pearls sells out is about a crazy tale of talking animals were the crocs try to eat zebra, rat gets a job as barista and he calls one of the crocs to see if he can sub in for rat when he's sick and a croc gets a rare moment where it eats something! Stephens little dog, Andy tries to go on a cruise when he's chained up. I like dis book because it has talking animals, hilarious characters, and little guard duck on duty!

[angrykitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok.....i have forever been a fan of comic strips, and i have to admit that this is one of the first ones that i didn't actually start reading in the paper...however, this now may be my favorite comic strip.....behind get fuzzy that is......

i don't know who i like more....rat or bucky from get fuzzy.....both are so close to how i am it's not even funny.....

[LauraW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to the previous of these treasuries. My favorite part is actually his comments on the various strips. It is especially interesting to me to read about reactions from fans and other cartoonists. My favorite: 34% of all people are walking around without a brain. I think the percentage has risen in the US since the strip was published.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastis is the most hilarious and important cartoonist working today. This collection featuring strips from nearly a decade ago proves he's been at top form for years. It also features his equally hilarious commentary, in which he's nearly as hard on himself as his critics are (although I would describe Pearls as a modern Peanuts, please do not assume it's as universal in appeal).

[Duane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do believe that this is his best treasury so far. Pastis' humor is both juvenile and adult, so it appeals to a wide range of ages. You can't help falling in love for those crazy crocs and who can't feel sorry for the innocent yet dumb pig. A great book for any fan of comic strip humor.

[Patrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more of a series I enjoy without a lot of dramatic changes, so my rating probably isn't a huge surprise. I like the treasuries because Pastis has many amusing comments on his comic strips throughout the book.

[Daan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niet alle stripjes zijn even grappig, maar je krijgt langzaam een band met de verschillende idiote karakters. De opmerkingen van Stephan Pastis maken mislukte grappen soms toch grappig. De discussies tussen de wat domme krokodil en zijn vegetarische zoontje vond ik het sterkst.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need humor and don't mind dark humor, the long term battle between the friendly neighbor crocodiles and the Zebra is a sure hit. Rats relentless search for better employment and guard ducks plight with being understood add to the fun.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book introduces Snuffles the Cat, and has the storyline where Rat and Guard duck become laywers, Rat goes to Florida in a diaper and almost gets killed by Bill Keane, Jeffy from Family Circus enters the strip, and the Crocs almost win. This alone is worth the price of the book.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

this strip consistently makes me laugh out loud

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of two previous books but with added commentary by the creator.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I continue to love Pearls - I find myself laughing out loud and looking for the nearest person to share my favorite strips with.

[Maia Goodman Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

I miss Calvin and Hobbes, and Pearls is a good replacement. Pastis' well-places, snarky comments are a good bonus as well.