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Pearls Before Swine #17
I'm Only in This for Me: A Pearls Before Swine Collection
Includes Bill Watterson's collaborated cartoons!
Are you tired of America's broken politics, tired partisan bickering, and really lame newspaper comics? Well, Stephan Pastis can't help you with the first two. But he, along with Rat, Pig, and the rest of the animal crew from Pearls Before Swine , voted the Most Reprehensible Comic Strip in the Continental U.S. by the League of Easily Offended and Unfunny Citizens*, are doing their best to make the American comic great again.
In I'm Only in This for Me , the Pearls gang dares to tell the hard truths that the country needs to the importance of prioritizing cheese over everything else, the sadly ignored capacity of bears to solve all of life's problems, and the crucial Recognition Gap between women in bars and semi-obscure cartoonists with delusions of grandeur.
But beneath all the selfishness, absurdity, bungling crocs, and bazooka-wielding ducks, Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra continue to find that friendship can make life warmer, humor can make stupidity less annoying, and cheese really does make everything way, way better.
Lastly, this collection features the triumphant return of a legendary comics Stephan Pastis! (And also some weirdo named Bill Watterson.)
*Not an actual group or award
Are you tired of America's broken politics, tired partisan bickering, and really lame newspaper comics? Well, Stephan Pastis can't help you with the first two. But he, along with Rat, Pig, and the rest of the animal crew from Pearls Before Swine , voted the Most Reprehensible Comic Strip in the Continental U.S. by the League of Easily Offended and Unfunny Citizens*, are doing their best to make the American comic great again.
In I'm Only in This for Me , the Pearls gang dares to tell the hard truths that the country needs to the importance of prioritizing cheese over everything else, the sadly ignored capacity of bears to solve all of life's problems, and the crucial Recognition Gap between women in bars and semi-obscure cartoonists with delusions of grandeur.
But beneath all the selfishness, absurdity, bungling crocs, and bazooka-wielding ducks, Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra continue to find that friendship can make life warmer, humor can make stupidity less annoying, and cheese really does make everything way, way better.
Lastly, this collection features the triumphant return of a legendary comics Stephan Pastis! (And also some weirdo named Bill Watterson.)
*Not an actual group or award
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 2016
44 people want to read
About the author
Stephan Pastis
135 books440 followersStephan 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 18, 2018
As always, master of the awful to bad pun rules again! Love Stephan Pastis's book. Love the sarcasm, the wit, the "whimsy" - the characters are just plain fun! These are the books I take out when I need a laugh or a cheer up. They don't fail me.
June 12, 2017
Stephan Pastis is a genius. I love his characters and his weird sense of humor. As an unrepentant punster, I love his puns.
May 21, 2019
Always funny, always insightful without being preachy
December 19, 2020
I like his cynicism take on society but this collection was only okay, still enjoyable- maybe I have read too many Instagram comics and my humor has changed.
Read
August 11, 2023Sergeant Piggy's lonely hearts club
August 18, 2024
read in the Pearls Hogs The Road treasury
September 10, 2025
I love Stephan Pastis books, and this is another funny one. I expected a strip series about Rats presidency but there wasn’t, so slightly disappointed.
December 21, 2016
Stephan Pastis has certainly honed his formula for Pearls Before Swine by this point. His constant biting sarcasm is hilarious. Yet he can also offer some poignant moments, particularly with Pig. One would think his wordplay gags would get old but he always manages to find new ways to play with language, and even when you see the joke coming during the build the payoff is usually worth it.
I did notice Stephan seemed to put himself in the strip far more often than I remember in previous collections. Not a bad thing, especially considering he was already a fairly regular character. Just an interesting observation, even more notable when compared to a creator like Jim Davis who would never inject himself like that.
Unfortunately, it can also feel like for every wonderfully circuitous wordplay strip there was a strip like "Sloth Man" or the lemmings. Overall, though, the quality of the rest outweighs the duds. I found myself constantly reading strips out loud for my wife to share in the mirth.
I did notice Stephan seemed to put himself in the strip far more often than I remember in previous collections. Not a bad thing, especially considering he was already a fairly regular character. Just an interesting observation, even more notable when compared to a creator like Jim Davis who would never inject himself like that.
Unfortunately, it can also feel like for every wonderfully circuitous wordplay strip there was a strip like "Sloth Man" or the lemmings. Overall, though, the quality of the rest outweighs the duds. I found myself constantly reading strips out loud for my wife to share in the mirth.
October 15, 2016
Another great collection of Pearls of wisdom from the master Pastis. Fans of comics such as Family Circle and Charlie Brown might not be fans of this type of humor, or maybe they will like it just fine. I know I am really enjoying my foray into our local libraries latest acquisition of four books of Pearls. So now I have to move on to the next so to all readers, enjoy whatever it is you are reading!
July 20, 2016
His books always make me laugh. Love the word play and the commentary on our lives. This one seemed especially apropos with the political conventions underway.
July 7, 2016
Morons, egoists, and politicians (I repeat myself) all get the Pastis treatment.
September 6, 2016
There are worst things to read on a long car ride when you are trying to curry favor with an 11 year old.
November 3, 2016
I really love Stephan Pastis and his sarcasm and wit are point on in this one as well as all his other books.
September 12, 2021
Loved the comics (as usual) but pretty much every one of these was printed (or reprinted? not sure of the publishing dates) in "Pearls Hogs the Road".
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews