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On Tour with Stephan Pastis

Last month Pearls Before Swine cartoonist and Timmy Failure author Stephan Pastis embarked on an ambitious book tour consisting of 20 public events and 28 school visits, which took place across 27 days. The tour was in support of his new book for middle graders, Looking Up (Aladdin), an illustrated novel about loneliness and grief, and a girl striving to save her town from gentrification by hipsters. Nearly 4,500 people attended the month-long series of events, which included a presentation about the book, a drawing demonstration, and audience q&as. During each signing, Pastis personalized books and drew the book’s protagonist, Saint, as well as his Pearls Before Swine characters for fans. In Akron, Oh., the signing line at Barnes & Noble lasted four hours.

Pastis spread the word about his tour in a unique way: with an announcement in his Pearls Before Swine comic strip , which is syndicated in 778 newspapers nationwide. In the strip, Pastis appeared as a cartoon version of himself and listed all of the cities that he would be visiting. In addition, Pearls Before Swine ran custom strips the week before each event in their respective regional newspapers to remind readers about them, and listed the date, time, and location of each event. Here we present a selection of photos from the tour.

On October 10, Pastis presented to students during a school visit in Danville, Calif., sponsored by Rakestraw Books. Photo: Courtesy Rakestraw Books.

In an October 11 appearance at The Bookmark Shoppe in Brooklyn, N.Y., Stephan Pastis chatted with a young fan. Photo: Bryan Sargent.

Pastis with Simon & Schuster staffers (from l.): Kara Sargent, Alex Kelleher-Nagorski, Anna Jarzab, Alissa Rashid, and Emily Ritter at The Bookmark Shoppe. Photo: Sargent.

Drawing some of his well-known characters at The Book Stall in Winnetka, Ill., on October 12. Photo: Courtesy The Book Stall.

Meeting a Toledo TV anchor and his family at the Detroit Public Library on October 14, at an event organized by Source Booksellers. Photo: Courtesy Stephan Pastis.

Addressing the crowd at Barnes & Noble Akron on October 15. Photo: Courtesy Barnes & Noble.

Signing Looking Up at the Takoma Park Community Center in Takoma Park, Md., on October 16, during an appearance arranged in partnership with Politics and Prose. Photo: Bruce Guthrie.

Talking to attendees at the Takoma Park Community Center. Photo: Guthrie.

Doing a drawing demonstration during a school visit in Winter Park, Fla., on October 17, in partnership with Writer’s Block Bookstore. Photo: Courtesy Writer’s Block.

Pastis signing books at the Atlanta-Fulton Central Library on October 19, arranged by Brave + Kind Bookshop. Photo: Courtesy Brave + Kind Bookshop.

A student displaying one of Pastis’s drawings from his school visit in Decatur, Ga. Photo: Courtesy Brave + Kind Bookshop.

Posing with students during a school visit on October 20 in St. Louis, Mo. Photo: Courtesy Left Bank Books.

Presenting Looking Up on October 21 at novel., a bookstore in Memphis. Photo: Courtesy novel.

Posing with local drag queens on October 22 at Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans. Photo: Courtesy Pastis.

Answering questions during a school visit on October 23 in Houston. Photo: Courtesy Blue Willow Bookshop.

Signing books with a little canine assistance. Photo: Courtesy Blue Willow Bookshop.

A school visit in Denver on October 25. Photo: Courtesy The Bookies.

An SRO crowd at Barnes & Noble Roseville in Roseville, Calif., on October 28. Photo: Courtesy Barnes & Noble.

Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing hosted an October 29 visit from Pastis. Photo: Courtesy Powell’s Books.

A presentation at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Wash., on October 30. Photo: Courtesy Third Place Books.

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Things To Do | ‘Pearls Before Swine’ cartoonist Stephan Pastis…

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Subscriber only, things to do | ‘pearls before swine’ cartoonist stephan pastis coming to orlando on book tour.

At least that’s the title of his latest release, which is geared toward readers in grades 3-7 and follows Saint, a girl who loves medieval knights and protecting piñatas. Pastis will talk about his latest release, his career as a cartoonist and his “Pearls Seeks Enlightenment” book during a stop in Winter Park at the Writer’s Block Bookstore on Oct. 17.

“I had never done a female protagonist, and I like the impossible dream, the Don Quixote sort of quest,” Pastis said. “In this case, her favorite toy store gets torn down because her whole neighborhood is gentrifying. She decides she’s going to change that.”

The New York Times bestselling author made his foray into writing for younger audiences about 10 years ago when he created Timmy Failure, a series that has now turned into a feature-length Disney+ movie .

Before Pastis made his foray into the world of professional cartooning, he had a career as a lawyer that lasted about a decade.

“I had been a lawyer for almost 10 years. I never liked it, and I wanted desperately to escape. When the strip launched, I thought, ‘How soon can I quit?'” he said. “I always drew since I was a little kid. Everybody who cartoons wants to be a syndicated cartoonist, but the odds at the time were something like 30,000 to one.”

“Pearls Before Swine” made its widespread debut in early 2002 but actually appeared for the first time in the Orlando Sentinel before any other newspaper.

“The strip launched in January of 2002, so it’s almost 22 years old,” Pastis said. “For some reason, the Orlando Sentinel published a Sunday strip on Dec.30, 2001. Technically, when somebody asks me what my first paper was, it was the Orlando Sentinel.”

Although he said he’s not “particularly proud” of that first strip, Pastsis has come a long way, growing and evolving with his characters like Pig and Rat in his more than two decades of cartooning and writing books.

“My goal is always to make people laugh. Secondly, if they can derive some meaning from it or they find it relatable to their own lives, even better,” he said. “As a cartoonist, I think I always go first to make them laugh.”

During his stop in Orlando, Pastis will visit Park Maitland School, Cypress Springs Elementary School and Sunrise Elementary School before heading to the Writer’s Block to show his comic strips, talk about his newest release and answer questions.

“I talk for about half an hour, and I show strips, really the ones that drew the most complaints,” he said. “Afterwards, I answer questions, and I draw in everybody’s book rather than just signing.”

Stephan Pastis will appear at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at 316 N. Park Ave. in Winter Park. The event is free, but RSVPs are required as space is limited. Paid tickets are available that include a signed copy. For more information, visit writersblockbookstore.com .

Find me  @PConnPie on Instagram  or send me an email:  [email protected] .

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Welcome to Two Chicks on Books!!!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm here to share all things Bookish and also news about Movies, TV Shows, and even Video Games I love! I love to read your comments :)

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Blog tour- looking up by @stephanpastis with excerpt images & a #giveaway @simonkids, & @rockstarbktours.

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the LOOKING UP by Stephan Pastis Blog Tour hosted by  Rockstar Book Tours . Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About the Books:

Author:  Stephan Pastis

Pub. Date:  October 10, 2023

Publisher:  Aladdin

Formats:  Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages:  240

Find it:   Goodreads ,  https://books2read.com/LOOKING-UP

From the  New York Times  bestselling author of the Timmy Failure series comes a quirky and heartwarming middle grade novel about a girl struggling with loneliness and the curveballs of life—featuring black and white illustrations throughout! Living alone with her mother in a poorer part of town, Saint—a girl drawn to medieval knights, lost causes, and the protection of birthday piñatas—sees the neighborhood she has always known and loved disappearing around her: old homes being torn down and replaced by fancy condos and coffee shops. But when her favorite creaky old toy store is demolished, she knows she must act. Enlisting the help of Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, a quiet, round-faced boy who lives across the street (and whose house also faces the wrecking ball), Saint hatches a plan to save what is left of her beloved hometown.

PRAISE FOR LOOKING UP

“Will delight readers. The story is generously illustrated with Pastis’ characteristic black-and-white cartoon line drawings … Pastis fills this deceptively simple first-person account with humor, puns, turns, and twists—and the final twist gives this friendship tale its surprising depth. Words and art combine to create a moving story.” –   Kirkus Reviews  

“Deceptively funny illustrated novel about loneliness and grief …Pastis’s distinctive, heavily lined b&w illustrations effectively convey the protagonists’ depth of emotion via amiable faces composed of two dots for eyes and a curve nose, while prose contains his signature absurd humor, which lightens this meditation on mourning.”–  Publishers Weekly  

“Readers will rally around Daniel, Saint, and elderly toy store owner Muffins, while seeing the dilemmas faced by Saint’s mom and Daniel’s uncle, who are struggling to make ends meet and care for their children. With this hilarious book and its comical black-and-white illustrations throughout, Pastis once again reaches out to reluctant readers with a multilayered tale of loss, grief, and growing up. With an imaginative ending that will make readers think, there is more than meets the eye in this funny gem.”–  School Library Journal

“A fabulous chapter book that, to an extent, doubles as an all-age graphic novel too. There’s so much to love about Looking Up that you won’t be sure what your favorite aspect of the book is. The humor fires on all cylinders. The heart of the book sneaks up on readers and provides a story on dealing with the ups and downs of life, as well as the invaluable worth of a great friend. If you’re in middle elementary school or middle school, you will love this book. It provides those ages something to learn, but it’s wrapped alongside so much humor and fun that it will be irresistible to all ages eight and up.” –  Daddy Mojo   

Excerpt Images:

About Stephan Pastis :

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the syndicated comic strip  Pearls Before Swine , which appears in over 800 newspapers. He is also the creator of the Timmy Failure book series and the cowriter of the Disney+ movie  Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made . He lives in Northern California with his wife and two kids. --This text refers to the  hardcover  edition.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of LOOKING UP, US ONLY.

Ends October 10 th , midnight EST.

Tour Schedule:

STEPHAN PASTIS’ BOOK TOUR

 Monday, October 9, 2023 at 7:00pm PT

In-store event at  Rakestraw Books

3 Railroad Avenue

Danville, CA 94526

Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 7:30pm ET

In-store event at  The Bookmark Shoppe

8415 3rd Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11209

Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 6:00pm CT

In-store event at  Chicago Comics

3244 N. Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60657

Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 12:00pm ET

Off-site event hosted by  Source Booksellers

Detroit Public Library

5201 Woodward Avenue

Detroit, MI 48202

Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 12:00pm ET

In-store event at  Barnes & Noble

4015 Medina Road

Akron, OH 44333

Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:00pm ET

Off-site event hosted by  Politics and Prose Bookstore

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Takoma Park, MD 20912

Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 5:30pm ET

In-store event at  The Writer’s Block Bookstore

316 N. Park Avenue

Winter Park, FL 32789

Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 6:30pm ET

Off-site event hosted by  Brave + Kind Bookshop

Atlanta-Fulton Central Library

1 Margaret Mitchell Square

Atlanta, GA 30303

Friday, October 20, 2023 at 6:00pm CT

Off-site event hosted by  Left Bank Books

St. Louis Public Library – Schlafly Library

225 N. Euclid Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63108

Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 6:00pm CT

In-store event at  novel.

387 Perkins Extd

Memphis, TN 38117

Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 3:00pm CT

In-store event at  Garden District Book Shop

2727 Prytania Street, Unit 14

New Orleans, LA 70130

Monday, October 23, 2023 at 7:00pm CT

In-store event at  Blue Willow Bookshop

14532 Memorial Drive

Houston, TX 77079

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 6:30pm MT

Off-site event hosted by  The Bookies

Teller Elementary School

1150 Garfield Street

Denver, CO 80206

Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at 6:30pm MT

In-store event at  Changing Hands Bookstore

6428 S. McClintock Drive

Tempe, AZ 85283

Friday, October 27, 2023 at 7:00pm PT

In-store event at  Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore

3555 Rosencrans Street, Suite 107

San Diego, CA 92110

Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 6:30pm PT

Creekside Town Center

1256 Galleria Boulevard

Roseville, CA 95678

Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 3:00pm PT

In-store event at  Powell’s Books at Cedar Hill Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Boulevard

Beaverton, OR 97005

Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:00pm PT

In-store event at  Third Place Books

17171 Bothell Way NE #A101

Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

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'Just Gotta Get Out Of The House' 2022 Mini-Book Tour with Stephan Pastis

PLEASE LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING!!!  CLICK HERE!

We are so excited to announce Stephan Pastis will be visiting our store!  Please use the registration link to let us know you plan to attend.  This helps us with capacity and if we need to reach you with important information about the event!

We hope you support our store and purchase your books with us. 

We can't host author events if you buy your books on The Big-A just to save a few $$

(p.s. - they are not hosting this event and never will). 

Select IN STORE PICKUP and your book(s) will be waiting when you arrive.

#shoplocal, #shopsmall

ShOp StEpHaN's BoOkS hErE!

Pearls Awaits the Tide: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Paperback)

Squirrel Do Bad (Trubble Town #1) (Paperback)

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (Paperback)

Pearls Goes Hollywood (Pearls Before Swine) (Paperback)

Pearls Hogs the Road: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Paperback)

Stephan's Web: A Pearls Before Swine Collection (Paperback)

Pearls Gets Sacrificed: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Paperback)

King of the Comics: A Pearls Before Swine Collection (Paperback)

'Pearls Before Swine' cartoonist coming to Memphis. Here's why and how to meet him.

The roughly 130-year history of the American comic strip is a sort of a Dagwood sandwich of popular imagination, loaded and layered with bold flavors, reassuring textures and risky experiments.

In 1934, a dashing Yale polo player turned space adventurer, Flash Gordon, landed on the planet Mongo, ruled by a tyrant, Ming the Merciless.

In 1960, the usually crabby "Peanuts" character, Lucy, snuggled Charlie Brown's beagle, Snoopy, and declared: "Happiness is a warm puppy."

And in 2005, "Pearls Before Swine," which appears daily in The Commercial Appeal, revealed that the terrorist, Osama bin Laden, was hiding out as an exchange student within the wholesome environment and circle-shaped panels of "The Family Circus."

At the end of one strip in this series, the Family Circus mother, Thel, informs her guest: "I'm sorry, Osama, but at the end of grace, we say, 'Amen,' not 'Death to America.'"

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Some readers were not amused.

"When I started out I was pretty irreverent," says Stephan Pastis, the writer/artist/creator of "Pearls Before Swine," in a telephone interview from his home in Santa Rosa, California.

"I think I made fun of the older strips more than was probably comfortable for the older guys. I kind of like to think of my strip in the early years as in the vein of what punk rock was to rock in 1977. The energy you bring to shake everything up, I think that's important."

Yet Pastis, for all his edge, revered the comic strip as an American art form and admired and even idolized its most significant creators, particularly the "Peanuts" mastermind, Charles M. Schulz, who introduced philosophical, psychological and even religious ideas into a traditional gang-of-kids format.

"I see Sparky as a rebel, a game changer and a revolutionary," said Pastis, using the nickname of the artist he eventually befriended. "I analogize him to Brando in 'On the Waterfront' and 'Streetcar.' In the same way that Brando changed acting forevermore, Sparky did that for comics. He showed that a comic strip can be about depression and longing and love and loss of love. Sparky, he's the reason I'm here, for sure."

Pastis, 55, will be in Memphis on Oct. 21 for a 6 p.m. talk — actually, a comedic PowerPoint presentation, he said — and book-signing at Novel, 387 Perkins Ext. Although Andrews McMeel Publishing recently released "Pearls Seek Enlightenment," the 12th so-called "Treasury" (oversized paperback) of "Pearls Before Swine" strips, Pastis' visit is timed to the October release of "Looking Up," his latest illustrated chapter book targeted at what the publishing industry refers to as "middle grade" readers (primarily, ages 8 to 12).

Even so, "I really don't write for kids," said Pastis, whose previous children's books include the "Timmy Failure" and "Trubble Town" series. "I write for me."

Square peg, round hole

Published by Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and list-priced at $13.99, "Looking Up" is the story of a "square peg in a round world" girl who resists the modernization — the gentrification — of her small town, with its eccentric toy store and greasy hamburger stand. Aided by a mysterious neighbor boy, her pet turtle, and her vivid imagination, she stages a quixotic — in fact, she even dresses like a knight, Don Quixote-style — campaign motivated by an impossible desire: "I want to make time move backward."

Looking backward, "Pearls Before Swine" launched on Dec. 31, 2001, in the Washington Post, and then expanded into other newspapers a week later. In a decision that garnered a mixed reaction, The Commercial Appeal added the strip to its comics pages in 2007. ("That strip says, 'You must think I'm really stupid,'" groused one reader; "Finally, you have a great comic strip," cheered another.) Now syndicated by Kansas City, Missouri-based Andrews McMeel (formerly Universal Press), a company that also handles such milestone titles as "Peanuts," "Doonesbury" and "For Better or For Worse," "Pearls" appears in about 850 newspapers, making it the most widely distributed comic strip to be introduced in the 21st century.

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Set in a sort of unnamed Everytown similar to the one inhabited by the "Peanuts" gang, "Pearls" showcases a cast of talking, generally bipedal animals who interact with each other and various human beings — including Pastis himself, usually presented as the hapless butt of the joke. The animals include the innocent Pig, the acerbic Rat and the treacherous but inept Crocodile family. Although storylines may continue, "Pearls" is a so-called "gag-a-day" strip, meaning that each installment ends with a punch line.

As in "Dilbert," the drawing style is simple. "He has a clean style," said Reed Jackson, 44, acquisitions editor at Andrews McMeel. "Stephan can draw cute animals that are expressive without being necessarily well-drawn, shall we say…"

"If you took all 200 syndicated cartoonists and said, 'Draw a bicycle,' I would be in the bottom five," Pastis said. But, "I can draw what I need to draw." His colleagues agree: Pastis was the 2018 recipient of the industry's top honor, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year .

'Dream come true'

As the Osama bin Laden strips indicate, Pastis, from the start, was interested in playing with the traditional comic strip form by courting controversy, embracing surrealism, and having the animals acknowledge the unreality of their status as comic-strip characters. A favorite strategy is to have the "Pearls" characters interact with the befuddled protagonists of other comics (in one strip, Pastis tells the star of "Cathy" he can't date her because "You have no nose"). And yet the observations of the eternally optimistic Pig can be as upbeat as "Life is great!"

"Stephan can be very sarcastic and sort of mocking of life and culture, but he can also be very sincere and celebrate it," Jackson said. "He's not afraid to be corny and go for the 'feels' when he has to."

Pastis said he made sure Memphis was on his current tour, which will take him to 18 cities in October. He said he is "a crazy Elvis fan" who has been here "about five times" and who has visited Sun Studio, Graceland, Stax and Al Green's church. Pastis refers to Memphis, North Mississippi and Arkansas as "the genius cluster," because the states produced many of the great musicians you need to listen to "if you want to understand America."

Born and raised in Southern California, Pastis said he has wanted to be a "syndicated cartoonist" ever since he was a kid and read the term in a "Peanuts" anthology. But instead of pursuing that childhood ambition, he went to UCLA law school and spent 10 years as "a litigation lawyer" in San Francisco. "And I hated it."

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All the while he kept drawing, and when he finally sold "Pearls," "it was a dream come true. How many people do you know in your life, that the thing they dreamt of doing when they were 5, whether it was an astronaut or ballerina, is what they get to do?"

A recurring character in "Pearls Before Swine" is a guru donkey known as the Wise Ass on the Hill, and Pastis sounds somewhat Zen himself, at least when it comes to his work.

"Writing is like trying to pet a cat," he said. "If you're like, 'Come over here, cat, I want to pet you right now,' it's going to run from you. The way to pet a cat is to sit there calmly and let the cat come to you. You gotta relax, and then it comes to you."

'Pearls Before Swine' cartoonist Stephan Pastis in Memphis

Stephan Pastis will speak and sign copies of his new middle-grade chapter novel, "Looking Up."

6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at Novel bookstore, 387 Perkins Ext.

Line tickets are required to meet the author, and can be acquired with a purchase of the book.

For more information, visit novelmemphis.com .

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• Seward Park
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Stephan pastis presents 'looking up', from the new york times bestselling author of the timmy failure series comes a quirky and heartwarming middle-grade novel about a girl struggling with loneliness and the curveballs of life—featuring black and white illustrations throughout.

Please note: free registration is at capacity for this event! Please arrive early to ensure your seat.

Third Place Books welcomes  Timmy Failure  and  Pearls Before Swine  creator  Stephan Pastis  to our Lake Forest Park store! Pastis will be discussing his new illustrated chapter book, Looking Up . This event is free and open to the public.

For important updates, registration is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!

Having trouble accessing Eventbrite? Click here.

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for this in-person event

About Looking Up . .

Living alone with her mother in a poorer part of town, Saint—a girl drawn to medieval knights, lost causes, and the protection of birthday piñatas—sees the neighborhood she has always known and loved disappearing around her: old homes being torn down and replaced by fancy condos and coffee shops. But when her favorite creaky old toy store is demolished, she knows she must act. Enlisting the help of Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, a quiet, round-faced boy who lives across the street (and whose house also faces the wrecking ball), Saint hatches a plan to save what is left of her beloved hometown.

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pearls Before Swine , which appears in over 800 newspapers. He is also the creator of the Timmy Failure and Trubble Town book series and the cowriter of the Disney+ movie Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made . He lives in Northern California with his wife and two kids.

Want a signed edition of the featured book, but can't make it to the event?  Order through our website or over the phone, and write your request for a signature or personalization in the comments field at checkout. Please call the hosting store if you're placing your order within 24 hours of the event.

Third Place Books Events Code of Conduct: Third Place Books is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of event attendees and guest authors, during both online and in-store events. By registering for this event, you are agreeing to refrain from engaging in inappropriate behavior and harassment of any kind throughout the course of this event (i.e. racial slurs, profanity, hate speech, spam comments, etc.). Please note that any participants who engage in inappropriate behavior or harassment of any kind will be immediately ejected from the event.

For media inquiries, access inquiries, or questions about our Covid-19 policies, please email [email protected] or call our Lake Forest Park store at (206) 366-3311.

Looking Up (Hardcover)

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Paperback)

Things ‘Looking Up’ for ‘Pearls Before Swine’ author-illustrator Stephan Pastis

• Updated: Oct. 08, 2023, 9:13 a.m. |
• Published: Oct. 02, 2023, 3:16 p.m.

"Pearls Before Swine" comic artist Stephan Pastis, who has strong family ties to Northeast Ohio, will be back in the area on Sunday, October 15 for a book signing event at Barnes & Noble in Fairlawn. He will be celebrating the release of a recent “Pearls” treasury, along with a new book called “Looking Up,” geared toward middle-school-age readers. (Book cover courtesy of Simon and Schuster)

• Peter Chakerian, cleveland.com

There’s an old adage that goes, when “you’re casting pearls before swine,” you are wasting valuable wisdom on someone who can’t understand or appreciate what you are saying.

For former insurance defense attorney-turned-cartoonist Stephan Pastis, his gallows humor and a former “anxiety-inducing profession” should have — but never quite) — mixed. He always felt more at ease with the cartoon “Rat” he would doodle in margins of law school textbooks than he ever did clients.

When he stopped casting his own litigious pearls and started listening to parts of his personality that wanted to come out, the author-illustrator landed on “Pearls Before Swine,” the award-winning comic strip featuring anthropomorphic animals.

That led to another long-running illustrated children’s series called “Timmy Failure.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

“It’s more fun to make people laugh for a living,” Pastis told Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer from his home in Santa Rosa, California last week. Pastis’ syndicated creations Rat, Pig, Zebra, Goat and so on now offer their own pearls of wisdom to generations of comic strip fans across the country, including on cleveland.com and in The Plain Dealer.

“Whenever I write a book or ‘Pearls,’ my primary goal is to make people laugh,” he said. “When kids laugh, that’s the gateway drug to reading. I know that’s how [Charles Schulz’s] ‘Peanuts’ was for me. Writing something people can relate to is a great way to make a living.”

Pastis, who has strong family ties to Northeast Ohio, will be back in the area on Sunday, October 15 for a book signing event at Barnes & Noble in Fairlawn. He will be celebrating the release of a recent “Pearls” treasury, along with a new book called “Looking Up,” geared toward middle school-age readers.

The latter release finds Pastis tapping into parts of his psyche that bubbled up during the recent pandemic. He channels that energy into the book’s protagonist — a little girl named Saint who is battling loneliness. It’s a bit of a sweet, somber turn, but something Pastis was compelled to process so others could relate.

“Stuff happened in my own life during that time that informed the little girl protagonist,” he said. “It felt like a challenge to take on. I wanted it to be an homage to ‘Don Quixote,’ with her interest in medieval knights and her struggle being borderline delusional about trying to turn back time.”

The protagonist, he said, is dealing with a lot: no siblings, a single mom who is struggling to get out of a financial hole, the neighborhood around them gentrifying and “all friends she knows start to disappear.”

It’s a more sympathetic character than Pastis has written in the past; most of the “Pearls” crew lean toward satire and black comedy rather than heartstring territory. He hopes readers will be rooting for her.

“You really want her to succeed in what she’s doing,” he said. “A sense of sympathy engenders that. I like characters like that, who are immersed in a monumental struggle. That personally appeals to me.”

Author-illustrator Stephan Pastis will appear at Barnes & Noble in Fairlawn on Sunday, October 15.

Pastis calls the West cCast home, but he is quick to note that “my huge Greek family came through Ellis Island to the Cleveland/Akron area before heading west.” His parents grew up in Cleveland during the 1930s. Pastis didn’t set foot here until 1979 on a summer visit to his cousins’ place in Rocky River.

“I had finished my little league baseball season and was telling my coach ‘Mr. Drellishak’ that we were heading to visit the area,” Pastis said. “Coach told me his family was from that area as well. Quite a coincidence, right? So, fast-forward —I ’m in my cousin’s backyard, we’re playing ball in his backyard and at one point, the ball soars over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard.”

“Pearls Before Swine,” an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis, started on December 31, 2001. It is distributed by United Media and now appears in more than 750 newspapers worldwide, including The Plain Dealer

Not used to fences separating yards back home in California, Pastis asked his cousin if there would be any trouble going over to the neighbors to retrieve the ball.

His cousin replied, “‘I’m sure that Mr. Drellishak wouldn’t mind.’”

So, the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game has nothing on Planet Cleveland — where you’re never more than two or three people removed from knowing someone? Pastis couldn’t help but agree.

“Right? Coach’s family were my cousin’s next-door neighbors!” he said. “That’s crazy, like 300-million-to-1 odds. That still blows my mind to this day, wildest coincidence in my entire life.”

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Pearls Before Swine comic strip creator with Akron ties coming to Fairlawn to promote teen book

The creator and mind behind the Pearls Before Swine comic strip is coming to Greater Akron.

Stephan Pastis will be at the Barnes and Noble on state Route 18 in Fairlawn at noon on Oct. 15.

The appearance will mark the Oct. 10 release of his new graphic novel geared toward middle school readers "Looking Up" that is about a girl struggling with loneliness.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Pastis as he has family roots in Akron.

His father grew up in Akron in the 1930s and was a Beacon Journal delivery boy as a kid. And his grandfather owned a pool hall in the city during the Great Depression.

Entertainment | ‘Pearls Before Swine’ comics creator Stephan…

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Entertainment | el camino real reopened after officials determine suspicious package is not a threat, entertainment, subscriber only, entertainment | ‘pearls before swine’ comics creator stephan pastis doesn’t mean to be prophetic …, the author gets into his new kid’s book, his love of travel and, uh, the january 6 riots..

The moment came in a “Pearls” strip when Rat, a character who’s become president of the United States, is overthrown in a coup staged by a pith helmet-wearing duck. Pastis wrote this plot in 2020 but, due to advanced scheduling, they were slated to run right after the Trump-fueled D.C. riots.

“If you do a strip about a plane crash, it’s always a risk because you never know what’s going to happen in the news when the strip comes out much later,” Pastis says. “But when you do a strip about an attempted coup in the federal government — you NEVER think that’s going to happen. That was so strange and unexpected.”

The syndicate wound up temporarily pulling the strips. But you can find them in Pastis’ newest comics compendium, “Pearls Seeks Enlightenment,” where they fit right in with the artist’s blend of political commentary and railings against American stupidity (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $19.99). The book is actually Pastis’ second of the year. He also put out “Looking Up,” an illustrated children’s novel about a girl fighting gentrification and latte-sipping hipsters to save her neighborhood (Simon & Schuster, $13.99).

Pastis is gearing up for a 19-city book tour across America — he’s appearing at Danville’s Rakestraw Books at 6 p.m. on Oct. 9 — but found the time to speak from his Santa Rosa home about his busy year, his Jack Reacher-esque travel ethic and his eerie knack for prophesy.

Q: This book tour is a little different in that you’re appearing at a lot of schools. Are kids a harsh audience?

A: Nah, they’re great. For grade-school children, when you draw in front of them it’s like you’re doing magic. The character appears and you’ll hear “Ooh! Aah!” like I pulled a rabbit out of my hat. You forget how impressionable kids are at that age. Now I think once you’re in high school, that’s all gone. So if you do a kid’s book, don’t go to high schools.

Then of course they’re so blunt in their questions. Sometimes it’s easy, like, “Do you have a dog?” But my favorite one, which gets thrown out at least once a city, is, “How much money do you make?” I always say, “Enough that I can be on the road and travel and meet all of you.”

Q: Nineteen cities is a lot. But it seems like you enjoy traveling?

A: I read a ton of travel books. I think I’ve read every Paul Theroux book, and Bill Bryson, and I’m a big Anthony Bourdain addict. I think when you drop yourself into a new city, particularly if it’s in a new country — like I was just in Cambodia — you’re very alive, because the input is constant and the unknown is exciting. All of that goes into an adrenaline high, which I live for. I think for anyone creative, if you’re not experiencing new things your work is probably going to go stale.

Q: The new “Pearls” treasury includes your travel photos, like the Sod House Museum in Oklahoma. Is there a rhyme or reason to where you go?

A: I tell you exactly what I do. I’ve divided up the country into 14 zones. I pick one of those zones and put hundreds of pins into Google Maps, then plan out how many days it would take me to see all those things. It’s not always obvious things, but odd places like where a president has died, or Three Mile Island, or where Jesse James pulled off the first train robbery, or the Field of Dreams in Iowa.

This serves two purposes: One, I love seeing that stuff. And two, I know I’m going to write about it. I actually have a travel book I’m working on, already have 400 pages written. It’s almost like a David Sedaris book — if I could be half as funny as him, it’d be great.

Q: What inspired your new kid’s novel, “Looking Up”?

A: I’d never written a book about a little girl. and I always wanted to try that. I had this girl who absolutely loved this toy store she goes to, and it gets torn down because the neighborhood is changing and gentrifying and it just crushes her. I liked that. There’s something in there that’s a little bit Don Quixote — she’s tilting at windmills and trying to save her neighborhood, but she’s a little kid so it’s going to be hard.

Q: Is gentrification a big concern of yours?

A: I spend more time in New Orleans than anywhere else except home, and it’s a real problem there. The Airbnbs come into a neighborhood, they’re successful, so investors come in buy up more properties and rent them. Before long you realize you’ve lost what’s special about the city. You’ve lost the person who’s the trumpeter in the band, or the person who marches in the Mardi Gras parades, or the great cook at the restaurant you like.

Q: This is a children’s book. To what extent have your own kids influenced your work?

A: A lot, especially when they were younger. They were always the first people I showed stuff to. I would — boy, they found this annoying, and for good reason — watch when they read it, so I could see when they’d laugh or didn’t laugh. I’d ask why or why not and, based on their responses, would often tweak the book.

Q: Do they demand royalties for their childhood input?

A: Effectively they’re getting it — my support of them. So, yes.

Q: Aside from an attempted coup, is there anything else you’ve recently predicted?

A: In “Pearls,” at the very end of 2019 I had Baby New Year — you know, the little baby with the sash and top hat — coming up to Pig at the front door and saying, “New Year.” Pig says, “I think the expression is, “Happy New Year.” And the little baby says, “Yeah, but I can see what’s coming next year,” and drinks so much he passes out. Then of course the pandemic hits. That was a strange one — sometimes it just happens.

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Pearls Seeks Enlightenment: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury Paperback – June 6, 2023

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 264 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Publication date June 6, 2023
• Reading age 13 years and up
• Dimensions 8.5 x 0.7 x 11 inches
• ISBN-10 152487924X
• ISBN-13 978-1524879242
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Andrews McMeel Publishing (June 6, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 152487924X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1524879242
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.7 x 11 inches
• #24 in Graphic Novel Anthologies (Books)
• #57 in Comic Strips (Books)
• #433 in Fiction Satire

About the author

Stephan pastis.

Stephan Pastis took an unusual route to becoming a number-one best-selling comics creator: he went to law school. It's not that he didn't want to become a cartoonist - as a child growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino, he spent many happy hours off by himself drawing. He was routinely called on to create cartoons for his school newspapers. But by the time he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in political science, Pastis - a completely self-taught artist - felt it unlikely that his cartoons would ever be syndicated.

So he found himself sitting in class at UCLA Law School, hopelessly bored, sketching the character Rat (who would later become a mainstay of all his future comic strips). Creative inspiration followed him through graduation in 1993 to his first law firm job in San Francisco, where by 1996 he finally started submitting his comics to syndicates. Persisting through an initial spate of rejections, Stephan Pastis created his signature strip Pearls Before Swine, chronicling his worldview through the misadventures of arrogant Rat, dumb-but-sweet Pig, philosophical Goat, along with a brood of other anthropomorphized animals and many, many puns. The strip was eventually syndicated in 1999 and can now be read in over 800 newspapers, dozens of book collections, and on GoComics.com. Several of the collections have appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers list.

In 2013, inspired to break out of the box of a daily comic strip, Pastis took on the new challenge of becoming a children's author, penning the first book in a projected middle grade series called Timmy Failure, about an inept kid detective and his sidekick polar bear. Fail it did not; receiving stellar reviews and becoming an instant New York Times and National Indie bestseller. Now published in nearly 40 languages worldwide, Pastis' defective detective has become a breakout children's book character.

https://www.facebook.com/PearlsComic

https://twitter.com/stephanpastis

https://www.instagram.com/stephanpastis

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‘Pearls Before Swine’ comics creator branches out with new children’s novel

Stephan Pastis talks about his eerie comic prophecies of the pandemic and the Jan. 6 riot, and his passion for sightseeing his way across America

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Stephan Pastis is a lot of things — creator of the comic “Pearls Before Swine,” New York Times bestselling author, Disney movie writer — but one thing he probably never expected to be was a guy who predicted January 6.

The moment came in a “Pearls” strip when Rat, a character who’s become president of the United States, is overthrown in a coup staged by a pith helmet-wearing duck. Pastis wrote this plot in 2020 but, due to advanced scheduling, they were slated to run right after the Trump-fueled D.C. riots.

“If you do a strip about a plane crash, it’s always a risk because you never know what’s going to happen in the news when the strip comes out much later,” Pastis says. “But when you do a strip about an attempted coup in the federal government — you NEVER think that’s going to happen. That was so strange and unexpected.”

The syndicate wound up temporarily pulling the strips. But you can find them in Pastis’ newest comics compendium, “Pearls Seeks Enlightenment,” where they fit right in with the artist’s blend of political commentary and railings against American stupidity. The book is actually Pastis’ second of the year. He also put out “Looking Up,” an illustrated children’s novel about a girl fighting gentrification and latte-sipping hipsters to save her neighborhood.

Pastis in the midst of a 19-city book tour across America — he’ll appear Friday night at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego — but he found the time to speak from his Santa Rosa home about his busy year, his Jack Reacher-esque travel ethic and his eerie knack for prophecy.

Q: This book tour is a little different in that you’re appearing at a lot of schools. Are kids a harsh audience?

A: Nah, they’re great. For grade-school children, when you draw in front of them it’s like you’re doing magic. The character appears and you’ll hear “Ooh! Aah!” like I pulled a rabbit out of my hat. You forget how impressionable kids are at that age. Now I think once you’re in high school, that’s all gone. So if you do a kid’s book, don’t go to high schools. Then of course they’re so blunt in their questions. Sometimes it’s easy, like, “Do you have a dog?” But my favorite one, which gets thrown out at least once a city, is, “How much money do you make?” I always say, “Enough that I can be on the road and travel and meet all of you.”

Q: Nineteen cities is a lot. But it seems like you enjoy traveling?

A: I read a ton of travel books. I think I’ve read every Paul Theroux book, and Bill Bryson, and I’m a big Anthony Bourdain addict. I think when you drop yourself into a new city, particularly if it’s in a new country — like I was just in Cambodia — you’re very alive, because the input is constant and the unknown is exciting. All of that goes into an adrenaline high, which I live for. I think for anyone creative, if you’re not experiencing new things your work is probably going to go stale.

Q: The new “Pearls” treasury includes your travel photos, like the Sod House Museum in Oklahoma. Is there a rhyme or reason to where you go?

A: I tell you exactly what I do. I’ve divided up the country into 14 zones. I pick one of those zones and put hundreds of pins into Google Maps, then plan out how many days it would take me to see all those things. It’s not always obvious things, but odd places like where a president has died, or Three Mile Island, or where Jesse James pulled off the first train robbery, or the Field of Dreams in Iowa. This serves two purposes: One, I love seeing that stuff. And two, I know I’m going to write about it. I actually have a travel book I’m working on, already have 400 pages written. It’s almost like a David Sedaris book — if I could be half as funny as him, it’d be great.

Q: What inspired your new kid’s novel, “Looking Up”?

A: I’d never written a book about a little girl. and I always wanted to try that. I had this girl who absolutely loved this toy store she goes to, and it gets torn down because the neighborhood is changing and gentrifying and it just crushes her. I liked that. There’s something in there that’s a little bit Don Quixote — she’s tilting at windmills and trying to save her neighborhood, but she’s a little kid so it’s going to be hard.

Q: Is gentrification a big concern of yours?

A: I spend more time in New Orleans than anywhere else except home, and it’s a real problem there. The Airbnbs come into a neighborhood, they’re successful, so investors come in buy up more properties and rent them. Before long you realize you’ve lost what’s special about the city. You’ve lost the person who’s the trumpeter in the band, or the person who marches in the Mardi Gras parades, or the great cook at the restaurant you like.

Q: This is a children’s book. To what extent have your own kids influenced your work?

A: A lot, especially when they were younger. They were always the first people I showed stuff to. I would — boy, they found this annoying, and for good reason — watch when they read it, so I could see when they’d laugh or didn’t laugh. I’d ask why or why not and, based on their responses, would often tweak the book.

Q: Do they demand royalties for their childhood input?

A: Effectively they’re getting it — my support of them. So, yes.

Q: Aside from an attempted coup, is there anything else you’ve recently predicted?

A: In “Pearls,” at the very end of 2019 I had Baby New Year — you know, the little baby with the sash and top hat — coming up to Pig at the front door and saying, “New Year.” Pig says, “I think the expression is, “Happy New Year.” And the little baby says, “Yeah, but I can see what’s coming next year,” and drinks so much he passes out. Then of course the pandemic hits. That was a strange one — sometimes it just happens.

“Looking Up” by Stephan Pastis (Simon & Schuster, 2023; 240 pages)

Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore presents Stephan Pastis

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: 3555 Rosecrans St., Suite 107, San Diego

Admission: Free but reservations are required

Online: mystgalaxy.com

Metcalfe writes for the Bay Area News Group.

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Pearls Before Swine

Pearls before swine by stephan pastis for october 24, 2023, october 23, 2023.

October 25, 2023

156 comments, featured comment.

BasilBruce   8 months ago

Is Mrs. Pastis getting a cut?

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