Pearls Before Swine (comic strip)

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Pearls Before Swine
Author(s)	Stephan Pastis
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	December 30, 2001 (Orlando Sentinel) December 31, 2001 (The Washington Post) January 7, 2002
Syndicate(s)	United Feature Syndicate
Publisher(s)	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)	Humor

Pearls Before Swine is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis, formerly a lawyer in San Francisco, California. It is Pastis' fifth attempt to syndicate a comic strip, the first four including Rat, The Infirm, and Bradbury Road. It chronicles the daily lives of four anthropomorphic animals, Pig, Rat, Zebra, and Goat. Although created in 1997, it was not published until 2000, when United Feature Syndicate ran it on its website. Its popularity rose after Dilbert creator Scott Adams, a fan of the strip, spread the word to his own fans.^[1]

United Feature launched the strip in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001, in The Washington Post.^[2] On January 7, 2002, it began running in approximately 150 papers.^[3] As of early 2007, the strip appears in more than 400 newspapers worldwide.^[4]

Contents 1 The Beginning of 'Pearls' 2 Influences 3 Main characters 3.1 Rat 3.2 Pig 3.3 Zebra 3.4 Goat 3.5 Guard Duck 3.6 The Fraternity of Crocodiles 3.6.1 Larry, Patty and Billy 4 Recurring characters 5 Setting 6 Meaning of the title 7 Style 8 Other media 9 Technical aspects 10 Books 11 Awards 12 Footnotes 13 References 14 External links

[edit] The Beginning of 'Pearls'

Prior to his work as a comic strip writer, Stephan Pastis, creator of "Pearls before Swine", worked as a lawyer in California.^[5] As noted in the first treasury book, the beginning of "Pearls Before Swine" was not the first strip, but the creation of the non-syndicated comic "Rat." Pastis created "Rat" in his law school days. He tried to get the comic syndicated but failed. He then took the character "Rat" and put him in "Pearls." He also created another strip known as "The Infirm" about a struggling lawyer. He attempted to have that comic strip syndicated but it was rejected by the syndicates. There was a pig character in "The Infirm" which he took and put in the strip "Pearls Before Swine".

In 1999 he submitted "Pearls before Swine" to syndicates. Several syndicates expressed interest in the strip, but could not convince their sales staff that it was marketable. However, Amy Lago, an editor at United Media, expressed interest in the strip and launched it on the United Media website in November 2000 to see what kind of response it would generate. 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.^[5]

According to Pastis, "Pearls" was supposed to launch on January 7, 2002. However, The Washington Post had bought the strip and needed strips for a week before. Therefore, Pastis drew a week of strips strictly for Post readers (in addition to a Sunday strip he drew for the Orlando Sentinel which later ran again on December 22, 2002), and the strip's unofficial start date was December 30, 2001.

[edit] Influences

Stephan Pastis says Pearls is influenced by Peanuts, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, The Far Side and many others. His three favorite comics growing up were Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and The Far Side, saying he liked The Far Side best.^[6] He also states in his first treasury collection, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, that he studied Dilbert to learn how to write comics.^[7]

[edit] Main characters

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[edit] Rat

Rat (debut: December 30, 2001) is a megalomaniacal rat, and is an anti-hero. He is frequently critical of the 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. Rat lives with Pig in a house somewhere in Albany, California.

Rat is an insensitive character in the strip, whose interactions with others are typically sarcastic, condescending, selfish, insulting and sometimes violent. Rat frequently breaks the fourth wall to berate his creator on his joke writing, artwork, or the general content of the strip itself. Rat's favorite phrase when breaking the fourth wall is "Have some pride." and is always directed at his creator, Pastis. Rat is the author of four book series; The Adventures of Angry Bob and Killing Zeebas for Dummies: A Step-by-Step Guide, and for children: Elly the Elephant and Danny Donkey (see below), and writes the comic Dickie the Cockroach You Love To Love.

[edit] Pig

Naïve Pig (debut: December 30, 2001) is childlike and dim, but also well-meaning and kind, all of which leads to constant ridicule by his housemate Rat. Pig's jokes generally involve his incompetence and not knowing his true surroundings. Pig has a short-tempered girlfriend named Pigita. Pastis says that Pig is the easiest character to write for: "He just has to misunderstand everything that he hears, then when it's explained to him, he has to misunderstand that too." Pig has a habit of talking to inanimate objects such as food, stop lights, bait, and various other things (although since in the "Pearls" universe the objects talk back, this is not as odd as it might otherwise be). His dimness is often exhibited in the strip. For instance, he once went to a Halloween party as a hostage and could not see, causing him to fail miserably at charades. 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. He also likes to walk on panels and out of the comic strip. He is good friends with Guard Duck.

[edit] Zebra

Zebra (debut: February 4, 2002), also known as "zeeba neighba" (zebra neighbor) by the comically stupid 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 and hyenas. His troubles include various encounters with the Fraternity of Crocodiles. He also serves as a less-irritable version of Goat, and is also the only character Goat can put up with.

Because Stephan Pastis was once unable to draw lions, these particular predators were not shown in the strip until May 31, 2007,^[8] when two were shown moving next door to Zebra, on the opposite side from the crocodiles. They are the second-most mentioned predators, behind 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 establish a friendship between their species. Instead, the lions' replies are always terse and stupid responses, often featuring them taking his advice the wrong way by eating a zebra. The lions remain the only predators capable of instilling fear in Zebra; the crocodiles just induce frustration because of their complete incompetence. 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. The lions tend to speak like surfers, constantly calling Zebra "dude".

Hyenas are the third type of predator that plague Zebra's herd. Before 2008, they had only appeared in the strip twice: once, a series in which Zebra was an online advice columnist for other zebras; the second appearance was a single Sunday strip in September 2007 as new neighbors of Zebra. Starting on February 25, 2008,^[9] a strip was published featuring the hyenas as operators of a funeral home, in which they eat those they are supposed to bury.

One time, Larry sent a cat to Zebra, but in the first years, the cat, which was named Snuffles, was harmless to Zebra. However, in early winter 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 treasury Pearls Sells Out, Pastis explains that Zebra has three neighbors: The Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity house, Larry the Croc and his family, and the Lions' house. 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.

[edit] Goat

An intellectual goat who interacts sparingly with the other characters, Goat (debut: January 6, 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. He is smart and knows how to solve problems well.

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, and usually start talking about something else, like 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). Goat's real name is revealed as Paris in the September 21, 2007 strip, claiming "Goat" is his stage name.

[edit] Guard Duck

The Guard Duck is, as his name implies, the "guard duck" for Pig and Rat's home, and still lives with them despite often taking on different occupations. 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 because a proper Guard Dog was too expensive. Pig's neighbors frequently laugh at the Guard Duck, but the neighbors usually then get beat up or blown up by various types of weaponry. He often suggests militaristic solutions for neighborhood problems, often getting him locked in a clothes hamper by Pig.

Originally, Guard Duck was nothing but 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 his most recent "mission" that he was given, he teamed up with Zebra's cat Snuffles to invade Cuba, but mistakenly invades Jamaica. He is also a member of the Order of Panelwalkers and taught Pig how to do panelwalking.

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, Zebra, Goat, and the crocs).^[10]

[edit] The Fraternity of Crocodiles

The Fraternity of Crocodiles are the main antagonists and villains of the strip, and while they are indeed on very poor terms with all five main characters (with the possible exception of Rat), they are usually involved in various attempts to kill and eat Zebra, all of which fail because of their stupidity. 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).

The male crocodiles often speak in broken English or improper grammar. (The "language" would later be called "Croc-ese" by Pastis in a February 2009 strip.) When talking, they often say words in the phonetical style, such as "goowoo" (guru), "nome" (gnome), "keel" (kill), "eediot" (idiot), "gud" (good), "juss" (just), and "stoopid" (stupid). They also say "me" instead of "I', refer to themselves as "crockydiles", and omit the linking verbs. The Fraternity also writes this way (i.e., a valentine sent to Zebra reading "Hapy valeentine day, zeeba neighba! Me keel yu ded, Me eet yu hed"). They also speak in an unusual font: their dialogue is shown in crude, lower-cased letters (sometimes shown in capitals when they yell, scream or talk loudly) which is also used for the lions, toy vikings and the Killer Whale, although they spoke normally. They often begin with their catch phrase "Hullooo, zeeba neighba! Leesten...". On one occasion, a croc tried to explain their accent, only to be foiled by Pastis's liquid paper. One of these crocs is Larry's young son Billy, who despite his father's idiocies is actually quite intelligent. The female crocodiles, Billy, and various "Smart Guy" crocodiles speak normally.

It should be noted that Billy actually thinks that killing wildlife is immoral and decided to become a vegitarian

The crocodiles are dimwitted and terrible predators (they believe they are hunting prey when they catch plastic flamingos, garden gnomes, or carved "tofu cows") who usually need to go to the Safeway supermarket or order fast food (one ordered pizza every night for seven straight weeks; at least one croc has resorted to cannibalism). Larry has been known to buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, often crossing out the brand logo and writing "fres zeeba meet" to (unsuccessfully) fool his wife. They often come up with hairbrained plans to lure Zebra into their house, including toga parties, swimming, and attempts to get into his house (one croc posed as a cable guy). Rat has often taken advantage of their incompetence (Including by selling them tomato seeds that he claims will produce Zebras). Their inability to catch prey is looked upon with shame by other crocodiles, especially their wives, girlfriends, and mothers. The main crocodile in the strip is "Larry". Other crocs include Bill, Bob, Floyd, Rick, Jerry, Willie, Jojo, Jimmy, Ted, Frank, Jerry, and Vern. Larry usually works with Bob or another crocodile. Larry is known as the Zebra's arch nemesis.

At least two of the crocs have girlfriends or are married (not to be confused with Larry's family); one croc had two children who were accidentally eaten by his wife, Debbie, after he slapped her on the back (she had opened her mouth to show Zebra that crocodiles hide their young in their mouths to hide them from other predators; Larry remarked that "Is okay. We make more").

In September 2007, the crocs finally did catch Zebra; Jeffy from (The Family Circus) jumped into the crocs swamp, thinking it was a swimming pool, Zebra jumped in to save him, and the crocs got them both. Jeffy persuaded the crocs to release him (Zebra commented "I always liked Billy better") and Duck scared the crocs away with a rocket launcher.

A recurring gag is the crocs' tendency to die, usually due to their own ineptitude; they have been shot, blown up, eaten, stabbed with a speargun, drowned, covered in cement, suffocated, shredded, had a heart attack, and killed in some way by other characters; often, it is a result of their own attempts to kill Zebra. Regarding how they always come back, it is unclear if they are many crocs with the same names, or come back to life a la Kenny McCormick.

While Pastis had depicted various crocodiles in the strip as early as February 2002, these crocs were relatively competent and spoke normal English in a normal typeface. "Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eeta" (to quote the title of Pastis' fifth book) were not introduced until January 3, 2005; they have since become the collective fifth "main character" of the strip.

[edit] Larry, Patty and Billy

Larry (born February 9, 1969), his beehive-sporting wife Patty, and son Billy (also called "Junior"), are the most-frequently-depicted family of crocodiles in the strip. The family house neighbors that of Zebra, and, although Zebra's home is also neighbored, on another side, by the Zeeba Zeeba Eata house, they have little relation to the fraternity. Larry is, however, sometimes involved with the Zeeba Zeeba Eata's schemes to kill Zebra (several strips prior to Patty and Billy's existence portrayed ZZE members named "Larry").

Patty and Billy are far more intelligent than Larry, and Billy is a pacifist and a vegetarian. Billy, (named "Junior" at first) a studious young crocodile who is often frustrated by his father's stupidity, though he still loves him, similar to the relationship between Warner Bros. character Sylvester the Cat and his son, Sylvester Jr.. As if his son being a vegetarian wasn't enough, Billy has also been shown dating Zebra's niece, a Floridian named Joy, after Pastis' grandmother, at one point even eloping with her and hiding out at Zebra's house.

Billy also tries to bring the Zebra and Crocodile families together from time to time. In one christmas series, Billy, wanting to be with his girlfriend, ran away. He agreed to come back only when Patty and Larry said they would invite the Zebra family over for Christmas. At this point, Patty, who had previously found the idea appalling, caves in and tries to be a good hostess. Larry, however, is not so accepting, and the series ends with him biting off the Zebra uncle's leg.

It is unclear what Billy's age is. His vocabulary and the fact that he has entered a romantic relationship indicates that he would be at least a pre-teen. However, he also likes it when Larry reads him nursery rhymes before bedtime, a characteristic that is identified with younger kids.

Larry made a cameo in the webcomic Kevin and Kell on July 31st 2006 where he tried to apply for a job at Herd Thinners.

[edit] Recurring characters

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• Stephan Pastis (debut: June 1, 2003) — Pastis appears self-reflexively in many strips as the cartoonist of the strip, usually exhibiting ambiguous feelings toward his characters (and an exasperation with Rat in particular, who gives it back to Pastis in return especially when things don't go his way). On one occasion, Rat had him briefly change the name of the strip to "Worship The Rat". He is often seen smoking, although Pastis has mentioned in his books that he does not smoke and has no idea why he drew himself that way to begin with (though Rat and Guard Duck are often featured smoking as well). In The Crass Menagerie he says that he's gotten criticism for his smoking, as people seem to believe he's glamorizing smoking (Pastis claims he's doing the exact opposite). On the week of July 7, 2008, the cartoon Pastis announced that he would be killing off one of Pearls's characters in order to "stay competitive" with other strips. That Wednesday (July 9), the cartoon Pastis was found dead, though not permanently. He is once again an occasional character in the strip.
• Pigita (debut: August 19, 2002) — Pig's on-and-off girlfriend, known for her wild mood swings. According to the strip published on September 6, 2007, Pig and Pigita have been together for seven years.
• Farina (debut: August 19, 2002) — Pig's germophobic sister who lives in a bubble, although that doesn't prevent her from dating characters from many comic strips. After her debut, Pastis removed her from the strip for two years, and when he brought her back he had to do a complete reintroduction (from Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My!). In "Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic", Pastis said that part of the reason why he doesn't draw her as often is because she is the only character who requires a drafting compass to draw and he usually cuts himself using it.^[11]
• Snuffles the Cat: Zebra's cat, accidentally given to him by the crocs, who occupies his time committing crimes and running scams.
• Angry Bob and Danny Donkey (debuts 2002 and 2006, respectively): Rat's two main fictional characters in his writings. In "The Adventures of Angry Bob", Angry Bob always starts out angry and decides on a particular reason, then goes to do something about it. Angry Bob always finds some level of success in becoming happy, only to meet a horrible death at the end of nearly every story. Danny Donkey is a children's book character with an amazingly twisted moral compass and a hatred of most every person on Earth. He is a passionate kleptomaniac and loves cigarettes and beer.
• Max and Zach: Zebra's other neighbors are laid-back, surfer type lions. They do not hunt; their wives (lionesses) hunt for them. However, they have said and shown themselves several times in the comics to be competent hunters when the situation requires them to be, resulting in bitter jealousy from the crocodiles. They are on friendly terms with Zebra, often warning him away from their wives.
• The Hyenas: A pair of hyenas who, along with the lions and crocs, are frequently trying to eat Zebra; however, theirs is more a scavenger nature. Two Hyenas, both named Hy, have tried to get food via a funeral home.
• Andy: A dog who makes big plans for his life only to have them dashed by the fact he is tied to a pole in his backyard. In the treasury 'Pearls Sells Out', Pastis mentioned that whenever he shows Andy, animal-rights supporters complain because they feel it is cruel for a dog to be tied to a post in the backyard.
• Vikings: Pig has miniature viking figurines that write in their diaries and do other non-manly things. Rat is often seen putting on WWE or singing violent songs etc. to make them try and become more like vikings.
• Coffee Shop manager: Rat works at a coffee shop at which the manager yells at him for being rude to the customers, yet they cannot fire him due to a corporate diversity policy. In one strip Rat creates clones of himself that turn out to be kind and caring so he gives them to Larry the croc. Larry then gives them to the coffee shop, allowing them to fire Rat.

[edit] Setting

The strip is set in a fictional suburb within or around Albany, California, where Pastis currently lives (at least two strips have stated that the characters live in "Albany"). Every house appears to have siding on it. There is one brick wall, a beach, and the street which is usually littered with the same soda/beer can

The continuity of the strip is very loose, and Pastis even says that "sometimes characters get jobs once, and you never hear about it again." Many storylines are left with open endings, and sometimes continuity leaps are made, especially when characters die (he says they "un-die", a word which has been added to the dictionary due to Pastis creating it). Usually, relationships between characters are left unaltered. (Farina, who appears infrequently for long periods of time, has a relationship with Rat that usually picks up where it left off.)

[edit] Meaning of the title

The title Pearls Before Swine refers to the admonition "Neither cast ye your pearls before swine" that Jesus gave to Peter according to Matthew 7:6 in the Bible. According to Pastis, Rat, who considers himself a genius, casts his "pearls" of wisdom before Pig ("swine"), who is the only one naive enough to seriously listen.

[edit] Style

Artistically, Pearls is extremely simplistic. Most of the characters have either mouths represented by lines or no mouths at all, dot eyes, and stick limbs; those shown with lips are generally big and puffy in this area, and the lips are merely a visual cue that they are unintelligent or ignorant. However, characters do have mouths when yelling (similar to Dilbert), or in the crocodiles' case, open their mouths when yelling. 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."^[12]

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, which they often do. Pastis will often use the Shaggy dog story and use a great amount of dialogue to spin an elaborate yarn often resolved with a character's unforseen death or nearing towards death or an (often intentionally bad) pun, for which the cartoon version of Pastis will be the target of criticism, hostility, and even physical violence from the characters, usually Rat (Rat once accused Pastis of single-handedly causing the failing status of the newspaper industry). 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 a "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. Other comic strips are often the butt of punchlines, and several cartoon characters from outside Pearls have appeared, most frequently the main cast of The Family Circus. The presence of the characters often affects the goings-on in the other strips, either directly (through their presence) or indirectly through setting or dialogue,such as when Rat replaced the words of a Family Circus comic with a quote from Benito Mussolini.

Pearls is notorious for its large amount of dark humor; topics such as death, politics, depression, and human suffering overall are common themes, and Pastis has recalled receiving hate mail and occasionally death threats from people who have been offended by his strips; two strips that portrayed a llama United Nations diplomat named "Ataturk" who spits on other diplomats prompted a letter to then-Pres. Bush from the Turkish Ambassador to the United States demanding an apology. Pastis has mentioned in his treasuries that the cartoonists whom he mocks (a trademark characteristic of Pearls) often take the insults in good humor, even occasionally asking for an original strip.

[edit] 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.,^[13] 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.^[14]

[edit] Technical aspects

Cartoonist Darby Conley, creator of Get Fuzzy, helped teach Pastis the technical aspects of cartooning.^[15] The two remain friends, sometimes poking fun at each other in their strips.

[edit] Books

[edit] Awards

• National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2002 - Nominee
• National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 - Nominee
• National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2004 - Winner
• National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2007 - Winner

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• St. Petersburg [Florida] Times (December 13, 2005): "Exactly What Ees that Zeeba-Eating Accent?", by Chase Squires
• "Forum Interview with Stephan Pastis, Creator of Pearls Before Swine" (Summer 2004)

[edit] External links

• Pearls Before Swine site