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An intellectual [[goat]] who interacts sparingly with the other characters. Goat 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 to others (and occasional ignorance). Goat also has a [[blog]], which receives no hits as Rat likes to point out.
An intellectual [[goat]] who interacts sparingly with the other characters. Goat 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 to others (and occasional ignorance). Goat also has a [[blog]], which receives no hits as Rat likes to point out.


====The Fraternity of Crocodiles (first appeared [[3 January]] [[2005]])====
====[[The Fraternity of Crocodiles]] (first appeared [[3 January]] [[2005]])====
Crocodiles who are usually involved in various (failed) attempts to eat Zebra. Their fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "[[Zeta (letter)|Zeta]], Zeta, [[Epsilon (letter)|Epsilon]]"). The crocodiles are dimwitted and poor hunters (they believe they are hunting prey when they catch plastic flamingos or garden gnomes) who usually need to go to [[Safeway]] or order fast food to eat. At least two have girlfriends or are married, and at least one has a son, Billy. (Billy tends to be more of a pacifist than his father, similar to the relationship between [[Sylvester the Cat]] and [[Sylvester Junior]].)
Crocodiles who are usually involved in various (failed) attempts to eat Zebra. Their fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "[[Zeta (letter)|Zeta]], Zeta, [[Epsilon (letter)|Epsilon]]"). The crocodiles are dimwitted and poor hunters (they believe they are hunting prey when they catch plastic flamingos or garden gnomes) who usually need to go to [[Safeway]] or order fast food to eat. At least two have girlfriends or are married, and at least one has a son, Billy. (Billy tends to be more of a pacifist than his father, similar to the relationship between [[Sylvester the Cat]] and [[Sylvester Junior]].)


Revision as of 21:26, 24 October 2006

Pearls Before Swine
File:Pearlstitle.jpg
Title panel for Pearls Before Swine Sunday strips. From top to bottom: Rat, Zebra, Pig, Goat.
Author(s)Stephan Pastis
Current status/scheduleRunning
Launch dateDecember 30, 2001 (on Orlando Sentinel)
December 31, 2001 (on The Washington Post)
January 7, 2002
Syndicate(s)United Features Syndicate
Genre(s)Humor


Pearls Before Swine is a comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis, formerly an unhappy lawyer in San Francisco. It chronicles the daily lives of two anthropomorphic roommates, Pig and Rat. Although created in 1997, it was not published until 1999, when United Features 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.

Another cartoonist also assisted Pastis in moulding his comic strip; Darby Conley (creator of Get Fuzzy) helped him with the technical aspects of cartooning and the two remain friends, sometimes poking fun at each other in their strips. The strip became popular enough to be launched in newspapers (beginning December 31, 2001, in the Washington Post, and on January 7, 2002, in about 150+ papers). As of 2004, the strip appears in more than 150 newspapers worldwide.

Style

File:Pearls Before Swine excerpt.png
Pig and Rat in Pearls Before Swine

Pearls Before Swine is controversial, largely due to its dark humor. Despite the simple drawing style, topics such as politics, murder, suicide, depression, and racist/ethnic stereotyping are not uncommon themes. The jokes themselves, however, are largely based on puns and wordplay, often allowing the totally absurd to play out slowly in order to bluntly draw a humorous final image or punch line. In this way, Pastis is a master of the Shaggy dog story, particularly with Sunday strips that rely on a great amount of text to spin an elaborate yarn that is ultimately resolved with an unforeseen and abrupt ending (e.g., the character’s random death.)

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.

Crossovers

Pearls Before Swine uncompromisingly interacts with other comics, as in a story arc that featured members of The Family Circus sheltering Osama bin Laden, unaware of his identity. The children from Baby Blues once went out to get beer for Rat and ended up killing Jeremy from Zits. (As an interesting coda, the following Monday Wren in Baby Blues was seen playing with a crocodile stuffed animal with "dead" eyes (x-ed out), a reference to a part of the Pearls storyline.) Ironically, during Blondie's 75th Anniversary Party in September of 2005, which was referred to within some 25 other (more-established) comics, Pig and Rat were among the very few comic strip characters not "invited" to the event; Pastis nonetheless had Pig and Rat complain for weeks. To console them, Pastis set up a competing party for others who were not invited. As it turned out, Opus from Bloom County was the only other attendee. Characters from Cathy, B.C, Dilbert, and several others have made guest appearances as well, appearances in which they are often mildly mocked. Garfield has also been the brunt of many punchlines, though only once has a character from the strip appeared in Pearls.

On one occasion, the Pearls characters left the strip one by one, in an event popularly referred to as the Pearls Labor Dispute. In this series of strips, the strips The Family Circus, Love Is..., Get Fuzzy, and Garfield were visited (as well as the Jumble), and characters Marmaduke and Nancy and Sluggo made guest appearances as temporary replacements for the departing characters.

Pastis’ use of characters from other strips has occasionally irritated established colleagues, who haven’t appreciated seeing their creations insulted (or worse). There is a sense among some critics and readers that Pastis uses his own strip to mock the more institutional comics that some artists feel have gone stale or are simply not funny.

Other colleagues, however, particularly other young and newly-established artists have collaborated on these meta-comic exchanges. On April Fool's Day 2005, Pastis, Get Fuzzy creator Darby Conley and FoxTrot creator Bill Amend published the same comic storyline (involving a Ouija board) with each strip's respective characters.

In an odd reversal in 2006, Conley used a week of Pearls Before Swine strips verbatim in place of his own comic. Conley pasted stock illustrations of Get Fuzzy characters over the Pearls Before Swine characters – leading to an essentially nonsensical plot for Get Fuzzy. There have also been more subtle allusions: Satchel from Get Fuzzy once had a Pearls book next to his beanbag, and Pig has attended at least one evening class led by a "Professor Conley."

In another reversal, Baby Blues paid homage to Pearls Before Swine by featuring a stuffed crocodile drawn in Pastis' typical style. (This was immediately after the aforementioned "crossover week" with the strip.) A third reversal occurred when FoxTrot paid homage to Pearls Before Swine by having Jason Fox redraw the Crocodiles to look like his sister Paige. (Jason did so to "make (them) look even less intelligent.")

In 2005, Rick Stromoski's strip Soup To Nutz introduced a short-lived character, a big headed kid named Stephan Pastis, to the universe as a friend of Andrew Nutz. This was a response to a storyline Pastis drew featuring a frog named Stromoski. While Pastis drew the storyline first, it ran months later, due to the cartoonist being ahead of deadline by several months. Stromoski, who was not so far ahead, managed to run the storyline first.

Recently Kevin and Kell creator Bill Holbrook paid homage to the strip in a [1]K&K strip.

On August 13, 2006, annother crossover was made. Pig and Rat were in a bar discussing a rule stating that all comic strip characters' ages need to be boosted to what they would be if their characters did age originally, due to For Better or For Worse being one of the few comics with aging characters. While this rule (made up for the series) didn't affect Pearls, being only a 5-year old strip, it strongly affected 50-year-old Family Circus and 75-year-old Blondie.

Substitutions

Sometimes, but rarely, due to current events, the strip is substituted with an older strip by UFS and Pastis if the content might be construed as offensive in the wake of the news. This was the case September 26, 2006, when alternate strips were provided to newspapers to run as they wished, due to the punchline of that day's strip being Pig playing in a washing machine after being unable to go with Rat and Guard Duck to a water park. The strip was pre-drawn before news of the Jimella Tunstall case came to light, which involved her children allegedly murdered by a friend, and hidden from the authorities in a washing machine. Many papers and websites which syndicated the strip ran the alternate strips instead.

Cast

Pearls Before Swine has a few central characters, supplemented by an array of minor figures who generally make their first appearance solely to set up a punch line, but occasionally become integrated into the life of the strip. In Pearls Before Swine all characters, large or small, are subject to death and to subsequent unexplained return at any moment.

Major characters

Pig (first appeared 31 December 2001)

Naïve Pig is childish and dim, but also well meaning and kind, all of which leads to constant ridicule by Rat. Pig's jokes generally involve his incompetence and not knowing his true surroundings. Pig has a girlfriend named Pigita.

Rat (first appeared 31 December 2001)

Rat is a megalomaniacal rat. He is frequently critical of the strip's style and artwork as well as the other characters in the strip and all living things. Frequently self-employed, most of his businesses involve either punishing or defrauding people for their ignorance. Rat is certainly the most insensitive character in the strip, except when it comes to Pig’s sister Farina.

Zebra (first appeared 4 February 2002)

Zebra, also known as "zeeba neighba" by the The Fraternity of Crocodiles (aka Zeeba Zeeba Eata), is a zebra who is often seen trying to patch up relations between his herd back home and its predators. His troubles include various encounters with the Fraternity of Crocodiles. He also serves as a less-irritable version of Goat, when the strip needs a smart character more able to put up with Rat and Pig. He is also the only character Goat can put up with.

Goat (first appeared 18 January 2002)

An intellectual goat who interacts sparingly with the other characters. Goat 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 to others (and occasional ignorance). Goat also has a blog, which receives no hits as Rat likes to point out.

The Fraternity of Crocodiles (first appeared 3 January 2005)

Crocodiles who are usually involved in various (failed) attempts to eat Zebra. Their fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "Zeta, Zeta, Epsilon"). The crocodiles are dimwitted and poor hunters (they believe they are hunting prey when they catch plastic flamingos or garden gnomes) who usually need to go to Safeway or order fast food to eat. At least two have girlfriends or are married, and at least one has a son, Billy. (Billy tends to be more of a pacifist than his father, similar to the relationship between Sylvester the Cat and Sylvester Junior.)

The crocodiles include Bob, Floyd, Fred, Frank, Jojo, and Larry. The Crocodiles are frequently killed in the continuity of the strip - some are brought back without explanation, while others are brought in as replacements. In the strip's universe, a crocodile named Biff (who was described by Pastis as "the dumbest of all the crocodiles") was unable to take care of himself, so Pastis himself had to take care of him. He was eventually eaten by a poodle.

The crocodiles, when talking, are often saying words in phonetical style, such as "goowoo" (guru), "nome" (gnome), and "meester" (mister). They also say "me" instead of "I".

Recurring characters

Stephan Pastis (first appeared 1 June 2003)
Pastis has appeared in several strips as the author of the strip.
Staci Pastis (first appeared 22 May 2003)
Stephan's wife, appearances in several comics with Stephan.
Wee Bear (first appeared 20 December 2004)
A little bear with a social conscience. "Wee Bear" is a nickname; he's actually named Moses Savio Chavez, after Robert Parris Moses, Mario Savio, and César Chávez.
Moody Pigita (first appeared 22 August 2002)
Pig's on and off girlfriend, known for her wild mood swings.
Jason The Guard Duck
"Watchduck" for Pig's home, Duck is known for a short-temper and violent streak bordering on stereotypical sociopathy. Pig often locks him in a clothes hamper or wastebasket as a punishment for irrational actions.
Angry Bob (first appeared 15 September 2002)
A character in a book series by Rat. Each strip concerning these books starts off with a disgruntled Angry Bob eventually finding true happiness, before meeting an untimely death.
Pig's Sea Anemone Enemies
Pig's nemesis was a sea anemone named Annie May. In one strip, Annie May, the sea anemone, tried to bribe Pig with amenities like anime. Rat eventually killed Annie May with a garage door, but, in fact, she was merely split in two and returned as Annette O'Meade and Ann, a maid, who, with a nun, had enemas with Eminem, an eminent MTV emissary.
Farina (first appeared 18 August, 2002)
Pig's germophobic sister who lives in a bubble, although that doesn't prevent her from dating characters from many comic strips. Years ago, Rat dated her, and is still in love with her, though he denies it. She has a habit of telling Rat that he is not manly enough while dating an otherwise geeky character like Dilbert or Ziggy.

Minor Characters

  • Leonard — a short-lived character who once moved in with Rat and Pig. He works at Kiddieland as Tatulli, the Self-Esteem building Bear; however, when Pig sees him in his costume, he thinks Leonard is being devoured. He was later killed when Rat drowned him in a toilet, after Pastis realized the character wasn't working.
  • Pepito — Rat's violent sock puppet.
  • The Vikings — A set of Viking toys. Rat believes that they love violence, but in reality they enjoy watching Oprah and Ellen. They also enjoy styling their hair, picking daisies, writing in their diaries, and painting their nails. When fighting, they resort to scratching and hair pulling. They've also referenced Brokeback Mountain and Broadway musicals such as Cabaret, implying that the Vikings may be gay.
  • Alphonse, the needy Porcupine (first appeared 6 July 2004) — loves to grandstand in order to gain attention, threatened to throw himself out of a window (three feet above the ground) if Rat did not help him, also hated by Rat.
  • Toby the agoraphobic turtle — A friend of Rat's who is afraid of public places. He stays in his shell all of the time and guzzles beer through a funnel.
  • Chuckie the sheep — Goat's sheep friend who is non-anthropomorphic, except for the fact that he walks on two legs.
  • Stromoski — A frog that constantly licks women's ears, causing him to get stomped by pretty much every woman he meets.
  • The Dog 'o Abject Despondency — A pet of Pig and Rat which is rendered useless by paying too much attention to the ills of the world.
  • Dickie the Cockroach — A character in a comic strip made by Rat. Rat explains that Dickie is "a cockroach with no tolerance for stupidity... if you say something stupid, Dickie ties you up and slaps duct tape over your mouth."
  • Danny Donkey — A character from the illustrated children's books Rat occasionally writes. In September 2006, Rat created a talking Danny Donkey doll which came to life (like Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes) and burglarized a liquor store.
  • Jonathan and Jennifer Seal — Two seals who moved into the neighborhood unaware that a killer whale also lived nearby. Unlike the comic's other predator and prey characters (calm Zebra and the largely incompetent Crocodiles), Jonathan Seal is highly excitable and often outraged by the patient, stalking nature of the killer whale.
  • The Killer Whale — A character who lived near Jonathan and Jennifer Seal and made failed attempts to get them to leave their home so that he could eat them. Deceased as of May 2006, accidentally killed by Zebra when given food laced with explosives. (Zebra got the food from Pig and Rat, who got it from the Anemone Enemies.)

Meaning of the title

The title Pearls Before Swine refers to "Neither cast ye your pearls before swine", which is advice that Jesus gives to Peter according to Matthew 7:6 in the Bible. In the context of the comic strip, Rat, who considers himself to be a genius, must cast his pearls of "wisdom" before Pig, who is the only one naïve enough to listen to him.

Books

Regular collections

Treasury collections

  • Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! (ISBN 0-7407-6155-2) - September 1, 2006, contains strips which appeared in newspapers from July 14, 2003 through January 23, 2005, many strips with annotations by the artist, Sundays are in color (the cover is based on The Wizard of Oz). Features The Good, the Banned, and the Ugly, featuring strips that should have been run in-between July 14, 2003 and January 23, 2005, but didn't.

Day-to-Day Calendars

  • 2006 - Year of the RAT!
  • 2007 - Hullooooo, Zeeba Neighbah!

Awards

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