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Contact the Artist
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of Stephan Pastis |
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Q.How many books do you have?
A. There are nine so far, all published by Andrews McMeel Universal.
The first is titled "Pearls Before Swine: BLTs Taste So Darn Good. " It contains the first 10 or so months of the strip, from January, 2002 to October, 2002. The second book is titled "This Little Piggy Stayed Home." It contains the next 10 or so months of the strip, from roughly October, 2002 to June, 2003.
The third book is titled "Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic." It is the first Pearls treasury, and contains all of the strips in the first two books, but with many added features, including 1) the Sundays printed in color; 2) my comments written below many of the strips, discussing fans'
reactions to certain strips, things I would have done differently, etc.; 3) a lengthy introduction about the history of Pearls, including drawings from my law school notebooks showing the first time I drew Rat; and 4) a game where fans can test their Pearls knowledge.
The fourth book is titled "Nighthogs". It contains all the strips from July,
2003 to April, 2004. The fifth book is titled "The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised," and it contains all the strips from April, 2004 to January, 2005.
The sixth book is titled "Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My!." Like "Sgt.
Piggy's", it is a treasury. It contains all of the strips in "Nighthogs" and "Ratvolution." But also like "Sgt. Piggy's", it has a number of added features, including the Sunday strips printed in color, my comments written below many of the strips and a special section containing some never-before-published Pearls strips.
The seventh book is titled "Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata." It contains all the strips from January, 2005 to October, 2005. The eighth book is titled "The Sopratos," and it contains all the strips from October, 2005 to August, 2006.
The ninth book is titled "The Crass Menagerie." It contains all of the strips in "Da Brudderhood" and "Sopratos" but again has my comments and a number of unpublished strips.
AND, there is a new Pearls Before Swine page-a-day calendar now available for 2008! It's called, "Dis Not Plan Me Have in Mind, Floyd."
You can buy the books/calendars at your local bookstore or order them online from Amazon.com. Here are the links:
"BLTs Taste So Darn Good":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740734377/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"This Little Piggy Stayed Home":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=unitedmedia&path
=tg/detail/-/0740738135/qid%%3D1074630896/sr%%3D1-2
"Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=unitedmedia&path=
tg/detail/-/0740748076/qid%%3D1087846139/sr%%3D8-3
"Nighthogs":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/0740750097
&link_code=as2&camp=1789&tag=unitedmedia&creative=9325
"The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740756745/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My!":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740761552/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740768018/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"The Sopratos"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740768476/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"The Crass Menagerie"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740771000/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
"Dis Not Plan Me Have in Mind, Floyd" 2008 calendar:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740767720/ref=nosim/unitedmedia
Q. How come United only posts 30 Pearls strips at a time, and where can I see more?
A. Yeah, we all want a larger archive on the site. Hopefully, that will be the case one day. Fortunately, for now, there is sort of a backdoor way to see an additional 90 days' worth of strips. In the Pearls Cafe Press store, they offer the last 90 days' worth of Pearls strips on a number of different products. If you go there, you can scroll through each of those 90 strips.
Here is the link:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/sotd.aspx?storeid=pearls
In addition to that, the Cafe Press store also offers a collection of the more popular, older Pearls strips on various products. This provides an easy way of seeing those older strips. Here is the link for that:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/category.aspx?category=sundayfavs1&storeid=pearls&type=collections
The best of all options, though, is to sign up for Comics Extra, which costs a small fee, but gives you access to months and months of past Pearls strips. The information for that is here:
https://members.comics.com/members/registration/showEvaluateEmail.do
Q. How did you get your professional start?
A. I was a litigation attorney in San Francisco from 1993 to 2002. In my spare time, I drew various cartoons. Like all other cartoonists, I submitted those strips to the different syndicates and got rejected repeatedly.
Ironically, I never submitted any of the prior strips to United because their address wasn't listed in a book I had about cartoon syndication. Then, in July 1999, I found United's address on some Web site and submitted PEARLS BEFORE SWINE to them. And, what do you know, they liked it. The strip then launched in newspapers in January 2002, and eight months later, in August, I was able to finally quit the law profession altogether.
Q. Where do you get your story ideas?
A. I used to write in a spare bedroom in my house, but I got a little tired of that. So now, I put on my IPOD (on which I have a great playlist of 300 songs that I've put together especially for when I write), find a secluded corner in a local cafe and drink lots of coffee. The IPOD playlist is loaded with a lot of U2, Coldplay and Pink Floyd, to name just a few artists.
Eventually, between the music and the coffee, the ideas start to come to me.
I'm not sure why this process generates ideas, but it generally seems to work, and after a few hours, I'll have 3 or 4 strips written. Of course, when it doesn't work, I'm left sitting in that same cafe for hours nursing the same cold cup of coffee, at which point management taps me on the shoulder and asks me to leave. Very embarrassing.
Q. How did you come up with your characters?
A. I first drew Rat while bored during a class on the European Economic Community in law school. I still have the first strip. Rat gets killed. Kind of an inauspicious start. The pig was taken from a strip I used to draw about an attorney, called "The Infirm." In one strip, I had an attorney defending an evil pig farmer, and I liked the way I drew the pigs. One day, I just stuck one of the pigs with the rat. The zebra came from one of the strips... the one where he appears at Rat's front door selling cookies to raise money for automatic weapons (to use against the lions, of course).
People liked him, so I kept him. The goat came from Amy Lago, my former editor at United. I needed a smart character and I suggested a few possible animals to Amy. (I think there was a bear, a cow, a sheep and a goat.) Amy chose the goat. The crocodiles were introduced in January, 2005. In the past, Zebra's predators were generally unseen and in some remote place. I thought that introducing them into the neighborhood could really ramp up Zebra's stress level and provide more fodder for jokes.
Q. Do you create on a daily basis? Do you prefer to work in the morning or at night?
A. It generally takes me around three full days to write and draw a week's worth of strips. I think that the morning is the best time to write. I don't come up with many good ideas late in the day.
Q. Why aren't you in my newspaper?
A. Pearls was a web-only strip from November, 2000 to December, 2001. It did not debut in newspapers until January, 2002. Thus, the sales to newspapers have just gotten started. If you would like Pearls in your newspaper, just send an e-mail or snail mail c/o the Features Editor at that paper. One e-mail or snail mail can make a big difference.
Q. When did you first start drawing cartoons?
A. As a little kid. My mother tells me that when I was sick, she bought me some pens and paper so I'd have something to do when I was laying in bed.
Fortunately for me, I had bronchitis all the time, so I got to draw a lot.
Q. Who were the cartoonists who most influenced you?
A. The biggest overall influence was Charles Schulz. He teaches you everything about what a comic strip should be, how a comic strip should be paced, how to develop characters, etc. For how to write funny dialogue, I'd say my biggest influence was Scott Adams. And for tone and subject matter, probably Gary Larson.
Q. How would you describe your style?
A. In terms of the art, I'd say I'm a minimalist, in that I draw only what I have to draw to get the joke across. In terms of the writing, I think the strip is blend of "gallows" humor, philosophy and vaudeville stand-up.
Q. Which are your favorite characters in your strip and why?
A. Well, Rat is me. So I don't know if he's my favorite, but he's the one I identify with. I just magnify all my faults and give them to him. Of course, if I had to hang out with one of the characters, it would be Pig.
Q. What materials do you use to draw your comics? Do you use a computer?
A. A Kuretake pen, some heavy paper (Strathmore bristol) and a flat table. I then scan the strips into the computer and fix them up. I color them on the computer also.
Q. Do you have any suggestions on how to become a professional cartoonist?
A. Focus on the writing. It all comes down to the writing.
Q. Do you sell original strips?
A. Unfortunately, I do not.
Q. Can you draw a sketch for me?
A. I used to do this when Pearls first started out. But over the course of the last couple years, the volume of
these requests has really increased and has started to take away from the time I have to work on the strip. So
for that reason, I can no longer respond to these requests. I'm sorry about that.
Q. How can I get a copy of a past strip?
A. If the strip appeared in the last 90 days, you can find it here:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/sotd.aspx?storeid=pearls
Unfortunately, if the strip is older than that, it is not available again until it comes out in the books.
Q. Can you tell me the date a strip appeared?
A. Unfortunately, after more than six years of doing this, I just can't remember specific dates anymore. I wish I could.
Q. Do you read and respond to all your own email?
A. Although I don't have time to respond to each of the emails anymore, I do try to read them all. You can reach me at:
theratandpig@aol.com
For interview or media requests, please contact our Public Relations department, please put Public Relations department, please put ³PR request² in the subject line.
For reprint rights, please contact hpenn@unitedmedia.com.
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