Stocking stuffer ideas: Beginning Pearls by Stephan Pastis

Pearls Before Swine is one of only two comics in the daily paper that can make me laugh out loud.  It reminds me of the absurdity of The Far Side, has artwork similar to Dilbert and friend ships that are a more contemporary version of Peanuts. You’re probably heard of Pearls Before Swine, but if not, Beginning Pearls is an excellent jumping off point for this comic strip.

Beginning Pearls introduces readers to Rat, Pig, Goat, Zebra and Crocs.  Rat is a wise cracking caustic character while Pig is the well meaning slower one of the two.  The two cover the gamut of topics and situations ranging from the silly to deeper questions about the meaning of life.

Each strip is three panels with the Sunday strip being six to seven panels.  The genius of Pearls Before Swine is that Pastis can make you think, laugh and then think again in three short comic panels.

As the strip goes on we meet Zebra and Crocs who have as much time in the comics and are almost as funny as Rat and Pig.  The Zebras are quite mild mannered but get threats in the mail from lions and are being constantly harassed by the dimwitted Crocs.  The Crocs are alarmists, excitable and speak like Jar Jar Binks.  Their interaction with the peaceful Zebras and dry humor take a moment to sink in but resonates as one of our favorite characters once you sound out the way that they speak.

Beginning Pearls was released in July 2013.   Stephan Pastis and his Pearls Before Swine crew have numerous other books out also.  This one has some of his earlier comic strips but they have all aged great.  I’ve read the strip for years and only specifically remembered seeing a couple of them in the newspaper.  Don’t let the fact that these are old strips dissuade you from jumping in if you’re new to Pearls Before Swine.