Most Popular Books by Stephan Pastis

Take Timmy Failure — the clueless, comically self-confident CEO of the best detective agency in town, perhaps even the nation. Add his impressively lazy business partner, a very large polar bear named Total. Throw in the Failuremobile — Timmy's mom's Segway — and what you have is Total Failure, Inc., a global enterprise destined to make Timmy so rich his mother won't have to stress out about the bills anymore. Of course, Timmy's plan does not include the four-foot-tall female whose name shall not be uttered. And it doesn't include Rollo Tookus, who is so obsessed with getting into "Stanfurd" that he can't carry out a no-brainer spy mission.

Take Timmy Failure — the clueless, comically self-confident CEO of the best detective agency in town, perhaps even the nation. Add his impressively lazy business partner, a very large polar bear named Total. Throw in the Failuremobile — Timmy's mom's Segway — and what you have is Total Failure, Inc., a global enterprise destined to make Timmy so rich his mother won't have to stress out about the bills anymore. Of course, Timmy's plan does not include the four-foot-tall female whose name shall not be uttered. And it doesn't include Rollo Tookus, who is so obsessed with getting into "Stanfurd" that he can't carry out a no-brainer spy mission.

Enjoy a new treasury of New York Times Best-Selling Pearls Before Swine.

In this treasury collection of Unsportsmanlike Conduct and Rat's Wars, the eclectic Pearls Before Swine cast play out their respective roles. Rat is the arrogant know-it-all, taking constant advantage of the naive and simple Pig, with wise and pedantic Goat looking on in detached disapproval. The incredibly inept Crocs still hold hopes of eating their Zeeba neighbors. Throw in cameo appearances by Guard Duck and Snuffles the Cat and you get the full tableau of Pearls comedy.

Stephan's personal annotations lend insight and more humor to this Pearls Before Swine rendition.

The addictive humor, snarky cast, and calculated wit of Pearls Before Swine returns in its most recent collection, Breaking Stephan, cracking wise on the hit crime drama Breaking Bad.

The familiar gang of characters cook up hilarity with their banter on current events, bicyclists, and the strip's creator, Stephen Pastis. Some of the action this time around features Rat in his very own movie, driven by the brilliant plot of "Rat kicks Pig," and Croc's pursuit of a job with the one weapon in his skillset: drinking.

Pastis's Breaking Stephan is sure to entertain with its perfect chemistry of commentary, satirical logic, and dark wit.

An author-annotated Pearls Before Swine treasury featuring cartoons from Larry in Wonderland and Because Sometimes You Just Have to Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand.

 

From fire-breathing jugglers to sword-swallowing illusionists, this treasury showcases all strips from Larry in Wonderland and Because Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand, along with Pastis's original commentary, which provides insight into what Pastis was thinking at the time random strips were conceived, and also fan reactions.

Tackling topics ranging from current events and modern technology to human and croc nature, Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out offers up a sideshow of feisty characters, including arrogant, self-centered, and totally hilarious Rat, who leads his four-legged collection of freakish friends through a carnival of misadventure. Joining the circuslike cavalcade are Pig, the slow but good-hearted conscience of the strip; Goat, the voice of reason that often goes unheard; Zebra, the activist; and those eternally inept carnivorous Crocs, who we learn happen to taste a lot like chicken. Pastis's cynical humor and sharp wit imbue this entertaining vaudevillian collection.

From the New York Times best-selling creator of Timmy Failure comes a third adventure about the comically overconfident sleuth.

His name is Failure. Timmy Failure. And his detective agency is on the verge of global domination. Global riches. Global fame. And yet the gods keep throwing him curveballs: for starters, academic probation. The coveted Miracle Report is the key to everything, including a good grade. It's dirty business. It's best you know nothing. But one thing is for sure: Timmy Failure will be triumphant again!

The Pearls Before Swine crew is back in their second collection of cartoons for the middle-grade crowd!

Always witty and clever, and sometimes irreverent, Pearls Before Swine's sarcastic take on life appeals to fans of all ages. In this second collection of cartoons specially chosen for young readers, the troupe of characters is back to entertain with dark humor and off-the-wall puns. Know-it-all Rat is always at the center of the action, accompanied by slow-witted Pig who is innocently oblivious to most of Rat's jabs. Rounded out with high-browed Goat, the mild and vulnerable Zebra, and the hilariously inept Crocs, the cast is ready to provide hours of reading fun.

The Pearls Before Swine gang is back in this treasury-sized edition, complete with Stephan Pastis's insightful and entertaining annotations.

True to Pearls Before Swine tradition, the latest cartoon collection brims with Stephan Pastis's cynical humor, sharp wit, and clever commentary. Always together—and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters—the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature. All the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself. Pastis's latest collection is sure to add to the funny-page phenomenon, giving Pearls fans more of what they know and love: satirical logic and hilarious wit.

Includes all cartoons from the collections Breaking Stephan and King of the Comics.

Includes Bill Watterson's collaborated cartoons!
Are you tired of America's broken politics, tired partisan bickering, and really lame newspaper comics? Well, Stephan Pastis can't help you with the first two. But he, along with Rat, Pig, and the rest of the animal crew from Pearls Before Swine, voted the Most Reprehensible Comic Strip in the Continental U.S. by the League of Easily Offended and Unfunny Citizens*, are doing their best to make the American comic great again.

In I'm Only in This for Me, the Pearls gang dares to tell the hard truths that the country needs to hear: the importance of prioritizing cheese over everything else, the sadly ignored capacity of bears to solve all of life's problems, and the crucial Recognition Gap between women in bars and semi-obscure cartoonists with delusions of grandeur.
 
But beneath all the selfishness, absurdity, bungling crocs, and bazooka-wielding ducks, Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra continue to find that friendship can make life warmer, humor can make stupidity less annoying, and cheese really does make everything way, way better.
 
Lastly, this collection features the triumphant return of a legendary comics icon: Stephan Pastis! (And also some weirdo named Bill Watterson.)
 
 
 
*Not an actual group or award

Some Rat!

Stephan Pastis may not be the kind, selfless arachnid of E.B. White's cherished children's novel, but he sure can spin a story – that is, if Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra don't swat him with a stick first. In Stephan's Web, the Pearls gang continues to find that friendship and puns are the best defense against everyday predators, like self-righteous vegans, cyclists, and fruitarians.

One of the best-selling cartoons today. Offering blistering commentary on hot-button topics related to recent news events, popular culture, cartoon-page contemporaries, and more, Pearls Before Swine expertly illustrates the flaws and shortcomings of human nature through Pastis’s mindful menagerie of fiery and feisty characters.

Stephan Pastis offers Pearls Before Swine fans a visit to the other side of the looking glass with his latest collection, Larry in Wonderland. Collecting almost a year's worth of strips, Larry in Wonderland offers cutting-edge commentary on recent news events, popular culture, and cartoon-page contemporaries, and imparts the knowledge that in Wonderland, crocodiles taste a lot like chicken.

Through Pastis's mindful menagerie of characters, including the Mad Ducker, Cheshire Snuffles, Tweedledum Pig, and Tweedledee Idiot Pig, along with Raterpillar, Zebra, and Larry the Croc, Pearls Before Swine expertly illustrates the flaws and shortcomings of human nature, while remaining "indifferent" to conventional cartoon molds such as plotline "continuity." In the words of Raterpillar, "Plotline schmotline."

With multiple honors as Best Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society, and an international fan base that follows the strip's appearance in more than 600 newspapers worldwide, Pearls Before Swine transports readers to a world of shifting perspectives and alternate realities, like the one presented inside Larry in Wonderland.