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Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment

Cartoonist Stephen Pastis was bored. The pandemic was in full swing and he decided to go on a road trip. So he did. A lot of places.

But when he found himself in the middle of wasteland and in desperate need of the bathroom he somehow managed to find a small cluster of buildings-that were closed.

Frantically he knocked on one building's door. A man answered. The building was an art gallery in the middle of nowhere.

The man allowed him to use the a bathroom.

In gratitude Stephen attempted to give him one his softbound book collection of his comic strip as payment.

The man refused, he didn’t read comic strips. Eventually Stephen persuaded him to take the book.

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, reflects Stephen’s bizarre life as chronicled above.  Trust me, the man seems to be a magnet for the unusual. 

You have to admit a comic strip mainly focusing on a rodent and pig and their companions is a bit of a stretch.

And yet it works.

Off the wall, irreverent and weird the comic strip uses animals to mock, make fun of, provides commentaries and generally looks at life from a totally different perspective.

Both black and white and full color strips are included in the book along with the occasional commentary from the author/cartoonist.

Where else are you going to find a prophet ass on a hill, a genie that practices social distancing, the dangers of printer ink and so many more wonderfully offbeat takes on life.

Pearls Seeks Enlightenment (collecting 18-months of strips form 2020 to 2021) is a wonderful, wacky, way-out, what the? collection of comic strips that are sure to make you laugh and ponder, “What did I just read?”

"I can do all these things through Christ who strengthens me." — Philippians 4:13

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