Stephan Pastis
Stephan Pastis
Stephan Thomas Pastisis an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. He has since begun writing children's chapter books, commencing the release of Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made and the second and third Timmy Failure, which debuted at #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Middle Grade Books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth16 January 1968
CitySan Marino, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I never feel burdened or overwhelmed by my work. People tell you to find something you love for a career, and I have. That makes me feel very lucky.
You can't just count on becoming a syndicated cartoonist. I actually tried to calculate the odds once, and the best I could come up with is a 1-in-36,000 chance. And the odds of getting hit by lightning are 1 in 7,900 - which kind of shows how long those odds are.
Maybe the bar is low, but most of the strips that are 50, 60, 70 years old that are on their second or third generation of artists, the humor is pretty bland. There are others by people that were raised on 'Family Guy' or 'South Park' that are edgier. Mine's not as edgy as those, but it's edgier than 'Beetle Bailey.'
It seems so absurd to get really mad with a cartoonist over a comic strip. It's sort of like getting in a fight with a circus clown outside your house. It's not going to end well.
I was a lawyer for 10 years, and when you're in law, things really have to get done, or somebody sues you. It's a great trick.
He looked like a Midwesterner, but he was a rebel, ... He is to comics what Brando was to movies. He broke ground that allowed me to ultimately exist.
Repeats are the worst, and 'Peanuts' was the one that started that. They don't rerun the news, do they? They don't repeat any other part of the paper. Why do they do it in the comics?
My philosophy from looking at Dilbert was the art must not matter that much, because he was the biggest hit of the day, ... He didn't draw that well and neither did I. I figured if he could do it, maybe I had a chance.
I wish I didn't have to do it. But I'm standing on the deck of the Titanic and see the iceberg coming,
mostly as an outlet just to do something during class.
I write for three or four hours and then hopefully I'll have something. Then I draw for the rest of the afternoon... I literally block out Wednesday-Thursday-Friday - I more or less disappear.
Most poetry just confounds me. I really want to like it, but I can't help thinking it's a hoax. (p. 24)
My wife Staci made me go to a wedding last weekend...If it weren’t for her, I’d be happy.
I seem to be able to get away with pun strips if I add a panel at the end where I somehow indicate that I know it's a bad pun.