2014-03-02

Stephan Pastis, creator of the popular “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip, recently ventured into children’s literature, too, having just released the second in a three book series about an overconfident boy detective named Timmy Failure. (Pastis will appear at Nicola’s Books on Thursday, March 6 at 7 p.m.) But before Pastis was an illustrator and writer, he spent 10 years...

Stephan Pastis, creator of the popular “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip, recently ventured into children’s literature, too, having just released the second in a three book series about an overconfident boy detective named Timmy Failure. (Pastis will appear at Nicola’s Books on Thursday, March 6 at 7 p.m.)

But before Pastis was an illustrator and writer, he spent 10 years hating his job as an insurance defense litigator – which might make you wonder what drew him to the work in the first place.

“Money,” said Pastis, who attended law school at UCLA. “ … I knew it would be a steady source of income, and I’ve always been comfortable talking to crowds, and I like to argue. So it seemed a natural fit. But as any first or second year associate will tell you, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about sitting in a room, reading documents.”

Even so, Pastis might not have pushed so hard to develop and repeatedly submit “Pearls Before Swine” – which was built on the foundation of the surly, snarky character, Rat – had he not so despised his past occupation.

 
“To this day, that’s the fire,” said Pastis. “To this day, that’s the motivation I use. I don’t want to go back to that. And on the plus side, having been a lawyer, I was so already so used to deadlines. In law, you have real deadlines, or a client sues you. IN the profession I’m in now – a lot of cartoonists complain about deadlines, but I see it as fun. … I think from that perspective, being a lawyer was great training.”

What many fans may not know is that Pastis’ big break came thanks to “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams. For while Pastis struggled to get “Pearls” picked up – despite the introduction of the sweet, gullible character of Pig - United Feature Syndicate offered to feature the strip on its Comics.com website. Adams spotted it there, and in December 2000, he recommended the strip to his faithful legion of fans via an email blast.

“It came out of nowhere,” said Pastis. “He’d been reading it on the sly. We’re friends now, but we weren’t at the time. He’d just read it on site, liked it, and told his readers to go read it. And this being 2000 - he was the biggest cartoonist on the planet at the time, so he drove the traffic from 2,000 on Wednesday to 150,000 on Thursday. … I still remember running upstairs, after seeing the numbers on the computer in our basement, and telling Staci, my wife, that if I’m going to make it, this is the moment that’s the break for me.”

PREVIEW

Stephan Pastis book signing for “Timmy Failure: Now Look What You Have Done”

What: Pastis, the mind (and illustrator) behind the “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip, will talk about (and sign copies of) his newest book for young readers, “Timmy Failure: Mistakes were Made,” which chronicles the adventures of an overly confident boy and his polar bear companion, Total, who make up “the best detective agency in town, probably the nation.”

Where: Nicola’s Books, 2513 Jackson Ave. in Ann Arbor.

When: Thursday, March 6 at 7 p.m.

How much: Free. 734-662-0600 or www.nicolasbooks.com.

And so it was. “Pearls” now appears in over 750 newspapers worldwide, chronicling funny interactions between Rat, Pig, Goat, an overly zealous Guard Duck, Zebra and the hungry crocodiles who live next door and, occasionally, characters from other classic strips. How do other illustrators feel about these unauthorized cameos?

“They’re great sports,” said Pastis. “I’ve done it most with ‘Family Circus.’ … (‘Family Circus’ creator) Bil Keane is deceased now, but he loved it. He even had an original of one of my strips up on the wall of his studio in Arizona.”

Pastis also makes occasional appearances in his strip, often when the strip’s characters seek him out to punish him for a terrible pun. (In this way, the characters mete out the punishment that groaning readers would probably champion.)

“Going meta on (a pun), and popping out of the strip like that, allows me to do the pun but also wink at the audience,” said Pastis. “ … It’s a great trick. I can reach the audience that likes puns, but I can also catch the audience that watches ‘The Daily Show.’”

And while Pastis’ longtime practice is to write 10 strips a week, so as to build up a store of work that allows him to take vacations, tour, and pursue other projects – he had 8 months and 11 days-worth of strips stocked up when we spoke by phone - he hadn’t thought about writing a children’s novel until a New York agent approached him with the idea.

“At first I told him no, … but thankfully, he was persistent and convinced me,” said Pastis. “ … He said, ‘Just give me 60 or 70 pages to shop around.’ … I did that. So I submitted it on Friday, and by Monday, 10 publishers wanted the book, so we had a book auction.”

When Pastis decided to give kiddie lit a try, Timmy Failure was his first idea, partly inspired by starter mysteries like Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo – and the fact that Pastis, as a child, could never solve even the most obvious puzzle.

Hence Timmy, an unobservant boy who thinks he’s sharper than Sherlock.

“The key to any character in comedy is what they call a blind spot,” said Pastis. “He thinks he’s one thing, but in reality, he’s another. One of the best examples of this is Ricky Gervais in the original British version of ‘The Office,’ where his character thinks he’s a rock star, when really, no one can stand him.”

The Timmy Failure book covers bear a resemblance to the blockbuster “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, and “Wimpy” author Jeff Kinney’s praise appears on the cover. Plus, like “Wimpy,” “Timmy Failure” may end up on the big screen – though it would likely be a live action-animation hybrid, since Timmy’s polar bear sidekick Total would present a challenge.

But for now, Pastis plans to release book 3 of “Timmy Failure” this fall, following some intense, in-house focus group work.

“I have 2 kids, a 16 year old and a 12 year old,” said Pastis. “ … And I did something really annoying: I gave them the manuscripts for all 3 books, and I had them read them in front of me. So when they’d laugh, I’d run up behind them and see what they were laughing at; and when they were on some other page, if they didn’t laugh, I’d say, ‘You didn’t think that was funny?’ They didn’t like it at all. But for me, it’s a great built-in test audience.”

Jenn McKee is an entertainment reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at jennmckee@mlive.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.

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