Stephan Pastis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stephan Pastis
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Pastis in 2017
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Stephan Thomas Pastis
January 16, 1968 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (JD) |
| Occupation | Insurance defense litigation attorney (1993–2002) Cartoonist of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine (2000–present) Author (2003–present) |
| Spouse(s) | Staci |
| Children | 2 |
Stephan Thomas Pastis (born January 16, 1968) is an American cartoonist and author. He is best known for creating the popular comic strip Pearls Before Swine. Stephan Pastis also writes exciting children's books, including the Timmy Failure series. His books have even appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Contents
Stephan Pastis's Early Life and Education
Stephan Pastis grew up in San Marino, California. His parents were immigrants from Greece. He started drawing cartoons when he was a child. His mother would bring him pens and paper when he was sick in bed.
He went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science. He earned his degree in 1989. The next year, Pastis went to law school at UCLA. He received his law degree there. Even while studying law, he kept drawing. He created the character Rat, who later became a main character in Pearls Before Swine, during a law class. He felt that through Rat, he could truly express his thoughts.
From Lawyer to Cartoonist
From 1993 to 2002, Pastis worked as a lawyer in the San Francisco Bay area. He worked on cases involving insurance. However, he soon realized he didn't enjoy being a lawyer. He didn't like the arguments and stress that came with the job.
In the mid-1990s, he decided to try again to become a cartoonist. He sent many different comic ideas to companies that distribute comics to newspapers. Ideas like The Infirm and Bradbury Road were turned down many times.
Pearls Before Swine: A Popular Comic Strip
The character Rat came from one of Pastis's earlier comic ideas. Rat thinks he is the best cartoonist and everyone else is not as good. The character Pig, who is very different from Rat, was in another comic idea called The Infirm.
Meeting Charles Schulz
In 1996, Pastis drove to an ice rink in Santa Rosa. This was where Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, often had his coffee. Pastis was nervous and said, "Hi, Sparky [Schulz's nickname], my name is Stephan Pastis and I'm a lawyer." Schulz looked surprised at first, thinking Pastis might be there for a legal reason. But he quickly became friendly.
Pastis remembers how kind Schulz was. He said, "I was a total stranger to him, and he let me sit down at his table and we talked for an hour." Schulz even looked at some of Pastis's comic strips and gave him advice. Pastis was very excited after this meeting.
Getting Inspired and Syndicated
Besides Peanuts, Pastis also learned a lot from the comic strip Dilbert. He studied how Dilbert was written to learn how to create a three-panel comic strip. He drew about 200 new comic strips for his new idea, Pearls Before Swine. He picked the best 40 but was afraid to send them in.
In 1999, he visited the grave of a college friend who had always encouraged him to follow his dreams. This helped him overcome his fear. He sent his comics to three different companies, including United Features. United Features decided to put the comics on their website, Comics.com, first. They wanted to see what readers thought. When Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, supported the comic, people loved it.
Pastis also gives credit to Darby Conley, the cartoonist behind Get Fuzzy. Conley taught him how to color the Sunday comics and add gray tones to the daily ones.
Eight months later, Pastis happily quit his job as a lawyer. He believes that being unhappy with his law job actually helped him. He felt motivated to create better comics so he could become a full-time cartoonist.
Fifteen years later, Pearls Before Swine was still growing fast. It appeared in over 650 newspapers around the world. Pastis usually works many months ahead of his deadlines, which is rare for newspaper cartoonists.
Collaborating with Bill Watterson
In June 2014, Pastis worked with Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes. They created a week-long story together for Pearls Before Swine. In the story, a second-grade girl named Libby drew some of Pastis's comic frames for him. Pastis said working with Bill Watterson was like seeing "Bigfoot."
After the comics were published, Pastis shared that Watterson had actually drawn the artwork for three of the strips. In the last comic of the series, Libby tells Pastis she won't draw any more strips. She says, "There's a magical world out there," which is a special reference to the last Calvin and Hobbes comic.
Pearls Before Swine Books
Pastis's first collection of comics, called Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, came out in 2004. These books, called "treasuries," include many comic strips, often in full color. Pastis also includes notes from readers and explains why some strips didn't work as well. He releases a new treasury about every year and a half. These larger treasury books are now the main way his Pearls Before Swine comics are collected.
Stephan Pastis's Personal Life
Stephan Pastis lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Staci, and their two children. He is on the board of the Charles Schulz Museum. He helps with questions about Peanuts and its merchandise.
Pastis greatly admires Charles Schulz. He said, "Schulz is to comic strips what Marlon Brando was to acting. It was so revolutionary." He feels that Schulz's comics went "inside the soul." Pastis has used ideas from Peanuts in his own work, like the front porch and the beach. He even sees his characters, Rat, Goat, and Pig, as similar to Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown from Peanuts.
In 2011, Pastis helped write the Peanuts TV special Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown.
Timmy Failure: Books for Young Readers
On February 25, 2013, Pastis released his first book for younger readers, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. This book series is similar to the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Timmy Failure tells the adventures of a young detective-in-training and his polar bear friend, Total. They try to solve mysteries in their neighborhood.
Many books have been released in the series:
- Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done (2014)
- Timmy Failure: We Meet Again (2014)
- Timmy Failure: Sanitized for Your Protection (2015)
- Timmy Failure: The Book You're Not Supposed To Have (2016)
- Timmy Failure: The Cat Stole My Pants (2017)
- Timmy Failure: It's The End When I Say It's The End (2018)
- Zero to Hero ("Volume 0") (2020), which is a prequel to the series.
Timmy Failure Movie
In April 2017, Disney began working on a Timmy Failure movie. Tom McCarthy directed the film and co-wrote the script with Pastis. The movie was released on Disney's streaming service, Disney+, in January 2020. Winslow Fegley played the main character, Timmy Failure. The film was shot in Portland, Oregon, from July to September 2018.
Awards and Recognition
Stephan Pastis has been nominated for the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award many times. He won this award in 2003, 2006, and 2014. He has also been nominated for the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year every year since 2008. He won the top Reuben Award in 2018.
See also
In Spanish: Stephan Pastis para niños
