Last Chance To Be Immortal

Time is winding down to enter the contest in honor of the first ever Pearls app for the iPad.  Entries have to be in by midnight PST on Friday, January 27.

The winner will be forever immortalized by having his/her name mentioned in one of my daily strips. (First name only.)

All you have to do is watch the app, and then afterwards, correctly answer all of the questions.  At the end of the game, I’ll randomly pull out one winner.

Just email your answers to: contests@chroniclebooks.com

Here are the questions again:

Only the Pearls Search and Find Game

1. Name the coffee shop where Rat works as a barista and opines about Louisa May Alcott.
2. What do I have trouble drawing? I mean, aside from everything. What do I specifically have trouble drawing?
3.  It’s a __________ move to surround yourself with your own memorabilia.
4. How many rules does each strip need to pass in order for me to consider it funny?
5. Who in the Writing Room might need a trip to the optometrist and why?
6. One word: _____________
7. What does Pig whisper and how do you know he’s whispering?
8. Pig and I own the same piece of clothing. What is it?
9. What are the answers to the Jumble I created?
10. What magical creature does Zebra not believe in?
11. Where did my bulletin board come from?
12. What seems to be the beverage of choice in the Writing Room?

Good luck!

P.S.  And in case you missed the cool trailer, it’s right here:

I’ll Be Wearing Flowers In My Hair

This Thursday, Jan. 12, I’ll be appearing in San Francisco at the Cartoon Art Museum.  I’ll be speaking with Keith Knight, creator of the syndicated comic, The Knight Life.

For info on attending, click HERE or on the beautiful image of me below.

Ten Years Ago Today

It was December 30, 2001 that Pearls Before Swine first debuted in newspapers.

Well, newspaper.

This strip ran in the Orlando Sentinel, which for some reason needed to start the strip a week before all the other newspapers kicked in. I would later re-run the strip so it could run in all the other newspapers as well.

And in honor of my tenth anniversary, I’ve signed a few more books at my local Copperfield’s Bookstore in Santa Rosa, California.  I also drew a character in each.  So if you want one, just call 707 578-8938 and they will ship it to you.

Now go out and celebrate.

Stephan

And Now For The Cities I Wasn’t Able to Visit

For those of you whose city I wasn’t able to get to on the last book tour, I just signed a bunch of “Larry in Wonderland” books (and drew a character each) at my local Barnes and Noble.

So if you want one, just call and order and they’ll ship it to you. I also signed a few other Pearls books as well.

The number is 707-576-7494, but call quick, as these often go quickly.

Not Fit for Fido

I’m currently finishing up an ebook for the iPad that I’m doing with Chronicle Books.  It’s called “Only the Pearls” and is set to come out in early December.  It will have 250 of my favorite Pearls strips, as well as both audio and video commentary.

But in doing the videos, we occasionally used a product for which we needed approval from the company that makes it.

Long story short, the company said no.

They said Pearls Before Swine was not a “good fit” for their product.  i.e.  That the comic strip was not something with which they wanted to be associated.

Was it Mercedes Benz?  Perhaps concerned with tarnishing their pristine image?

The Ritz Carlton?  Maybe worried the strip wasn’t a good fit for their customer?

Cristal champagne?  Not sure I meshed with their upscale reputation?

No.

It was a dog chew toy.

That’s right.

Apparently Fido would take one look at my videos and spit the toy right out.

So now I can officially say…

My work is not fit for a dog.

Hello Minneapolis (and Kansas City and Denver and Tempe and Portland and Seattle and Sacramento)

The Stephan in Wonderland Fall Tour begins in just a few weeks.

I’ll be visiting seven cities.  Sorry to all of you that live in cities I can’t get to this time.  We’ll try to get to them next time.

Here are the dates and times:

SACRAMENTO:  Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 6 p.m. in the third-floor conference room at The Sacramento Bee, 2100 Q Street, Sacramento.  To register for it (it’s free but seating is limited), click HERE.

Update on Sacramento:  If you’re having trouble registering (the site’s a bit confusing) call this number:  (916) 321-1128

 

MINNEAPOLIS:  October 16, 2011, 1:00 pm, Wild Rumpus, 2720 W. 43rd St, Minneapolis, MN 55410
http://www.wildrumpusbooks.com

KANSAS CITY:  October 18, 2011, 7:00 PM, Rainy Day Books, Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th St., Kansas City, MO 64112, 913-384-3126, http://www.rainydaybooks.com

DENVER:  October 19, 2011, 7:30 PM, Tattered Cover Book Store, 1628 16th Street at Wynkoop
Denver, CO 80202, 303-436-1070, http://www.tatteredcover.com

TEMPE:  October 20, 2011, 7:00 PM, Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Dr., Tempe, AZ 85283, 480-730-0205, http://www.changinghands.com

PORTLAND:  October 27, 2011, 7:30 PM, Powell’s Books, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland, OR 97209
503-228-4651, http://www.powells.com

SEATTLE:  October 28, 2011, 6:30 PM, Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155, 206-366-3316, http://www.thirdplacebooks.com

Your Chance To Own An Original Pearls Strip (Or Two)

I rarely auction original strips.

But I recently donated two original Sunday strips for auction by a school in Southern California.

So if you’re interested in owning an original Sunday Pearls strip, just click HERE.

A Burning Question

The motto of Salem, Massachusetts is, “To the farthest port of the rich Indies.”

I don’t know what that means, but I do know this.

If you’re walking around the town, don’t ask them how many witches they burned.

It’s a sensitive question.

“We didn’t burn any witches,” the tour guide says to me, “We hanged them.”

They say it with pride, like a dog owner telling you he never hits his dog, but only chastises him.

“Of course, there was that one woman,” the tour guide adds, “We crushed her with stones.”

I could tell that even he was embarrassed by that one.

Armed with this knowledge, I continued my walk through Salem doing the one thing I simply had to do:

Ask as many people as I could how many witches they burned.

I can tell you from experience that if you try this little experiment, each and every Salemite you encounter will give you the same lecture about hanging (but never burning) the witches.  The only part that varies is whether or not they’ll disclose the poor woman who got crushed by stones.

I was going to give the Salemites a pass on all these indiscretions, until I saw this thing.

That’s right.  It’s a statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The man whose only literary goal was to torture me in high school.

“This guy lived here?” I ask the tour guide.

“Yeah,” he answers.  “In fact, the house that inspired The House of the Seven Gables is right down the street.”

“So here you are burning all these innocent women —”

“Hanging,” he interrupted.

“So here you are hanging all of these innocent women, and not one of you thinks to go after this guy?”

He didn’t seem to understand.

“You have a good afternoon,” he says and walks away.

I left the town with a thorough disdain for all the people of Salem and their sadly misplaced priorities.

I even thought of a new motto.

“Salem, Mass:  Where we burn all the wrong people.”

The Watering Hole

A brand new Pearls animation is now up.  This was one of the more popular Pearls strips when it appeared in newspapers.

Click HERE for the animation.

(And if you like it when you’re there, it gives you a little “subscribe” option.)

I Guess That’s What I Get for Never Attending Sunday School

My nine year-old daughter and I were playing with her Playmobile boat on Sunday.

I put a bunch of Playmobile people on the boat and started dragging it around the carpet.

But the people looked bored.

“This boat needs a bar,” I told my daughter.

“You can’t put a bar on it,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“It’s Noah’s Ark.”

Hey.  It was hard to tell without the animals.