Stephan Pastis

Stephan Thomas Pastis was born on January 16, 1968, in the United States. He is best known as the creator of the long-running comic strip *Pearls Before Swine*, which he launched in 2001. Before finding his calling in comics, Pastis worked as a lawyer, a background that often informs the strip’s dry, cynical humor. His signature style blends simple, expressive linework with sharp, often absurdist dialogue, and he frequently collaborates with his characters—most notably the arrogant Rat and the naive Pig—to skewer the conventions of newspaper comics.

Beyond the daily strip, Pastis expanded into children’s literature with the *Timmy Failure* series, beginning with *Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made*. The seventh book in that series, *It’s the End When I Say It’s the End*, reached #4 on *The New York Times* Best Seller list for Children’s Middle Grade Books. In our catalog, his credited roles as artist, colorist, inker, letterer, and writer span 15 issues from 2003 to 2023, with notable entries including *Trubble Town* and several *Pearls Before Swine* collections such as *BLTs Taste So Darn Good* and *Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out*. Pastis continues to produce the strip and write books, maintaining a devoted readership. He has received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, among other honors, cementing his legacy as a distinctive voice in modern humor comics.