Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury #[nn]

Shot in moody black-and-white noir style, the cover of this 2018 Pearls Before Swine treasury features a trench-coated detective and a glamorous woman posed dramatically in a smoky alley — while Rat, Pig, and their cartoon companions crowd the lower corner, tiny and armed, completely upending the hard-boiled atmosphere. The delightful collision of film-noir photography (cover work by Donna Oatney, Thomas Gibson, and Graphics Four) with Stephan Pastis's deceptively simple strip characters sets the tone perfectly for a collection that clearly refuses to take itself too seriously. Fans of the strip will find this a satisfying deep dive into Pastis's sharp, self-aware humor.