Customer Reviews

Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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I'm a huge fan of Pearls and eagerly pre-ordered Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic. Beyond rereading some of my favorite strips ("Dear Jesse Jackson, Every time you speak you say, 'Keep Hope alive.' Who is this 'Hope' guy and how sick is he?" - see page 36) - the best part of this collection is Stephan Pastis' introduction (including some early drawings/strips) and the comments he makes below many of the strips. I love the comics, and it's always great to hear the stories behind the strips or jokes. I highly recommend this to fans and recent converts of Pearls Before Swine!

Often, comic strips issue smaller collections with black-and-white Sunday strips, then, later, compile two or three of these into a larger "treasury" which is no different except for color Sundays.

This treasury is different. It reprints strips from both of the two previous "Pearls Before Swine," but Stephan Pastis adds to this with both an unusually detailed introduction that explains how the strip got started and with comments on many individual strips. The individual comments range from detailed explanations of a problem with a strip to funny comments about a strip. I have not seen this type of thing in a "regular" treasury before; I have seen it in "greatest hits" strip collections. It's nice to see this kind of thing in a regular strip collection.

This is Stephan Pastis' best book so far. I sat down and read it from cover to cover in 2-1/2 hours on Thanksgiving. It was like having the author over for dinner! His witty comments on marriage, family, life (and of course, death), foolish people, and lawyers (his old profession) really makes you laugh.

The "VIP backstage tour" which the Amazon review talks about is very cool. He explains his "word jumble" cartoon in case you were curious. He talks about the Charlie Brown lamps and his tribute to Snoopy's creator. He tries to give you insight on some of his cartoons that you might have just glanced at -- like when he drew his first home in Albany, California.

Like Dilbert, this comic strip is smart and strong on humor. He brings a good punchline in 3 panels. If you like Dilbert, you'll probably like Pearls Before Swine.

When Pearls Before Swine first appeared in my local newspaper comic page about 1 1/2 years ago I must admit that I thought it was quite stupid.

This treasury changed everything. My brother brought it over one day and I became curious at how he could sit laughing in the corner over a comic strip that I thought to be useless. I picked up the book, and several hours later I couldn't put it down! The comic strips coupled with Pastis' commentaries are absolutely hilarious. I rolled with laughter for several hours and still have a smile come to my face when I think about my favorite strips in this book. I shared them with my friends and we have fun telling everyone about our personal favorites.

Even if you have yet to discover the genius that is Pearls Before Swine I would heartily recommend this book. This is a great was to start your Pearls collection!

I like Get Fuzzy but after a while the jokes seem to follow a certain format - so after a little while it gets a little old. BUT what I love about Get Fuzzy is Bucky, and the humor brought to the comic by Bucky's selfishness, meanness and stupidity. That's what Pearls Before Swine gets right with the character Rat! Rat is hilarious!! As well as Pig, Goat & Zebra - they all have their own style of joke and each one is just great!

I busted out laughing out loud many times reading this compilation! And what makes it even better is that there is commentary throughout the book by the creator, Stephan Pastis. He tells of his influences and his interactions with the syndicate - which helps add perspective to each comic.

I highly recommend this book to fans of Get Fuzzy & Dilbert (you can see some of Dogbert in Rat). And now that I know this comic is out there - I will anxiously await the next compilation and recommend it to all my friends.

I made the mistake of trying to read this book in bed. I kept waking up my wife because I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud! Pastis' comments throughout are insightful into how he conceived of and crafts the strip. Caveat emptor: I believe this book contains the same comics as two smaller collections.

First and most important, this book is hilarious. However, that's subjective, so I'll talk about something else. It's a nice deal for two or three books crammed into one. The quality seems pretty good as my book is still intact. Another one of its great features is the intro by Pastis and his comments throughout the book, which are enlightening and as hilarious as the comics themselves. This is my first comic book purchase (I've always just read them in the paper) and I plan on buying Pastis' other treasuries.

The first Pearls comic I've ever saw was the strip where Pig made Fidel Castro cry and I've been hooked ever since. I've had this collection for about a year and it still makes me laugh. A great gift for friends or yourself, an instant classic.

This strip isn't carried locally but I saw the reviews here on Amazon and decided to give it a try. I love it! Compared to the staleness of many comic strips, Pastis has created a world that's insane and hilarious. This is my new favorite and now I have to start lobbying my local paper to carry PBS.

There are four main characters. Rat is the unabashedly wicked and self-centered star. Pig is his sidekick and main foil, and his dim-witted antics and comments sometimes make me want to reach into the strip and slap him. Goat is the wise observer who is the only sane and sensible character, sort of an audience alter-ego. Zebra is pretty much one-note in this collection, he's focused on his fellow zebras who are not happy with being eaten by lions. The first laugh-out-loud moment I had was with Zebra, describing how his fellow Zebras were learning to swim to escape from the lions. The unknown 'benefactor' was so perfectly drawn I almost fell on the floor laughing.

I really enjoy most of Pastis' comments about some of the comics and his introduction as well. The book is also well-organized, it looks like each strip is presented in chronological order, not jumping around and dropping story-lines as some compilations do. Overall, a highly-recommended way to pass some time. Just don't be surprised if you're laughing out-loud in public with this book.

What can I say? If you're a fan of cruel humor, Pearls is the comic strip for you. It never gets old, and never gets less anternaining. I can read a strip three times and still crack up.Plus you have the hilarious comments from Pasyis that add a personal touch and make the strips even funnier. I definately reccomend it.