Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 23, 2019

In many ways Charlie Brown was the GOAT. His character helped create so many future characters, including Goat (Paris).

thank you charles schulz

Yes you were ahead of your time, Chuck, and (almost) all of us could all relate to you but you still lost all the baseball games.

Can you tell that Charles Shulz was one of Stephan’s idols?

I’ll bet Goat gets a swelled head when he finds out.

For a minute there I thought I was reading the wrong strip.

And I think I was. In this strip Rat is being nice.

I dunno about Pig but Goat would be happy to know this.

Rat can be nice, he just doesn’t show it much.

Not much I can say about Sparky except that I loved his work—as did Stephan and just about every other cartoonist wannabe. Volumes have been written about what Peanuts is all about. We all owe him a lot.

Not on;y did Schulz help Stephan Pastis get his start,

Pastis lives here in Santa Rosa CA, where Schulz did, too…

and, because he was a lawyer before a cartoonist, he sat on the board at the Charles Schulz Museum, and also provided legal assistance in regards to Peanuts licensing.

 

When I briefly volunteered at that museum in 2010, he had just left that position…

I don’t know whether it was paid or not… and I never got to meet him.

But others there pointed out some of the Peanuts references and tributes in Pearls…

 

The beach scenes, the brick wall where characters used to always meet to talk, though now the cafe counter is more present…

A lamp that looks like Charlie Brown’s zig zag T-shirt…

there’s more but I forget till I see it…

oh yeah… I think Pig’s bean bag chair… and some expressions in the dialogue, like “Sigh…”

“Chuck”? Is Peppermint Patty somehow mixed up in this?

The strip is wider today than usual. Because strips were allotted wider spaces in the paper back in Peanuts days, I’m guessing?

And a hero is just a sandwich.

Rat still managed to get Chuck’s goat.

Real life lesson: Wanting  to be a hero is the least likely way to become one. Just doing what needs to be done, even if your bowels are loose and the sky is falling is the better option.

I was going down the comics without looking at titles and was thrown at the better coloring of Charley Brown til I saw Rat. Nice pastiche.

Thanks, Sparky. Enjoy Heaven.

Good grief!

Awwww, RAT stepped up to make Charlie feel better.

Hey, Stephan. I love your work. But, in this case, aren’t you supposed to include something like “Apologies to Charles Schulz”, even if in fine print?

Don’t forget that he also worked with Bill Watterson who created “Calvin & Hobbes” on a story arc as “drawn by a second grader”.

I can tell that reruns of Peanuts have not aged well.

Here I am half awake yet and wondering why Charlie Brown is drawn differently in todays comic until Rat showed up and I go: “oooooh… right.” sips more coffee

Does Goat know this?

Here’s 5 cents, get some psychiatric help.

?! Wait, What?!……This is drawn really well…leading to the question….why just this time?…. X-)

That is actually wonderful!

That was pretty cool of Rat

Charlie Brown, if you were ahead of your time, why are you still feeling glum in the fourth panel?

Having reassured Charlie, maybe Rat should talk to him about that ‘Lucy and the football’ thing.

Hey Stephan, per your remarks between panels one and two: No apologies necessary. He (Schulz) would have been honored…

G.O.A.T? The greatest losing pitcher of all time in the little league …

This is awesome!

Now, if he turns real fast the inertia of his visor rotates the whole cap too?

Stephan samples and remixes! He’s SOooooooo postmodern!

I thought for a moment I had gone to Peanuts (even though today’s strip has Snoopy writing a letter) until Rat came in. Always nice when Pastis is very blatant in his Peanuts tributes.

An Orange Goat??

Rats!

Bravo!!!!

most excellent

Great tribute to your mentor, Mr. Pastis!

One shudders to think what might have transpired if back in the day Charlie Brown actually had met up with and been influenced by Rat!

Or is this just Cartoon-Boy’s Envy-dream?

I’ve been thinking this exact thing about C.B.

Rats!

Good grief! (As Major Matt Mason said … )

Sounds like being this kind of G.O.A.T. isn’t all bad, though.

Nice tribute.

I’m sure he did this for Sparky

The goat of the game, but the life of the party.

Way late, but the Daily Cartoonist pointed to this:

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1958/06/16

They’ll never tell you they’re all just paying their devil’s due to Baphomet.

Rat meets Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown will always be the GOAT. Well, he and Snoopy.