Sarah Dees, a writer for Examiner.com, shared a great piece on the recent Palladium visit by Stephan Pastis, the syndicated cartoonist. Pastis spoke to a packed house recently, as he stopped by on his book tour. The event was brought to us by our friends at the Tampa Bay Times.
To read Sarah’s full article, follow this link. An excerpt appears below:
Steve Persall, the movie critic for the the Tampa Bay Times, introduced Stephan Pastis, and then stayed onstage with him, sharing a chat at the beginning, and then moderating a question and answer session after Pastis spoke.
The strip is populated with characters like rat, pig, goat, guard duck, and the crocs, who are main, recurring characters, as well as a menagerie of other characters who may have come in as a guest in one strip, and then ended up returning to stay. “I draw animals because I can get away with a lot more. I picked animals that are kind of despised,” said Stephan Pastis. “I keep a little note pad by the bed. I’ve learned to write in the dark. The crocs just came out of nowhere at 3 am. I knew right away that they would be regular characters. The Zebra came from being in the strip just one time. The guard duck came from being in one strip.”
“My theory of humor is incongruity, like a sweet little duck that’s violent, or the mean crocodile is the lamest character in the strip,” he said. “My favorite Pearls character is Rat.”
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