Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Volume 3)

I love Penny Arcade. The strip is relevant to everyday events for gamers and perusers of popular culture, but that makes it inaccessible to a large audience, especially non-gamers. Dilbert suffers in the same way although it is about working in a large company and dealing with morons. Both strips are something that clearly can be related to, even if your not an office worker or a gamer, but clearly Dilbert has wider appeal.Pearls Before Swine is not like either of those. It is a fable at best, but deep down it wants to be bizarre fun, and because it doesn't come with the trappings of a set target audience that will identify, or at worst relate, everyone is in the same boat and has to accept the characters as they are. There is a certain amount of character development in that characters are introduced and traits revealed, which overall helps in the reading of comics as the "story" progresses. But really there is no story, like Garfield and Hagar arcs seldom last more than three panels, and even though Pastis's commentary reveals the occasional desire to do more as far as arcs are concerned, for the post part he is after the joke, the appreciation of a clever three panel joke.Like many of these compilation there is a commentary and mostly they are a waste of time. I believe the authors know this given what they occasionally put in there. Really you normally don't buy these books for the commentary, but with this one I found quite a few nuggets of clever ideas and thinking about the comic/joke/characters, which seems to me to set Pastis apart from other comic strip writers. I would argue that Pastis's approach is more pure and from the hard than other comics.That doesn't mean that the comics are consistently funny or better than anything else, in fact I would say that much like any other syndicated comic strip there are some clear misses, heck Pastis's commentary gives away that he feels the same way, but remains proud of them. And he should be: His creation is different from a lot of strips and although similar to others it does feel like it bends and breaks the occasional rule with great success.The detracted star is because the book started falling apart before I'd finished reading it. The binding is sadly dreadful. Hopefully this was a rare occasions, but be warned.I'd say most people would get a good laugh out of this collection.

I don't know how Pastis got this made, or haf of the stuff he does, but he did. The results are predictable - and funny. With no Larson's, Watterson's, or anyone else of note on the horizon, we have to settle for Pearls Before Swine to get a laugh in an inch of space. But what a universe Stephen has created. The neat thing you don't usually see is on this calendar the 'punchline' is the feature, the big color picture of the month. The strip it actually came from is inset below, so you can place the context and get the joke - and once you get to know the characters and the running storylines, they can be laugh-out loud funny. You can smile whenever you glance at your calendar. Dilbert probably doesn't evoke the same positive feeling - even though it's funny too. Pearls Before Swine is an alternate universe, mostly made up of funny animals and more often than occasionally, the artist himself, but all inhabit personalities that we all can relate to, and he articulates and actually says many of the things we secretly wish we could say or what we really think. An annual must for fans, not as easily a hit with newbies - get them a book first or they may just not 'get it'. Shop for price and make sure you get the wall calendar rather than the day to day - retailers will bait and switch with both, and availability does vary.

This, Volume 3, is actually Volume 1 (BLTs Taste So Darn Good) and Volume 2 (This Little Piggy Stayed Home) combined in their entirety. The format is larger, and about a third of the strips have commentary from the author.

I sent this to someone who is incarcerated and they said they were enjoying it and would share it with others in the pod when they were done with it.

I love the Pearls Before Swine comic strip, and this one is a bonanza! It is a treasury containing the first two years' worth of strips. So for you Pearls fans, it will be fun to see the evolution of the strip, as characters are added. In this treasury, Larry and his alligator clan and Guard Duck are not yet part of the clan. Stephan's notes about reader/syndicate reactions to individual strips, his feelings about his characters, and his artistic strengths and weakness are included under every third strip or so. Sometimes these comments are as funny as, or even funnier than the comic strips themselves.

I have only been a follower for a few months now, only because I had pretty much given up on comic strips the last few years. My father told me about it and I've been hooked ever since! I decided to go back to the beginning to get a better feel for the characters. This is by far the funniest book I have read in a long time. This rivals Calvin and Hobbes in it's hilarity (in my opinion). I found the authors comments both informative and entertaining. This is a must read for anyone that enjoys Pearls! My only complaint is the quality of the binding of the book. At about page 150 I was reading it with it open on the floor and the binding came apart. Kind of bummed about that because it's a nice looking cover and wanted to add it to my bookshelf. Oh well...That being said, I'll be ordering the next collection in order to keep getting caught up!

As a huge fan of the strip, I enjoyed it, especially all the comments regarding his artwork and learning to write for comedic effect. It’s the artists first book and in all honesty, not all that funny. While I did get a few chuckles out of it, it’s not as laugh-out-loud funny as some of his other treasuries.I would recommend this one to the most die-hard fans. If you are new to Pearls, I would suggest: “Pearls Hogs the Road”, or “Pearls gets Sacrificed”. Those volumes are hilarious from start to finish and would be better for those of you just getting started following this comic strip.My plan is to ultimately collect all the treasury editions, and while I’m glad I’ve got this in my stash, there are other volumes that are way more entertaining for newbies.

pearls is by far my favourite comic strip, and the commentary makes it even better!

Thoroughly enjoyed it.