Some people learned to read using Dick and Jane; others, like Stephan Pastis, learned to read using Peanuts.
It makes sense, then, that he abandoned his career as a lawyer and became a cartoonist. In 2002, the world saw its first Pearls Before Swine, best described as the comic strip's answer to animated television's Squiggle Vision.
Meet Pastis this Sunday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m., when he speaks to an expected standing-room-only crowd at St. Petersburg's Palladium Theater (253 Fifth Ave. N.). This appearance, part of his One Step Ahead of the Mob tour, will offer crowds the chance to get a signed copy of Pearls Gets Sacrificed: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury. He'll also talk about how the strip came into existence.
Tampa Bay Times movie critic and reporter Steve Persall will ask grill him in the Times' hard-hitting journalistic fashion, including asking questions such as "What's wrong with you? Were you dropped on your head as a kid?" and "Are you really sleeping in a basket."
