Northwest Passages: Stephan Pastis - Pearls Jubilee

While the decline of daily newspapers across the country has certainly not been a stellar development for comic strip creators, it hasn’t stopped Stephan Pastis from delivering bite sized doses of humor on a daily basis. As the creator of *Pearls Before Swine*, he’s turned his cast of observational, cynical and world-weary talking animals (Pig, Rat, Goat, etc.) into a consistent delivery system for jokes that tap into real modern frustrations with insight, laughs and some of the cringiest forced puns you can ever fathom (though in a knowingly meta way, as Pastis often inserts himself into the strips so his animals can berate him). It’s legitimately good humor that acts as an antidote to the sometimes saccharine or flaccid humor found in the rest of the funny pages. To celebrate *Pearls Before Swine*’s 25th anniversary, Pastis heads to the Garland Theater for an edition of Northwest Passages centered on his new book, a hand-picked best-of collection from the past quarter century titled *Pearls Jubilee: The Best, Worst, and Most Angrifying Pearls Before Swine Comic Strips*. (SETH SOMMEREFLED)