All about comic timing

Nonchalant, unassuming, and of course, funny; by his own admission, Stephan Pastis shares most traits of his favourite comic strip character, Rat. Author of the hugely popular comic strip series Pearls Before Swine, Stephan admits that he identifies with the rodent more than any other character of his strip — including the pot bellied man with a reverse cap, who represents him. “I wanted to write about despised creatures — like the ‘dirty’ pig or the ‘dirty’ rat. A lion for instance, would’ve been too noble,” he explains, talking about his now-iconic creations. The name of the strip comes from an expression in the Bible, he informs. “Don’t cast your pearls before swine — which means don’t waste your wisdom on people who aren’t listening. Rat, in this case, thinks that everything he says is a ‘pearl of wisdom’ and then it’s wasted on Pig, or the swine,” he tells us over a Skype call from his studio in California.

Stephan was in Mumbai last year for a fleeting stopover when he visited Goa for a talk at BITs Pilani. In town for a brief period, he spent his time getting a local flavour of the metropolis. “I visited Haji Ali dargah, traveled in a local train from CST station and had a few beers at Gokul (a modest watering hole on Colaba). But I’d love to come back. I didn’t spend enough time,” says Stephan who spent the few months before his visit reading books such as Maximum City and watching Bollywood films such as Three Idiots, Swades and Gangs of Wasseypur. “I love it! I continued watching Bollywood even after I came back to the States,” he gushes after taking down a few more recommendations for masala movies and books about Mumbai.

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Stephan, as most of his fans know, turned to comic writing after practising law for almost a decade. With no formal training in the field, he pursued his love for stick figures until one day, when he got commissioned for a strip. Luckily for him, Stephan got a lesson from the master — Charles Schulz (of Peanuts fame) early on. “I had read that he has coffee at this particular café every morning. I drove down to the café, not knowing if he’d entertain me, but he spent an hour with me.” His other brushes with the comic heavyweights include the time Scott Adams (Dilbert) endorsed his work. “He also gave me a very important tip — he said write for one person instead of writing for an amorphous blob.” For Stephan that one person is best friend, Emelio. “If you’re just starting about, I’d suggest you write for someone else — someone who doesn’t necessarily like you, and see if he or she laughs,” he suggests.

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There’s one more quirk Stephan employs when writing. He listens to loud music — Pink Floyd, U2, Radiohead. The idea, he says, “Is to distract the left side of the brain from applying logic. When writing humour, it’s important that you don’t apply logic. Blaring music helps the left side of the brain stay out of the writing process.” Most of Pastis’ creations are off handed, sometimes existential, but never slapstick. “I think it is that way with most people of my generation,” says the 48-year-old. “If you look at the television that we were exposed to in the ’90s — like Seinfeld — you’ll see that it was never about overreacting. That’s what comics used to do in 1940s and ’50s USA.”

Coming back to his brush with the biggies, the legendary and extremely reclusive Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes) came out of retirement to guest write for Pearls before Swine. “I was with him when it came out in newspapers. I just kept staring at him because it was difficult to treat him like a normal person! It was a collaborative effort even though it could well have been just his idea given how big a name his is. But he was very, very nice. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Apart from penning the strip, Stephan has also authored a series of children’s books  — the Timmy Failure series —  which stood at number four on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children’s Middle Grade Books. In the words of Stephan, “Timmy is a detective who can take any mystery and make it more mysterious.” He is currently researching to write a book with a little girl as the protagonist. “Did you know that little girls hear better than little boys? Or that they see colour better than little boys? Also, a little male bully is more likely to catch a stranger all alone whereas a little female bully is more likely to catch hold of a known person in a group,” he quotes from his research.

While in his studio, Stephan gives us a little tour of the place — a wall where there are framed strips of Dilbert, Bizarro and Calvin and Hobbes among others and an empty wooden desk, where he sketches his characters. “I write about 10 strips a week, even if need to do only seven— that means three extra strips every week and 150 extra every year. That gives me 22 weeks off to do other stuff,” he says. The ‘other stuff’ include his books, and if all goes well, a motion picture based on his creations. But Stephan is tight-lipped about that.

Next, Stephan wants to write a travel book. This is not the first time he’d be attempting something autobiographical, though. His strip, too, is popular for  drawing instances from his life. So much so that when Stephan drew a strip with his character being thrown out of the house, fans thought he had matrimonial problems. “Can you believe that? It was crazy! Washington Post did a story on it too,” he says amused.  Speaking about his travel book, he continues, “I want to jot down funny instances from my journeys. I don’t know who’ll read it, but I want to try it,” he says before signing off.