The Costco Connection - October 2013

By Stephanie E. Ponder

IN THE LATE 2000s, newspapers closed up shop at an unprecedented rate. The trend alarmed not only journalists, but also everyone who supplies material for the funny pages. Stephan Pastis, the lawyer-turned-cartoonist behind the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, channeled his career uncertainty into a book for young readers: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

Timmy is the young founder and CEO of the detective agency Total Failure, Inc. He happens to have a “pet” polar bear, Total, who is also his partner. The book begins with Timmy and Total having driven a car into a living room. What follows is the telling of the events—ahem, mistakes—that led to the crash.

The Connection caught up with Pastis in New York City, where he talked about his book and his comic strip.

Costco Connection: In a 2008 interview you said that newspapers were going away. Was writing a book something you had in mind to counteract job insecurity?

Stephan Pastis: When that slide started, [car-toonists] didn’t know where it would end. That was a scary time. I made an e-book for Pearls, did Timmy, wrote a screenplay. What’s cool is that, out of that necessity, I found things I enjoyed as much [as], if not more than, the strip. Writing Timmy is the funnest [sic] eight weeks of the year. I look forward to him.

CC: Timmy is a little obtuse, yet his heart is in the right place. Tell me a little about his character development.

SP: I worked from the premise that I wanted a
character with a huge blind spot, because I always
find that funny—somebody who thinks they’re one
thing and then in reality they’re something else. And
then make those two things as far apart as you can
get. Everything else just flowed from watching what
happened when I wrote it. If he was also humble, he
could be kind of sad. But he’s clueless as to how
dumb he is. He thinks he’s pretty great [and] doesn’t
feel sorry for himself. And that just made him
more compelling. And then [there are] the
other quirks, like when he speaks and insults
people it’s often from the 19th century.

CC: Will Timmy age?

SP: I’ve never said his age. That’s a [Diary of a Wimpy Kid author ] Jeff Kinney thing. He came over and said don’t put a grade or age, or otherwise you have to explain why he hasn’t moved to the next grade. So I took that to heart.

CC: Did you have your two children, Thomas, 15, and Julia, 11, read Timmy?

SP: I not only had them read the book, I had them read the book with me in the room. That is so annoying for them. I’d listen for if they’d laugh, and go, “What part was that? Why did you laugh?” If they didn’t laugh, I’d go, “What section are you in? You didn’t think that was funny? That was pretty funny.” It was really annoying; you don’t want to be my kid.

CC: The second Timmy book is scheduled for release in February, with a third in the works. How many will you write?

SP: That’s a good question. I guess until I don’t find it fun. That’s how I do everything. I’m always just trying to entertain myself, and hopefully other people are entertained. When I write, either books or Pearls, if it’s going well it feels like I’m watching, and it’s exciting to be the first person to see what [Timmy] does.

CC: Pearls Before Swine was first published in 2000. Do you see doing it indefinitely?

SP: Retirement is not in sight. Fifteen years is a good run. Twenty years is a good run. I could not do what Peanuts did or what Doonesbury does— unless I had to. Sometimes you go through weeks where you don’t know how bad you are. Sometimes you go through weeks where you don’t know how good you are. You have no short-term perspective; long term is crystal clear. As flippant as I am about it … I have to make it good. C