Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury Review

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn is another Pearls Before Swine treasury collecting comics between mid-2015 to early 2017 which also published in book form in the collections I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream Because Puns Suck and Floundering Fathers.


My Thoughts: Like all Pearls treasuries, this one commences with an intro; however, the one here is one of Stephen Pastis's most heartfelt ones as he laments the dejection of losing his home and condo (where he draws his comics) in the 2018 California wildfires while he was vacationing in Latin America. The emotions conveyed were raw with the tints of dry, whimsical humor to it which you would expect from Pastis. The comics themselves, as usual, were rife with gallows humor, puns, and forth-wall breaking which left me in multiple fits of hysterics. There were more overtly politically-charged strips in this collection which, while effectively capturing the intense, polarizing atmosphere of the ongoing 'Trump' era (as many call it), might run into the risk of becoming dated in the coming years like most topical works. That being said, I hope it will be at least an interesting relic of the time period it was made in when I look back at it in a decade from today, much like how comic strips such as Doonesbury and Bloom County are fun to go through if you're aware of the political climate of their time. Stephen Pastis's commentary, as should be, contained amusing to downright hilarious jabs at and short anecdotes about himself and other individuals surrounding him as well as the comics. However, Pastis's comments about the mild swears (i.e. damn, hell, ass, etc) he's able to slip past the censors got a little redundant after a while since he has mentioned this countless other times in his previous treasuries.

Final Thoughts: Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn is another solid compilation of Pearls comics worth reading if you're a Stephen Pastis fan or just want a quick laugh to lighten up your day.