Pearls Before Lio

Well, there's been another Steve Pastis sighting. The characters of Pearls Before Swine have a history of appearing -- and cross referencing -- other comic strips. And Pastis' avatar has shown up in other strips.

I normally don't read Mark Tartulli's strip Lio (not quite my type of humor), but this particular panel I found very entertaining.

In this one panel Tartulli references three different comic strips. And a good deal of the humor depends on how familiar the reader is with all of them. You have to know what Blondie looks like (she's remained just as curvaceous she did in her first appearance in 1930). Pastis has always portrayed himself as somewhat shady in his own strip, so he's right in character. And Leroy Lockhorn, although unhappily married in "The Lockhorns" has a wandering eye as one of his character flaws.

Obviously, there's a connection between the two strips. Here's Pastis talking about Tartuli's work.


Reading comics has its own rewards. Panels like this are one of them.