Pearls Before Swine began as the absent-minded doodles of a bored law school student, during a European economics class that couldn't hold Stephan Pastis's attention. It was not unusual for Pastis, an amateur cartoonist in his spare time, to draw during class. But that day, a small creature with big ears and a pointed nose emerged - the rat that has appeared in every comic strip Pastis has since created.

Though Pastis had always wanted to be a cartoonist, his practical nature led him to UCLA School of Law. After he graduated in 1993, he got married and began working at a San Francisco law firm. By 1996, though, he was sending his comic strips to various media outlets (having since developed a sweet-natured pig to go with the narcissistic rat). In 1999, United Feature Syndicate began running the strip on its website, where it attracted fans like Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

Pearls Before Swine, which chronicles the lives of Pastis's odd cast of anthropomorphic creatures, made its newspaper debut four years ago. It appears in more than 400 papers worldwide.

Pastis, 39, can now count the Monitor among them. He took the time yesterday to introduce himself, and his strip, to his new readers.

Concord Monitor: So, I don't know if you know the story here, but Pearls Before Swine was picked by readers to replace FoxTrot.

Stephan Pastis: Someone here just told me that. I didn't know that. That's terrific!

Congratulations! You beat out Mutts, Get Fuzzy . . .

Oh, wow, that's tough to beat Get Fuzzy. That's amazing.

Do you have anything to say to the people who voted for you?

Just . . . thank you. It's great. I'm thrilled!

What about for the readers who might not be familiar with your strip? What are a few things they should know about it?

The heart of it is a friendship between two characters, a rat and a pig. The rat is mean, fatalistic. The pig is sweet and kind. But mostly dumb. Then there's a goat, who's the wise one. There's a zebra, who lives next door to a fraternity of crocodiles. Who try to kill him. Unsuccessfully. And finally, there's a duck who sits in a pillbox on the front lawn and shoots at people.

Did you say a fraternity of crocodiles or a family?

A fraternity, yes. Although there is a family there, too. I haven't really explained that, but that's something I might develop at some point.

How would you describe the philosophy of Pearls Before Swine?

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