Pearls Before
Swine is a cartoon that's mainly based around two characters -
Pig and
Rat.
Rat is
arrogant,
philosophical and
self-centered.
Rat's personality is apparently the one which most closely
matches that of the author, by his own admission. Rat spends his time with the intellectually
inferior pig because no-one else wants to hang around with him.
Pig is a little slow of the
brain,
humble and
kind. His relationship with Rat is perhaps one of the opposites attract kind, or perhaps he admires
Rat's outgoing schemes.
Other characters include a smart goat, and a zebra who spends his time trying to find ways to protect his species against predators such as
lions, including a plan to arm his friends with
automatic weapons.
The strip is produced by Stephan Pastis, who was raised in
California.