Pastis the Time with Us Friday

My local chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, in conjunction with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, are welcoming syndicated Pearls Before Swine cartoonist Stephan Pastis this weekend for a lecture on Friday and an appearance at the FallCon Comic Book Convention in St. Paul on Saturday.

Friday evening at 6:30 in the MCAD auditorium, Stephen will be doing a presentation about his comic strip work and his career, followed by a panel discussion on cartooning int he 21st Century featuring Stephan, myself, editorial cartoonist Paul Fell, syndicated cartoonist Jerry Van Amerongen (Ballard Street) and freelance illustrator James Hungaski. We will also all be at FallCon on the State Fairgrounds on Saturday, so look for us at the NCS booth.

I know Stephan pretty well, having literally been to the wars with him (in Iraq and Afghanistan on our cartoonist USO tours). He’s a funny guy and extremely bright, with a great story behind his start in cartooning. He was a courtroom lawyer for years, and cartooning was something he loved and wanted to do. Thanks to his persistence, talents and the encouragement of Charles Schulz, he ended up leaving the courtrooms completely and becoming a very successful cartoonist. He’s been nominated for “Cartoonist of the Year” several times by the NCS, and his strip has won numerous “Best Comic Strip” divisional awards. This will be a fun weekend.

The Friday night speaking event is open to the public, and of course so is FallCon, so come by and see us if you are in the Twin Cities area.