Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for June 24, 2012

If this turns out to be true, I’m gonna start reading FC.

Reminds me of a Doonesbury a long time ago that was a puzzle for the whole week…except they left out the punchline piece…

Yes, Jeffy, you do need forgiveness… but that’s not what you’re gonna get.It’s time to CRY HAVOC AND LET SLIP THE DUCKS OF WAR!!!

6, 1, 3, 5, 8, 2, 4, 7

… methinks the order they’re in now is fine …. . . just fine . . .

WOW….just WOW!

TWO expletive ‘symbols’ that clearly are representing ONE, xtra bad word….AND it’s a Family Circus slam at the same time.

I LOVE IT!!!!

Actually, I believe the proper order is:6 1 3 5 4 7 8 22 must be last, because Pig has just explained that the panels were scrambled, so rat is asking if they are correct now

SherlockWatson’s panel order is correct:2-6-3-74-1-8-5

The punchline is the family circus bubble. There can’t be any question about that.There is only one proper order for this strip.61358247 (as said by AL, or, using Sherlocks’ alternative notation 26374185).That’s that.

What a strange super power for Mr Patis to have, the ability to make people try to figure out how exactly his strip is supposedly aligned, when it deliberately is left open enough for many answers…

Patis please watch kickass before you put on a costume.

I also came up with A L’s order:

What happened to YOU?Jeffy beat me up! The Family Circus kid?Why? I don’t know — he just kept saying..Don’t @#$% with us…He SAID that? Yeah, and then he tore up the strip.Is it in order now?I did the best I could.Where is he now?I dunno…. he ran off to ask his Mommy….And the Family Circus knock-off is the punchline.

It can’t start with Rat asking if the panels are in order before he knows they’re torn!Or are you numbering a different way, Sherlock?

I think it’s funny in a bizarre way ; the foul language Jeffery is useing. This will be a classic.

I wonder if Pastis knows that “FC” is how the Unabomber referred to himself in his bomb threats, as in “The FC is going to blow up an airliner”, or “Don’t @#*# with the FC you little punks.” BTW, I’m with Al on the order: 6, 1, 3, 5, 8, 2, 4, 7.

Jeffy’s line should’ve been,“Welcome to the F.C.,b#%@h!”

Wrong kid. I stopped regulary reading Family Circus years ago, before I ever even learn Pearls existed, and I still remember Billy’s the blonde boy wh is the oldest, Dolly’s the girl and second oldest, Jeffey (seen in today’s strip) is the redhead boy and second youngest, and PJ’s the baby of the family.

Great now we have do it your self Pearls strips !

This is excellent!

But Poor Pig. That guy from Family Circus sounds a right bully.

xxx

I’ve noticed quite a few jabs at FC over the past year or so. Is there something the Keanes did to piss off Stephen Pastis?

Look out Jeffy, Guard Duck is own his way and he is armed. Run Jeffy run.

LOL!! $#%£@& Up a Pig?

lol . . . I love it!All those years . . . I knew the Family Circle had a dark side. Thank you Pastis for revealing how those kids bully and intimidate the other comics.

The AL order is clear, and two others have elaborated on the logic of the continuity.I’ve always resented proselytizing using the comics like FC (also BC) so I enjoy the barbs.

Ya, I agree A L’s got it right, too. Both 6 and 8 show clearly where they belong by the outlines on the strip itself. In the beginning. No one else even looked at that, apparently, because they’re in the wrong positions. Context and outlines then all make sense. Some of the context people here are trying to sell don’t even make sense. Not even if you haven’t had your coffee yet.

6, 1, 3, 5, 8, 2, 4, 7!

Actually, both SherlockWatson and A L are correct, they’re just expressing it differently. SherlockWatson is numbering the panels the way they’re supposed to be read (so the second panel in the bottom row should actually be panel number1), while A L is numbering the panels the way they’re shown, and then rearranging the numbers into the correct order (so he’s saying that the second panel in the bottom row is panel number 6, but should be read first.) It took me a while to figure out what A L was doing though, because SherlockWaton’s way is how I did it.

this is clever, when comics kids visit others they can be so funny! Jeffy must have had an interesting life!

‘Sherlock’ needs a new moniker if that is the best detective work he can do..

Yes, AL’s order is correct. As others have pointed out, the punchline is the FC panel, which should come at the end.

I always thought Jeffey was a little brat, and now we know it’s true!

Has he ever done one for FBorFW? Would love to see one on that strip.

2 4 6 8 1 3 5 7

or

1 3 5 7 2 4 6 8

Do you people have OCD? The lack of order is part of what makes it funny. Plus, it’s obviously intended to be FC payback for the team Cul de Sac strip that Pastis drew.

Why is Jeffy outside the church? – or did pig just guess that he was running off to mommy?

*Though not as much of a snitch as Dolly was. She was an Olympic-standard snitch.

Some comments seem to be more about how they haven’t noticed that their senses of humor have changed…or values…love the strip’s format(s) today…one of the big tests (!) the DGA gives is…arranging comics’ order…aced it a couple of times. And yes, it WORKS every way you can do it, today. Go on…try ALL combinations. Call me in ten years…

well has any one tried peicing the strip together

One of the top five PB4S ever, and I’m counting the classics. I laughed for half an hour.

Um… I think the guy in thoday’s strip is an imposter… The real Jeffy wouldn’t admit his actions; he would blame “Not Me” or “I Don’t Know.” Personally, I think it’s Lucy in a disguise…

Why bother, any way it’s laid out it makes as much sense as it ever does.

Sherlock’s order is positional, panel 6 is the first panel, panel 1 is the second panel, etc.

6: What happened to you?Jeffy Keane beat me up.1:The ‘Family Circus’ kid?Yeah. He just ran over from their Sunday strip and started punching me.3:Why would he do that?I don’t know He just kept saying…5: “This’ll teach you little ‘Pearls’ Punks to @## with the F.C.”8:He said that?Yeah. And that wasn’t even the worst part. After that, he ripped all the panels of our strip apart and threw them to the ground.2:Are our panels in the right order now?Who knows? I tried to put them back together the best I could.4:Well, where’s that idiot now?He ran to ask his mommy something.Ask her what?7:“Do I need forgiveness for #%&#% up a pig?”

In any case, it’s one of the most original concepts I’ve heard, or seen executed in comics in any time or century. Still topped by the Upside-Downs of Gustave Verbeeck for sheer cleverness and ingenuity.

Deep concept… love it.

Brilliant! All of these people (myself included) taking the time to reorganize the panels. This one convinced me to start paying instead of getting the strip for free.

A new favourite!

It is obviously like that book of Borges [sp?] that was random pages that the reader was suppose to assemble for himself.

Its crazy that the comments are focused on the correct order of the pieces, but, oh well, I agree with 61358247, that way there is a punch line, with 61354782 there is no punch line, and the strip ends kinda dull, and 26374185 doesnt even make sense, how could rat ask if the panels are in the right order if he or we have not been told. Plus you can tell that panel 6 is from the upper left hand side, so it is obviously the first one, and 2 is in the bottom set of panels.

I wonder how many people printed this strip and cut out the panels individually and figured out what order they go in…..i did. haha

I canceled my paper.

good job!

Well, this is something Bil Keane would have never done since he was Catholic which reminds again that he did pass away last year. That rugged comic strip look was not to be copied.

In my opinion, F.C. should have Football Club from the Toronto F.C. and Jeffy swearing before entering church would probably offend some readers. One of the greatest strips I ever read by far.

Did Pig just repeat himself and why the hell would Jeffy come into the Pearls’ strip anyways.

It’s was kind of fun trying to read the panels in the correct order.

Targeting Dolly’s house first. They’re going down!

Sith empire, rise against family circus! WE WILL DESTROY THEM!

the panel order is this. 6, 1, 4, 7, 3, 5, 8, 2.

The order of the panels: 6, 1, 3, 5, 8, 2, 4, 7