Chris Smith: ‘Pearls' creator Stephan Pastis and literary friends will speak at a fire benefit at the Schulz Museum

Cartoonists and authors you may be wild about will converge at the Schulz Museum next Saturday (Dec. 9) for “Drawing Strength,” a conversation and book-signing to benefit fire-relief efforts.

Be there to hear and speak with three local literary stars:

• Stephan Pastis, creator of the wildly popular “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip and “Timmy Failure” children's books.

• Graphic novelist and science writer Brian Fies, whose “Mom's Cancer” won an Eisner Award and who responded to the loss of his family's home to the Tubbs inferno with a raw and compelling comic narrative, “A Fire Story.”

• Comic fantasy author Christopher Moore, whose prolific works include “The Serpent of Venice,” “Fool,” “Lamb” and “Sacré Bleu,” and whom Carl Hiassen called “a very sick man, in the very best sense of that word.”

Tickets are at schulzmuseum.org.

I get to moderate the 6 p.m. conversation with Pastis, Fies and Moore. Afterward will be a reception and a signing and draw-a-thon by that trio and also Dave Eggers, Raina Telgemeier and Judd Winick.

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PHYLLIS SMITH has her police patch.

Phyllis is one of many who picked up from the Exchange Bank a thank-you card and envelope, then used them to express her gratitude to the Daly City Police Department for sending officers to help out during the fires.

Touched by her note, Police Chief Manuel Martinez wrote a reply to Phyllis and gathered up for her a DCPD arm patch and collectible departmental coin. The only return address he had was the Exchange Bank's, so he mailed the note and gifts there.

Phyllis is not a customer, so the bank didn't know how to reach her. I wrote about Phyllis. Her daughter, Loreen Theveny, saw the story and contacted the Exchange Bank.

Her mom now treasures the mementos from Chief Martinez. And now we know why Phyllis singled out his department for praise:

She and her daughter had to evacuate their home in Rincon Valley back in October, and where do you suppose they found refuge and a warm welcome? Daly City.

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OLD TEA SETS and company's-coming serving platters, the sorts of family hand me downs that reside in hutches, are in sudden demand.

Volunteers at thrift stores such at the Welfare League shop in Railroad Square know why. The other day a woman gasped to find on a sales shelf an 1847 Rogers Bros. tea set.

She explained that she lost one just like it, a family heirloom, to the firestorm. She purchased the replacement and will keep it boxed until she has a home to put it in.

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‘TRUMP'S WORLD' will be examined in Petaluma this Sunday (Dec. 3) by one of our career diplomats, Ted Eliot.

The Sonoma Mountain resident's world view was forged in part by his 30-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service and his tenure as the ambassador to Afghanistan. Eliot will reflect on the current state of U.S. foreign policy in a talk at 3:45 p.m. in the Ellis Auditorium at SRJC's Petaluma campus.

He appears as part of the Literacyworks Lecture Series. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors, and will be available at the door.

Students will hear Eliot for free.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.