Stone Soup (comic strip)

Stone Soup
Author(s) Jan Eliot
Current status / schedule Sundays only [1]
Launch date November, 1995
Syndicate(s) Universal Press Syndicate
Genre(s) Humor, Politics, Family

Stone Soup, renamed for the stone soup fable, is an internationally syndicated American comic strip written and illustrated by Jan Eliot. The comic strip began as a weekly in 1990,[2] and ran for five years in the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard under the name "Sister City", before being syndicated. The syndicated daily strip debuted in November 1995. Universal Press syndicate reportedly requested the name change because they felt that the original name might be perceived by some readers as too "feminist" in orientation. In October 2015, the strip ceased daily production but Eliot planned to continue producing the Sunday version.[3]

The Stone family features a family headed by single mother Val, an uncommon contrast with the ordinary nuclear family depicted in more traditional strips. As the author explained,

When I write I am writing first and foremost for single and working parents. I often felt very isolated and "put down" because of my circumstances (I was a single working mom for 10 years). I even had a teacher tell me that their school "was a better place before all the single moms arrived". My daughters both turned out fabulously, thank you, and I think I was a good parent.[2]

It is common for strip storylines to consist of household squabbles and arguments that are not resolved. Unlike many strips, the characters do age, but at a very slow rate. Val has celebrated her 38th and 39th birthdays in the strip; Alix and Holly were 9 and 12 when the strip began, and are now 10 and 13.

Characters

Main Characters

Recurring characters

Val's book club

Val belongs to a book club with an assortment of characters from other strips, including Elly from For Better or For Worse, Alice from Dilbert, and Rose/Vicki the biker chick from Rose Is Rose, and Connie Duncan, the mom from Zits. Cathy was mentioned, but "couldn't come till she found the right man and lost 10 pounds." The book club also threw a baby shower for Joan, which takes place in the book There's No "WE" in Crowning (published in 2007). This is a short collection that takes the reader from the first onset of Joan's pregnancy till the birth of Luci by a midwife at home. Strips featuring the book club have appeared on at least three occasions and are republished in the 2005 trade paperback collection. (See below.)

Stone Soup collections

Title Publication Date ISBN Publisher
Stone Soup 1997 ISBN 0-9674102-2-3 Four Panel Press
You Can't Say Boobs on Sunday 1999 ISBN 0-9674102-0-7 Four Panel Press
Stone Soup The Comic Strip 2001 ISBN 0-9674102-1-5 Four Panel Press
Road Kill in the Closet 2003 ISBN 0-9674102-3-1 Four Panel Press
Not So Picture Perfect 2005 ISBN 0-9674102-5-8 Four Panel Press
Desperate Households 2007 ISBN 0-7407-6429-2 Andrews McMeel
There's No "We" in Crowning! 2007 none Universal Press Syndicate (only available from Lulu)
Ho Ho Ho: A Stone Soup Christmas 2007 none Universal Press Syndicate (only available from Lulu)
This Might Not Be Pretty 2008 ISBN 0-9674102-6-6 Four Panel Press
We'll Be Really Careful 2011 ISBN 978-0-9674102-7-2 Four Panel Press
Brace Yourself 2011 ISBN 0-9674102-8-2 Four Panel Press
It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time 2014 ISBN 0-9674102-9-0 Four Panel Press

See also

Notes

  1. Stone Soup Blog, "Sundays Forever", September 21 2015, retrieved on November 13, 2015
  2. 1 2 3 Washington Post chat transcript, October 24, 2003, retrieved on July 8, 2007.
  3. http://registerguard.com/rg/life/lifestyles/33537841-74/eugenes-jan-eliot-reminisces-as-her-stone-soup-comic-strip-ends-its-daily-run.html.csp
  4. http://www.gocomics.com/stonesoup/2010/12/08/
  5. 1 2 The ages of Joan and Max, accessed June 14, 2010
  6. Daily strip, October 14, 2015.
  7. Road Kill in the Closet, pp 6-7, 188.
  8. "He's 16..."; URL accessed July 28, 2011.
  9. Road Kill in the Closet, pp 5-22.
  10. Desperate Households
  11. Stone Soup comic strip December 24–26, 2014
  12. You Can't Say Boobs On Sunday, p 78.

References

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