Stone Soup (comic strip)
| Stone Soup | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jan Eliot |
| Current status / schedule | Sundays only |
| 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, 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.
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,
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.
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.)
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