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Meet Jan Eliot

Jan was born in San Jose, California, moved briefly with her parents (they were the ones who could drive) to Detroit, Michigan, and then spent the remainder of her childhood in St. Charles, Illinois. She studied art at Southern Illinois University, got married and had a baby, moved to Sitka, Alaska for one year, moved to rural Oregon, had another baby, and eventually settled in Eugene with aspirations of finishing her education. Over time she discovered that it doesn't rain in Oregon quite as much as they say. It rains more.

Jan earned a degree in Women Studies and English at the University of Oregon (they occasionally try to deny this), having temporarily given up on the value of studying art. (Apparently her last truly good teacher was Mr. Arloff, in the eighth grade.) After graduating in the middle of a recession, she landed a series of jobs that ranged from bookmobile librarian to car sales. A position in the production department of a newspaper eventually led to a career in graphic design... and back in art, where she had started. Along the way Jan optimistically tried freelance cartooning as a career, but a single mom with kids to put through school must eventually come to her senses. After hailing down the owner of a new design studio on a local byway and begging him for a job, she ended up spending seven happy years in his design/advertising agency, earning a good living expounding on and illustrating the glories of capitalism.

Though it all, Jan continued to cartoon -- working with three greeting card companies, illustrating computer manuals and textbooks, contributing to a few magazines, persuading her local paper to run her comic strip "Sister City" (an early version of "Stone Soup") on a weekly basis. Raising two daughters with less than enough money, less than enough time, and less than enough patience, cartooning was the perfect outlet for life's frustrations and a safeguard for Jan's sanity. After the creation of two different cartoon strips, many ups and downs, and many thoughts of quitting, Jan arrived, happily, here. Her goal is to reflect real life in her strip, because finding the humor in reality is the only way to survive it.

If you're curious about the strip's name, it comes from an old fairy tale that illustrates how a community turned its limited resources into a grand feast and celebration -- creating something from nothing. This is what parents, especially single parents, often must do.

Jan lives with her husband Ted, who is a corporate consultant and therefore the unwitting subject of "Dilbert" cartoons, and Lily, a Schipperke, who is the occasional subject of "Stone Soup" in the character of Biscuit.

"Stone Soup" has been syndicated since November of 1995. Andrews & McMeel recently published the first book collection, coincidentally titled "Stone Soup."