Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for June 21, 2020

Bye, sniff…

I hope we keep getting reruns.

To all the fathers, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

Last strip on July 26.

When the final strip comes, Ms. Eliot, it has been a pleasure reading your strip.

I came back to say thank you for all the pleasure I have gotten from your strip. Will really miss you. Have a great rest of your life. Come back any time.

Thank you for such wonderful characters. You’ve given us years of pleasure. Enjoy your retirement.

Enjoy your life. We all had fun reading the strip.

Have fun!

No passing the torch, it was too close to the heart for her to give this cartoon to other people. Enjoy retirement and thanks for all these years.

Happy Trails to you………..

Classy exit.

I have loved your strip since the first day it came out. I’m sorry to see it go, but I’m glad you stopped while it was still excellent. Good luck with whatever you do next!

Thanks, Jan. See you on Stone Soup Classics.

I, too, have enjoyed the strip since its beginning and will miss seeing new situations with the Stones, even if only on Sundays nowadays. Glad we’re seeing older ones on GoComics so I get to enjoy them all over again. Have a happy, fun-filled retirement, Jan. And stay healthy; that’s key for us older folks.

thanks for all your work ! I will still enjoy binge-reading the archives, this story goes trough time easily .

Didn’t like the new “Heart” @ 1st. either. Looks like it is developing, tho!

You’ll be sorely missed! Enjoy your retirement <3

I’ll miss Stone Soup always!!! The best to you, Jan and enjoy every moment!

So sorry to see you go, but enjoy your well deserved retirement.

Bummer, I enjoyed it while it was here.

As cartoon authors start out you can see how times change and how well the characters adapt in it before you get to the point after so long that you have done all you do with them and still be relevant in todays world. Neither good nor bad, that’s just the way it is. How all the characters do as they get older and carry on with life will only run in Jans head if at all, we just don’t get to see them drawn out.

Enjoy your retirement and God bless you…. :^D

Thank you Jan. They (and you) deserve some privacy. Best wishes for your next 25 year career.

This was my dad’s favorite comic strip. He liked it when it stayed on in Sunday’s paper, now on Father’s Day it ends :(

Maybe you can meet Bill Watterson, Jan. You seem to be of a similar kind as you too don’t seem to consider having your creation continued and probably spoiled by a new cartoonist. Thank you for that.

Those that think there might be cartoonists capable of continuing: A cartoonist sufficiently versed to do that adequately – in art and creativity – should and is able to to develop his or her own setting.

I’m going to miss this one

I understand her desire to retire. Just will miss the sharing…:’( Enjoy and stay safe!

Cartoonist has multiple personalities??

Thank you, Congratulations, and enjoy. I know it’s been said better above, but it bears repeating. ♥ ♥ ♥

By the way, Jan, you look terrific. Last week I went to your FaceBook page to see if you were really retiring. When I saw the picture of a lovely 30-something year-old, I was relieved. I figured at your (apparent) age, retirement was a long way off. I hope your years are filled with warmth and love.

Will miss them all. Such a gentle, loving strip.

kind of like a great neighbor moving away…. aww geez, getting a little teary. Best of everything Jan; perhaps you could give us a few ‘Holiday’ check ins through the years?…

Best wishes! Loved every day!

THANK YOU! X 25.

Thanks hey! Ya’ done good. Please keep the classics coming.

Thank you for all the greatness. The start of summer will not be the same.

Really going to miss this strip!

Brava, Jan.

I wouldn’t mind a time jump to see how they all turn out when the kids are grown…

This is a mere echo of the sentiments stated above – thank you so much for all the fun and adventures over the years. I will always think of you in August (Gotta love August!!!). I wish you the same peace and happiness you’ve given all of us. ♥

Thanks for the Touch of Class Ending. This 81 year old will miss Alix and you a lot.

I jumped to Stone Soup about 5 years ago. A lot of history missed. Good time to start read from beginning here. Thank you for 25 years of great strip. Enjoy your retirement.

Thank you for all the smiles you gave me to start my days. I will miss your daily strip. Wish you much happiness.

Ever since I discovered Stone Soup it has been a favorite of mine. Thank you Jan for speaking the truth. May God bless you and keep you this day and forever more. Karl

I enjoyed listening to your story on the Blockhead podcast, (all comic strip fans should listen to Geoff Grogan’s great Peanuts/comic strip podcast). I had no idea you were winding down the Sunday’s. But I understand. The chance to do anything for 25 years is a testament, but life isn’t always about the work. Good luck and thank you for the laughs!

That stone’s been in the soup long enough to be edible finally? Enjoy Jan!

Enjoy your next chapter

SO going to miss this family! :(

But, yes, you’ve earned your retirement, so enjoy! <3

Oh, crap, that’s just terrible

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Oh c’mon, Jan! One last strip! A look into the future! Does Holly become rich and famous?? Does Alix become an awesome scientist? Don’t leave us hanging!!

I love the idea of your characters going on without viewers. Have a lovely retirement!

Bye, all. It’s been great knowing you. And thanks, Lynn for showing them to us. Have a happy retirement.

Ms. Eliot, the ‘Family Stone’ was one group I actually looked forward to seeing everyday and then Sunday, it will be greatly missed my me. I understand how you feel but doing so leaves a great emptiness that had enlarged four years ago when I lost my ‘life-partner’ cause we read ‘Stone Soup’ any chance we got. Enjoy your retirement and she and I enjoyed ours ! ! ! !

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all these years! Enjoy!!

Thanks for all the entertainment, Jan Eliot.

YA DONE GOOD, GIRL! :-)

yep, i’m cryin’. I will miss this strip a lot.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for 25 years of enjoyable reading. Love this way of announcing it.

Best of Luck & Tkx

Darn syndicate. There are so few family strips so filled with humor and love. Thanks for sharing yours.

Gonna miss you a whole bunch.

Go, have fun with Ted and Sydney, we’ll be fine, (sniff)

Maybe they can start rerunning the strip from the beginning, like FBOFW. That will mean almost every strip I follow is from the past.

Thank you for the years of making the world a happier place through your humor and talent! Best wishes to you in your well earned retirement!

I am so sad however you also have a life ahead of you that is deserving of some privacy and joy! I so enjoyed pulling up Stone Soup every Sunday!! I will miss the family and wish you much happiness. Will miss you!! Have a Wonderful Well Deserved Retirement!! Many Blessings!!

“Sniff” – I’ll miss this one a lot. Please don’t go! (completely selfishly). Enjoy your retirement, though. I think you’ve earned it. Thanks for all the years of good and gentle humor.

One of my favorite comics.

Thanks for all the fun over they years, I hope you enjoy your retirement and have fun letting that nine year old loose. You’ll be missed and well thought of.

Not the best Father’s Day gift. Enjoy your new endeavours, we’ll keep enjoying the daily reruns. Thanks for the great strips over the years.

Sadness for us. Enjoy your inner 9 yr old.

I shall miss this strip as well with its gentle but genuine humor.

Too sad…

Now I’m so sad…actually intensely sad…sniff…sniff…sigh.

Thank you Jan, it was a pleasure reading your strip and supporting your family!

I’ll miss you Jan-can you please wait until after the “Gotta Love August” cartoons? I look forward to them all year long!Thank you for brightening my days all these years

You will be sorely missed!

I’ll miss you, Jan! Any chance of a final strip showing their futures, please? :)

Have always loved your comics. You have made my family very happy. Enjoy the break!

I will miss you.

I’m sorry to see Stone Soup go. I got in on it rather late, and have had to enjoy it mainly through the “classic” reruns. But I really liked the weekly new strips and will miss them.

Congratulations, though, to Jan Eliot on your retirement. After that many years of hard work, you deserve time to follow your “inner 9-year-old.” (I’m looking forward to that myself before too much longer.) Best wishes for many happy years ahead!

I wrote for over forty years. Characters from my first novel are still running around in my head having adventures as are characters I never had a chance to put on the page. Being a writer is weird but so much fun.

I came to the Stone Soup party late so I hope that this will come back as Stone Soup classics starting with Day One. Enjoy your life as a nine year old

Well dang. I miss the days of writers like Sparky Schultz. To be fair, though…we didn’t get to see HIS characters grow up, either.

Waa-aaah. :,~ (

Love the strip. Best of luck!

Good luck on your adventures! We’ll miss you.

Have a happy retirement Jan. Thank you for the pleasure this warm, funny story has given me.

“You’ll go on as usual. I’m just turning off the camera.” That’s a really nice way of putting it.

I’ll miss this but go and enjoy.

Sorry to see Stone Soup end. I’ve enjoyed it for years. But, as one who retired 18 years ago, have fun. Life is good, at first the change in the daily routine was strange but I adapted quickly and by the end of day 3 I had a new routine.

Jan: I do hope Stone Soup Classics continues on. It is part of my routine!

Thanks from the Flatland’s. Fortunately we have archives to keep us going. Happy Retirement. 77 this week and have to go to friend’s farm and mow an acre or two for the 100 new sheep that don’t like tall grass. Yep kick back and enjoy the quiet time. Maybe when I’m 80

I enjoyed your strip and wit. I am sorry to see it go, but this is your creation and your are the only one who should decide your own future. I didn’t like the changes in Nancy, but getting used to it – but certainly a different strip than what I’ve experienced over 65 years.

Sad for me, happy for you. Enjoy!

So is this the last “Stone Soup” comic?

Thank you Jan, I’ve loved every minute of it.

Congratulations!! What a well done ending!! I love it! Yes, I’m sad too but, I’m happy for you Jan!. Enjoy it to the fullest! And thank you so very much for making me smile on a regular basis!

Enjoy life, thanks for the past 25 years of fun and happiness…

hopefully we can still watch her reruns!

I like the thought of books. I will have to investigate. Enjoy your retirement! May the Stone Soup family enjoy their life off camera. :o)

Don’t say 25 years ago, I remember when it debuted in my paper! Enjoyed it the whole time, thanks so much.

:‘’’( I’m so sad to see this strip go, but thank you so much, Jan, for the years you’ve shared your extraordinary talent with us. Blessings to you in your retirement!

It’s been a great run! I’ll miss the new strips, hope that the “classic” ones continue to rotate. All best to you, Jan Eliot…

I understand.

There is nothing that I want more right now than retirement. :(

All the best to you, Lady. :)

Another reason to not get up on Sunday ….. thanks for all the memories.

Came in late to the game but loved getting caught up in the story line with the classic Stone Soup comics and new ones on Sunday. Will definitely miss seeing new ones but can understand about no longer being tied to a deadline. Hopefully a new book with a compilation of the comics will soon published (hint, hint). Have a great and fun filled retirement, Jan!

I aged out of Cathy, as I suppose Cathy Guisewite did as well. But with my own family I easily slipped into For Better or For Worse and Stone Soup as my morning smile before I started work. And since I’ve been retired 10 years, I suppose it’s understandable that it’s time for you, too, to experience this period of reward for your work. Let’s see—now I’ll have to check in to the cat strips for the morning smile. ENJOY YOURSELF!! You’ve given your readers a lot!

Jan! Please! I wish you the best but please, make the last few strips about what happens to the characters in the years to come. Pretty please? I’ve become so invested in the characters that I want to know!

I’ll miss the column but retirement is wonderful! Enjoy!!!

It is sad to see such good friends go away, and yet when it’s time for the journey to change, it’s time. I wish you the best of luck. You’ve certainly made my days happier by your work.

I’ll miss the strip, but have a wonderful retirement!

So sorry to see you go! I know you’ve been slowly letting us down with Sunday-only comics, but I’ll still miss you. And I agree — Alix is the best character to be.

Thanks for all the years of great cartooning! Have a wonderful rest of your life!

Thank you Jan. It’s been enjoyable.

Bless you for all you gave to your readers. Cheers!

This is hard news to read. Yet I cannot blame her for keeping SS as her own and not selling to a different strip to perhaps ruin it. To Jan I know retirement will be a joy to you, us fans will have to accept.

I enjoyed the cartoon from the first time I read it. Then I was surprised and pleased to learn that it is created just 50 miles away from were I live in Oregon. Thank you so much and happy retirement.

No party?

Seconded!

Slice of Life cartoons. The original reality shows.

Thank you, Jan Eliot! I will continue to enjoy early Stone Soup thanks to My Comics. Go widely and wildly into the future and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!

at least she didn’t have someone else drawn the characters and carry on the conic strip like Heart of the City i stopped reading it after it happened. not the same without the keeping the way the characters were previously drawn; Nancy too.

I hope your retirement brings you as much joy and pleasure as your creations have brought your fans. Enjoy!

‘Stone Soup’ is still feels like a ‘new’ feature to me!

Going to miss Stone Soup, Jan.I’ve read them all.After I discovered your cartoon, I went back in the history here to get fully oriented to the characters’ history.Enjoy retirement. (I am … sorta.)

’Bye!

Enjoy your retirement!

Thanks for the smiles.

Buh bye! (snf)

Enjoy your retirement, Jan.It’s been great getting to see the character development over such a long interval of time.

P.S. I retired five (5) years ago. But I still have many “irons in the fire.” It’s a lark doing new things and getting to mentor the young.

Obviously, I now have to add Heart of the City to my lineup.

I hate to see you go and this comic end, but all good things come to an end. Thank you for all the special moments you’ve given us over the years. Enjoy your retirement.

Glad my nearly worn out Habitat for Humanity shirt (“Who knew blisters could feel so good?”) is still around. It will be a reminder of things and people that matter. Thanks for all the insight.

So Long, Farewell…

There’s a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall

And the bells in the steeple too

And up in the nursery an absurd little bird

Is popping out to say “cuckoo”

Cuckoo, cuckoo

Regretfully they tell us Cuckoo, cuckoo

But firmly they compel us Cuckoo, cuckoo

To say goodbye

Cuckoo!

To you

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night

I hate to go and leave this pretty sight

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu

Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu

So long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen

I’d like to stay and taste my first champagne

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye

Goodbye!

I’m glad to go, I cannot tell a lie

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

The sun has gone to bed and so must I

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Goodbye!

This might be cheesy. Thanks for the memories! You’ve bought me a moment of joy throughout the years!

Have always enjoyed the strip. Sad but blessings.

I’ll miss you and your clan but I hope you really get to enjoy your inner 9 year old to the max!

Thank you so much for sharing your world with us for so many years, Jan! We will miss you and your characters very, very much. It’s been such a pleasure to go on their adventures. You know that we’ll welcome you back if you ever want to bring us more. But in the meantime, have a wonderful time kicking back and doing whatever floats your boat!!

This has been one of my most favorite strips for a long time. It will be keenly missed. Thank you for all you gave us, and many blessings on you and yours.

Thanks for wonderful, funny, heartfelt years!

Gonna really miss this strip. It’s one of the very few racially diverse comic strips available. And it’s one of the few comics that managed to maintain a loving, lightness in these dark, dark times. It officially ends July 26.

Pretty cute series, Jan. Are you really stopping the strip? You will be missed. This is one of the good ones.

I’ll miss all of your psyche extensions. They are beautiful people. It’s been a spectacular run. Enjoy your next steps.

We’re going to miss you all, but, life goes on, change is the norm.

Sigh I’m really going to miss Stone Soup, but wish you all the best for you retirement. Thank you for a wonderful time.

Enjoy retirement! It’s time to draw for yourself and not deadlines! Enjoy every minute!

SORRY TO LOSE THE FAMILY

must be nice to be able to retire after only 25 years.

Jan, thanks for your wonderful comic. It was always funny and heartwarming, though in a very realistic way. You captured all the joys and many challenges of family life, and for that we thank you.

will miss you…

I guess this last submission will be posted until Jan’s contract ends.

i found it too late, but enjoyed it immensely. Thank you!

I read this one this past Sunday, but am just now commenting. Jan: Thanks for all the smiles over the years; the Stone family is great. Congrats on retirement, and best of luck in your future endeavors. Come back to “see” us sometime in the comments …

I’ve enjoyed Stone Soup for many years and will miss the drama and characters. Thank you Jan Eliot, and happy retirement.

Your strip is one of my faves. I will miss you.

Amen to all the positive comments. You are a class act, like Bill Waterson, leaving on your own terms. Though I think you are the first to “turn off the camera”. I like that much better.

Now GoComics will post this specific panel every day for 5 years.

I will SO miss this strip!

Noooooo! Drat darn and …. you know what? Silver lining: My paper was a late bloomer … I get to start from the beginning! ( but truly, I am so selfishly sorry to lose you )

Looking forward to catching up.Saddens me that none of our local papers carry Jan Eliot’s syndicated strip.The Vancouver Sun and (the Vancouver) Province – that’s Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – both owned by the same publishing company don’t have Stone Soup in the weekend editions.

Grand closing, like “The Far Side” by Larson and “Calvin and Hobbes” by Watterson had. As well as Breathed’s various endings.