Stone Soup
By Jan Eliot | 17.2K FollowersAbout Stone Soup
Jan Eliot's funny and irreverent "Stone Soup" follows the saga of an extended, blended family, starring two working-mom sisters living just across the fence from each other. Val and Joan share life with their opinionated mother, a middle-school diva and 10-year-old tomboy, a reclusive teenage boy, a wild preschooler and his new baby sister ... and of course Wally, the ultimate nice guy who steps into his stepdad shoes with grace amid the chaos. Working-parent hassles, preschool tantrums, middle-school angst, love, and the single mom ... it's all here in "Stone Soup."
Meet Jan Eliot
Jan Eliot is the creator of the funny and irreverent "Stone Soup," a saga that follows an extended, blended family, featuring two working-mom sisters living just across the fence from each other. Closely based on Eliot’s own life and the lives of her unsuspecting friends, "Stone Soup" focuses on human relationships and the modern family. “They are smart, empathetic, and hopefully funny,” said Eliot about her comic strip family. “Readers become very attached to my characters and love the storylines. My hope is that they will find themselves, their families, and their problems in my comic strip and feel understood and less alone.”
Eliot began cartooning when she was a single mom trying to raise two daughters, stay fully employed, pay the bills, and still have a little fun once in a while. Her first comic strip, "Patience and Sarah," featured a single mom and her daughter and ran for five years in 10 weekly and monthly papers. While working as a copywriter and graphic designer, Eliot continued cartooning and developed a second strip called "Sister City," which ran weekly in the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard for five years. In 1995, Eliot created "Stone Soup." Today, it appears daily in more than 250 newspapers worldwide. Eliot works from her home studio in Eugene. She has remarried and her two daughters are grown with families of their own.
Cast of Characters
Val
Valerie Stone is a widow in her late 30s. She is mature and somewhat serious and bears much of the financial burden for her daughters, her mother, and Biscuit, the family dog. Val’s husband was the love of her life, so she has little time or interest in romance—until a chance encounter with a motorcycle cop.
Joan
Joan is Val's younger sister. She and her son, Max, moved in with Val after Joan’s husband went out for milk and never returned. She struggled to make ends meet working as a freelance copywriter. Before long, she caught the eye of Wally, the nice guy next door. They eventually married and are the proud parents of baby Luci.
Holly and Alix
Holly (13) and Alix (10) are Val's daughters. Alix enjoys a blissfully naive childhood and plenty of tomboy energy. Holly, like many girls her age, is angsty and self-absorbed and obeys most of the rules—if it's convenient. Holly and Alix share a room, fight, compete for attention, and generally make life interesting.
Wally
Val’s neighbor Wally is the epitome of a swell guy. In short order this slightly schlumpy insurance salesman went from single guy living a simple life to taking in a 15-year-old nephew having trouble at home, marrying a woman with a toddler, and becoming a father. He takes it all in stride.
Max and Luci
Max and Luci are the youngest members of the extended Stone family. Toddler Max and his little sister Luci keep their parents on their toes and sometimes up all night.
Gramma Evie
Gramma Evie, Val and Joan's mother, lives upstairs at Val's house. She is not the typical warm and fuzzy little old lady. She’s a pragmatic, energetic retiree not content to sit at home knitting. Recently, Gramma decided to see the world (and maybe find love) as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity building homes in Asia.
Andy
Andy is Wally's 15-year-old nephew. Wally's sister ran into tough times and asked Wally to help her son for the summer. Things worked out so well, Andy asked to stay. He's a good kid, but in the throes of adolescence, with pierced ears and an occasional attitude. Holly finds him irresistible.
Phil
Phil Jackson is a motorcycle cop who forgets his gun, lets speeding single mothers off the hook out of pity, and worries that the world is becoming too fast-paced. He was so smitten with Val when he pulled her over on a harried Monday morning that he followed her home and asked her out. He and Val are getting to know each other better.
Biscuit
The yippy, yappy “active breed” family dog. As if life weren’t chaotic enough.