'Stone Soup' simmers its humor around the single-parent family
The Salt Lake Tribune
Don't tell comic artist Jan Eliot about the life of a single parent.
After 10 years of work, home, piles of bills and two daughters to show for it, Eliot knows its nuances and textures so well she can read almost any family situation from a distance.
"Our world is full of it," she said by phone from her home in Eugene, Ore. "Just go to the department store near back-to-school time and look at how frazzled the mothers are."
More important for readers of the comics section, Eliot can distill all its challenges, victories and even quiet moments into four panels or fewer.
"Stone Soup," her comic testament to adults who brave work and family life on their own, has been a rallying cry and ready laugh for the nation's 13 million single-parent households. Now, in the wake of the retirement of "Cathy," Eliot's exposure is about to widen. "Stone Soup," in national syndication for nearly 15 years and growing in popularity, launches today in The Salt Lake Tribune. More than 35 other newspapers in the U.S. are adding the comic to their pages as well this week.
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