News Release

Oregon Cartoonist Shares Experience with Mississippi Students

Hattiesburg, MS  (12/03/2007)  Teleconferencing certainly isn’t new, but it proved to be uniquely useful in bringing together a Universal Press Syndicate cartoonist and a group of students half a country apart. Oregon’s Jan Eliot, cartoonist for Stone Soup, spoke recently via phone conference to the Sociology Club and Anthropology Society (SCAS) at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. The discussion topics were women and family issues in comic strips today.

“This was the first time that a university group suggested a meeting with me via teleconferencing,” says Jan Eliot, cartoonist of “Stone Soup,” who lives in Eugene, Ore. “It was a great opportunity to discuss my craft in the comfort of my own studio. Otherwise, traveling would not have been an option for me.”

SCAS Leader Dr. Dana Fennell organized the teleconference, using “Facebook” to send the students information and links to Eliot’s work prior to the meeting. “We couldn’t afford to fly Jan in and pay a speaker’s fee, obviously. So this was the next best thing and it was just fabulous—went off without a hitch.”

Two faculty advisors and six students participated in the teleconference, learning more about the Stones, Eliot’s comic strip family which is an extended, blended family comprised of one single mom, Val, and her recently re-married sister, Joan, their four energetic kids, and an opinionated grandmother. “Stone Soup” is distributed internationally by Universal Press Syndicate to more than 200 newspapers in six countries, and read by more than 8 million readers everyday.

During the conference call, Eliot discussed the inspirations, challenges and triumphs of her work.

In her work, Eliot has tackled unlikely comic strip subjects like having character Joan have a home birth using a midwife and having the teenaged daughter character get her period on a camping trip. A recent series of strips had characters Holly and Alix building homes for Habitat for Humanity and that resulted in Eliot becoming the official spokesperson for Habitat's "Women Build" and "Girls Build" programs.

“The comic strip is based on the experiences I faced as a single mother,” Eliot explained. “Throughout my struggle of raising two daughters with less than enough money, I learned that humor really is the best medicine for dealing with the day-to-day challenges.”

During Eliot’s early quest to have her cartoon syndicated, the rejection letters appeared in her mailbox regularly. Because the cartoon’s storyline involved divorce and centered on the ordeals of single parenthood, she was told that her concept didn’t mesh with standard social values.

“I received a lot of negative feedback in the beginning because my strip didn’t center around the ‘perfect’ wholesome two-parent household that newspaper editors wanted to see,” Eliot said.

Instead of presenting the ideal storybook family, the artist said her goal was to reflect reality—in her life and in the lives of so many other single parents—using comedy as a vehicle for discerning that reality.

Persevering through the barrage of rejection letters, Eliot was finally offered a contract in 1995 with Universal Press Syndicate, publishers of For Better or For Worse, Cathy, and Doonesbury. In its first year of syndication, the strip launched in 25 U.S. newspapers.

Since then, many of the cartoons have been reprinted in parenting magazines and books, resonating with readers who can relate to the rewards and frustrations of parenthood. The comic strip’s relevance to contemporary familial life, once questioned by critics, is now evident by the large fan base of parents that mails Eliot daily, sharing their stories and expressing gratitude for the cartoonist’s comical antidote.

Glenn Duggin, a senior sociology student who attended the teleconference with Eliot, said he believes the cartoonist’s work is interesting to analyze from a sociological perspective because it illustrates how art and culture influence each other.

“As a society we are taught that that the normal family is sort of the conservative all-American ‘Leave It To Beaver’ type of family,” Duggin said, “when, in fact, those kind of families no longer represent the typical American household. I think that ‘Stone Soup’ kind of reflects that. It’s a great example of how changes in culture are paralleled by changes in art.”

Recently being introduced to the “Stone Soup” comic strip, Elizabeth Ladner, a senior sociology student, was curious about the inspiration behind Eliot’s work.

“I have never been an avid reader of the funny pages, but as we were preparing for this teleconference with [Eliot] I began reading some of the strips from the “Stone Soup” books and found it really hard to put down,” Ladner said. “Having the chance to actually speak to the artist behind the work was great because I was able to add some perspective to what I was reading.”

“I was especially moved by when [Eliot] said she thought people should be more honest about their family lives,” Ladner added. “I think if more people would discuss their problems with other people, instead of bottling them up, then we would see that there really is no such thing as a perfect family, and maybe people would start working more as a community to address their problems.”

Eliot earned a degree in Women Studies and English at the University of Oregon. Before becoming a syndicated cartoonist, she worked in a variety of jobs, ranging from bookmobile librarian to graphic designing.

Her comic strip has been published in six books: “Stone Soup,” “You Can’t Say Boobs On Sunday,” “Stone Soup the Comic Strip,” “Road Kill In The Closet,” “Not So Picture Perfect,” and “Desperate Households.” Her newest collection, based on the midwife storyline, is called “There is no WE in Crowning.”

“Stone Soup” can be viewed at www.gocomics.com.

The Anthropology Society and Sociology Club at Southern Miss are student organization dedicated to exploring and discussing social and cultural issues. The organizations provide students with tools and information to help them succeed in graduate school and related careers. In the past, the groups have engaged in numerous cultural activities, including hosting a speaker from Mexico Solidarity Network, attending a forum with American rock artist Henry Rollins and analyzing popular media about various social issues.

Creator(s): Jan Eliot

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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