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Jan EliotJan Eliot (born 1950 in San Jose, California) is an American cartoonist.[1] Life and careerBefore becoming a full-time cartoonist, Jan worked as a waitress, car salesperson, bookmobile driver, advertising copywriter, graphic designer, and greeting card writer. In her cartoonist career, she initially worked as a graphic designer in the daytime, while doing cartoons at night. Some independent papers published her work, and after 16 years, she achieved syndication,[2] and became a full-time cartoonist.[3] Prior to Eliot's syndication, she was mentored by cartoonist Lynn Johnston, who proofed the cartoon strips.[2] She chose the name Eliot after her divorce, in honor of George Eliot.[4] She lives in Eugene, Oregon[5] and is married to Ted Lay.[3] CartoonsEliot wrote and illustrated the comic strip Stone Soup. She created a previous strip known as Patience and Sarah, which enjoyed a run of five years in 10 publications. Her next comic strip was called Sister City. This weekly strip appeared in the Eugene, Oregon, The Register-Guard for five years before the name was changed to Stone Soup in November 1995, when it became nationally syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate/Universal Uclick. Stone Soup is syndicated to more than 300 newspapers, mostly in America but also across the world.[3] The strip's characters, widowed single mom Val and her children Alix and Holly, were based on Eliot's life and the lives of those around her,[6] but she also considers each character a reflection of herself.[2] Val's sister, Joan is also a working mom, who lives across the fence from her. Other characters include Joan's husband, Wally and Val's new husband, Phil.[7] Stone Soup featured as a daily strip for 20 years[8] until October 2015, when Eliot decided she no longer wanted to draw a daily comic, to devote more time to travel, socialize and focus on other creative projects.[9] She continued to create a Sunday cartoon strip. After reader outcry at the family-oriented strip's cessation in the Montreal Gazette,[10] the weekend version of Stone Soup was reintroduced to the Montreal Gazette in January 2016.[6] On June 15, 2020, she announced that she was retiring.[11] The last Stone Soup strip was published on July 26, 2020.[12] BooksIn addition to eleven Stone Soup compilations, Eliot's work has appeared in:
Group exhibitions2011 Timely and Timeless, Library of Congress (September 2011)[13] 2016 Comic City, USA, Oregon Historical Society (December 2016 - January 2017)[14] Awards2010 Eugene Arts and Letters award[15][16] Notes
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Information related to Jan Eliot |
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