viz.

This past December I interviewed Jan Eliot, creator of the Stone Soup comic strip. As one of my favorite cartoonists, I’d always wanted to ask her more about her work and now I had the chance! I asked Ms. Eliot about two topics I was interested in: one, cartooning and her place within the comic strip world. As a feminist cartoonist, she has a special niche in cartooning that separates her work in some ways (from my perspective) from other strips. Two, I asked her about about the relationship between blogging and cartooning. I was interested to see that several of my favorite cartoonists have their own blog sites which they use in different ways. In addition, two of the major syndication sites (gocomics.com and comics.com) have a "comment" feature for each cartoon, where readers can offer their thoughts automatically on that day's strip. I asked Eliot about this new form of reader-writer relations from her perspective.

-Sarah Wagner, Viz. Contributor

TOPIC ONE: CARTOONING

Sarah Wagner: How long have you been doing your strip Stone Soup?

Jan Eliot: Stone Soup celebrated its 13th anniversary as a daily, syndicated strip on Nov. 20, 2008. I did the strip as a weekly for 5 years prior to that.

SW: Have you ever thought about doing another/a second strip?

JE: Nope. I've been working with these characters for WAY too long to think about creating more, and they are right out of my life. A second strip? I prefer keeping my marriage in tact and having relationships with family members. I know there are people who do more than one strip, but I just don't work that way. I value time off and a relaxed schedule. That said, most multiple-strip / endeavor cartoonists work nights and weekends.

SW: What's your favorite thing about doing the strip?

JE: I get paid to draw and color. And I'm given a tiny little slice of the media to have my say every day. It's wonderful. In terms of a specific part of the job... inking is bliss.

SW: How has your cartooning changed over the years?

JE: It's matured, the characters have become more defined, I've learned to draw the strip better, my humor has become more sophisticated. However, regarding humor, the early early strips are still the freshest, and the boldest.

SW: How do you think cartooning in general has changed?

JE: Most importantly, our space continues to shrink. This affects the quality of the artwork. Cartoonists are less inclined to do backgrounds, there's less full-body illustrations of characters... there just isn't room. Secondly, it's become OK to run re-runs, something I really hate. Peanuts, For Better or For Worse, Herman... with such limited real estate on the funny pages, taking it up with reruns means new artists can't gain ground. And the message is... "this old stuff is better than anything new being created". Because of both these things, you see more comics that are basically illustrated gags. Pearls Before Swine, Dilbert... funny strips, but very minimal artwork. Not something the reader will gaze at, ponder... years ago it was fun to just study the comics, looking for little details and surprises. There's no room to create a cartoon "world" now.

SW: [To continue with the topic of space issues,] in his collection The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, Bill Watterson talks about the constraints of the panel comic strip. Recently I've seen some attempts to loosen those walls—for example, with your breaking down the "third wall" in your voting strip, as well as in other strips' use of differently shaped panels, etc. Do you ever find the medium constraining?

JE: I knew how tiny my canvas was when I started cartooning, and so did Watterson. Yes, it's a tiny spot and it gets tinier by the year. It is frustrating, mostly because it makes me sad to see the comics pages full of poorly / minimally drawn cartoons. A gag and some talking heads, too bad. The smaller the space, the less interesting the art, the less interested the reader, the less the newspaper cares, the smaller the space...

Sigh. As for the third wall, I don't like to communicate with the audience often. I prefer for the strip to be a window into a little world.

SW: One could argue that you've got a decidedly unique voice in Stone Soup. One of the reasons I started reading it regularly—besides it being smart and funny—is that it said things that people weren't even saying in real life. Things like "girls should be sporty" and "grandmothers have their own, active lives". What inspired you to create a strip like this? What's been the reaction to it?

JE: I wanted, from the beginning, to create a strip that was based on the world as I see it, live it, experience it. Stone Soup land is the world as I prefer it to be. All my guys are "nice guys", who also cook and do their own laundry. This is the model I grew up with, because I had a working mom and a dad who could iron shirts.

I like football and basketball, some girls are tomboys (I was) and lots of grammas don't bake cookies ( I don't). I have a degree in English and Women Studies, I am a "second wave" feminist, I don't like cliche. More than anything, I want people to say "You must know my mom!" or "you must be looking in my closets!"... lots of Stone Soup readers see themselves in my strip. That makes me very happy.

In addition, I was a single working mom. I knew lots of divorced parents when my kids were growing up. I wanted to write about that unique perspective, about modern family life which is extended, blended, mended.

... I write from my life and my heart. I think that's where authenticity lies.

SW: What do you think of the mix of politics and comics? I know from your blog that you consider yourself a feminist. Does that inform your decision to include politics in your strip, both explicitly (as in your recent voting strips) and implicitly?

JE: Politics have always been part of comics. I think it's great. I know that some readers "just want to laugh" but really, life is full of politics. I'm not Doonesbury, but lack of school funding affects families. So I write about it sometimes.

SW: What's your take on the differences, if any, between what you do and what creators of graphic novels such as V for Vendetta do?

JE: AH. Well, Graphic Novels are an interesting hybrid. A cross between literature and comic books. Humor is not usually a focus of the graphic novel, story is. Most comic strips are meant to be humorous. Graphic Novelists seem to think they are not comic book writers, so there's something to explore. My take on that difference is the same as in books... where does the line go from grocery store pulp romances to Jane Austen and Dickens? It's a long, graded line. Graphic Novels are, I think, the Austen Dickens end of the line, comic books are at the grocery store end.

What I do is, well, shorter, more focused on humor, less on story. In a graphic novel there is room for great art, and there should be great art. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home is a wonderful example... each picture is a thousand words. If the art isn't the other half of the story, the writer shouldn't bother with the art and just write.

It's conceivable that I could take the Stone Soup characters and their environs and develop a graphic novel... but that would require a lot better attention span than I have. I think we cartoonists really LIKE the brevity of our comic strips and panels.

TOPIC TWO: BLOGGING

SW: Several cartoonists, including you, have blogs. Some post at least daily and some post just once in a while. Why did you start your blog and what's your general approach to it?

JE: I did the blog to have something different on the website. I have to be careful, I'm a blurter. I post when I'm in the mood... I find that it can be a "time suck" to be online too much. Nothing wrong with it, but I prefer being outdoors, drinking beer on a terrace, traveling to fun places... LIFE!

That said, it's a pleasure to communicate with readers. If they are polite. The blogosphere is a blustery, rude place. Email is too anonymous. People forget to be civil. So I limit my exposure.

SW: What is your relationship with your readers? Has it changed since you started blogging and started being accessed more regularly on the comics websites?

JE: I loved getting snail mail. You can see something of the personality of the person. A child's handwriting and little drawing, a grandmother's careful cursive. Email and blogs are great, but less personal, and I don't trust it as much. But... lots of readers email, especially since many readers actually read Stone Soup online.

Mostly my readers are extremely great. I've had some wonderful email relationships with devoted readers. Some days an email will completely MAKE my day. But one bad one... it's deadly.

SW: Also related to blogging—how do you balance doing that and doing your daily strip? Do they feed off of each other?

JE: I don't find the blog, or email, or being online, nourishing. It's PR, really, fun but draining. Book signings, events where I get to meet with readers, are nourishing. Online activities interfere with deadlines, and sometimes you lose hours doing what "feels" like work, but actually isn't. I enjoy having some presence online, and I want readers to know about my strip, but I have to protect my silent time to be creative. I often don't turn on my computer at all on writing days... and most days I avoid turning it on until the afternoon. I need to protect the mornings for creative thought.

Being online doesn't give me ideas. Daydreaming does. Walking through a store and eavesdropping on conversations does... reading the paper does... sketching does... but mostly, daydreaming is the creative engine.

SW: What blogs and/or other strips do you follow?

JE: I don't read any blogs. If I'm interested in a cartoonist, I call or email them. I do read comic strips online... things that aren't in my paper like Speedbump, Between Friends and Cul de Sac... Rhymes with Orange... the work of Ann Telnaes (she's brilliant, a Pulitzer prize winner, feminist, elegant cartoon style). I like to check in on Madam and Eve, from South Africa, and Michael Leunig with the Melbourne Age. His sister, Mary, is also a cartoonist and even darker than he is, I'd love to meet her. These people I wouldn't know about without the web.

In the mainstream, I'm a big fan of Zits, Baby Blues, and Doonesbury, Close To Home, Pickles. My all time hero is Bill Watterson, and all his books are somewhere near my drawing table. He's the master. Before him, I loved Pogo. For pure beauty, Bringing Up Father by George McManus. And of course, Little Nemo. Peanuts for originality and simplicity, and the "small" joke. He gave us thoughtful, quiet humor, Shulz did, and it's inspiring.

I also love reading political cartoons from around the world. A window into those societies...