Jan Eliot

Jan Eliot (born 1950 in San Jose, California) is an American cartoonist.

Life and career Before 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, and became a full-time cartoonist. Prior to Eliot's syndication, she was mentored by cartoonist Lynn Johnston, who proofed the cartoon strips. She lives in Eugene, Oregon and is married to Ted Lay. but she also considers each character a reflection of herself.

Stone Soup featured as a daily strip for 20 years 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. She continued to create a Sunday cartoon strip.

After reader outcry at the family-oriented strip's cessation in the Montreal Gazette, the weekend version of Stone Soup was reintroduced to the Montreal Gazette in January 2016. The last Stone Soup strip was published on July 26, 2020.

Books In addition to eleven Stone Soup compilations, Eliot's work has appeared in: Women's Glibber: State-of-the-Art Women's Humor, edited by Roz Warren. (1992) Mothers! Cartoons by Women, edited by Roz Warren. (1993) What Is This Thing Called Sex? Cartoons by Women, edited by Roz Warren. (1993) Off Road Parenting: Practical Solutions for Difficult Behavior, by Caesar Pacifici, Patricia Chamberlain, Lee White, and Jan Eliot. (2002)

Group exhibitions 2011 Timely and Timeless, Library of Congress (September 2011)

2016 Comic City, USA, Oregon Historical Society (December 2016 - January 2017)

Awards 2010 Eugene Arts and Letters award