Jan EliotRezensionen

...because sometimes you just need to read some funnies. Especially when you're only about a quarter of the way into a book that everyone you know loves, and you're getting that sinking feeling you're going to end up hating it, and you want to postpone the inevitable for a little while longer so you start browsing on Amazon and HEY, LOOK! THERE'S A NEW STONE SOUP COLLECTION! And you just got a gift certificate, plus your kid likes this comic too, so it couldn't be perfecter.

If this applies to you, read this book. Or read it (and the earlier Stone Soup collections) if you like fun family cartoons that aren't mawkish, sentimental, or chock-full of gender stereotypes.

The tenth book of what is becoming one of my favorite family strips. Wry, witty, funny, strong characters and good artwork. Occasionally "serious" topics such as body image in teen girls are explored. I especially like 9-year-old Alix and Gramma Evie, two characters that seem to have the important things in life figured out a bit better than the others. And Biscuit, their dog, almost merits her own strip.

The second collection of my favorite current family comic strip, since "Fof Better or for Worse" ended. "Zits" is more a teen strip than a family one, and "Baby Blues", while often more hilarious, lacks the range, depth, and strong cast of this fine strip. And may I just add that 9-year-old Alix and the grandmother, Evie, are two of my favorite and coolest characters in comic strips?

"Holly thinks I'm old, Mom."
"So? You think I'm old."
"Touche."

And, Joan and Wally get unexpectedly pregnant, cool Gramma Evie is dating someone 15 years younger, and Alix is still the coolest 9-year-old girl in the comics. And Joan's baby shower is attended by women characters from Zits, Dilbert, Cathy and For Better or For Worse, which was a brilliant idea by Jan Eliot, whose own strip has turned into one of the best blended family strips out there. And we say welcome to newcomer Luci Stone Weinstein, 9lbs 8 oz.

I'm really enjoying this witty, charming and funny strip about 2 next-door blended families. Evie, the gramma, wins a lottery and goes to Africa to build houses for charity. I love Evie; she's a great oldster with a young soul. And there's a quite touching sequence where 13-year-old Holly becomes upset over her widowed Mom dating, and she goes to her father's gravesite to talk to him. A very good strip that has become my favorite family strip since "For Better or For Worse" ended its run.

This strip about a sort of extended family living next door to each other is really becoming a favorite. At its best, there are elements of Baby Blues, Zits, For Better or For Worse, and Fox Trot, all with a nice sense of style, humor and artwork that has become more assured over the years. No particular standouts here, but I think I read the whole book in one sitting, the whole time with a quiet smile on my face. Not a bad way to spend an overcast Sunday afternoon.

Joan and Wally are on their honeymoon, all too soon to return to the slightly askew but loving (and frequently at war) extended family that is Stone Soup. I think my favorite characters here are the under-utilized grandmother Evie, and 9-year-old Alix, both of whom seem to have a grasp on the important things in life - number 1 being to enjoy the ride. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite family strips. It's got heart, humor, and a quirky charm, and it often blends a funny strip with a subtle lesson. Artwork has come along nicely too, especially the expressions.

I'm becoming quite fond of this extended-family strip; it seems to touch all the bases - humor, sweet and sardonic, real-life crises, minor catastrophes, small triumphs (rarely), sibling rivalry and friendship, awkward romance and a host of other family craziness. Through it all, Val remains a committed and often befuddled single mother, determined to do right by her children even if it kills her - or them. In this collection, next-door-neighbor's 14-year-old nephew Andy comes to live with him, but Andy and Joan (Val's sister) decide to go ahead with their wedding anyway.

You know what I love most about this comic strip? There's something for everyone. Yes the story starts off with a single mom living with her two daughters, her mom, her sister and her son so it is a lot of females in the beginning...but males appear along the way. And they don't push she the original cast out of the way, instead they compliment it, adding even more depth to the family than there was in the beginning. The stories are down to earth, without being overly sentimental or sappy (like some other comics that I won't name) and you can easily relate to the characters and recognize your own events in your life. It's a genuinely funny strip that I look forward to reading each day.

Wally and Joan heat up their new romance, eventually becoming engaged, and Val starts dating Bill, the officer who gave her a traffic ticket. Other than those highlights, this is simply another collection of a quite good family comic strip that shows blended families coping with life's little (and larger) upsets, is generally pretty funny, occasionally touching, and often works the same ground as "For Better or For Worse".

The first collection of a strip that I've come to like quite a bit. Among other family strips, it's more inventive and realistic than Fox Trot, usually as funny (and edgier than) Baby Blues, and nearly as good as One Big Happy. It's the story of a modern sort-of blended family, with 40-ish widower Val as the sole support for her live-in divorced sister and toddler, widowed mother, and her own two daughters. The humor is wry, hip and clever, the characters have strong personalities, and the artwork is not bad (it improves over the course of the strip. With a foreword by Lynn Johnston, whose own strip bears only a slight resemblence to this one.

Not a classic, but a nice engaging family strip about a widow and her three children, and her efforts to balance their needs and hers, work and love. In other words, a strip about life as we know it. I'd call it a cross between "Baby Blues" and "For Better or For Worse", not quite matching the strengths of either of these strips. But a good strip nonetheless. This is my first look at it; I don't know if the author is having her comic creation "age" in real time, as with FBOFW. I hope so.½