Stone Soup (comic strip)

Stone Soup, renamed for the "stone soup" fable, is an internationally syndicated American comic strip written and illustrated by Jan Eliot. 
Publication history.
The comic strip began as a weekly in 1990, and ran for five years in the Eugene, Oregon "Register-Guard" under the name "Sister City" before being syndicated. The syndicated daily strip debuted in November 1995. Universal Press Syndicate reportedly requested the name change because they felt that the original name might be perceived by some readers as too "feminist" in orientation.
"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, socialise and focus on other creative projects. She continued to create a Sunday cartoon strip.
The Stone family features a family headed by single mother Val, an uncommon contrast with the ordinary nuclear family depicted in more traditional strips. As the author explained,
It is common for strip storylines to consist of household squabbles and arguments that are not resolved. Unlike many strips, the characters do age, but at a very slow rate. Val has celebrated her 38th and 39th birthdays in the strip; Alix and Holly were 9 and 12 when the strip began, and are now 10 and 13.
On 15 June 2020, Jan Eliot announced her retirement and that "Stone Soup" will end on 26 July 2020.
Symbology.
The strip was named for the folk tale about Stone Soup, with the focus that good things can be created with small contributions from many sources.
Characters.
Main Characters.
Sisters Valerie (Val) and Joan live across the fence from each other.
Recurring characters.
Val's book club.
Val belongs to a book club with an assortment of characters from other strips, including Elly from "For Better or For Worse", Alice from "Dilbert", Rose/Vicki the biker chick from "Rose Is Rose", and Connie Duncan, the mom from "Zits". "Cathy" was mentioned, but "couldn't come till she found the right man and lost 10 pounds." The book club also threw a baby shower for Joan, which takes place in the book "There's No "WE" in Crowning" (published in 2007). This is a short collection that takes the reader from the first onset of Joan's pregnancy till the birth of Luci by a midwife at home. 
Strips featuring the book club have appeared on at least three occasions and are republished in the 2005 trade paperback collection. (See below.)
Critical reception and politics.
Commemorative strip, September 11, 2011.
Along with 92 other cartoon strips, Eliot was invited to commemorate 9/11 in her daily cartoon in 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Political plotline, April 2012.
In general, the cartoon strip has more of a domestic, than political focus. However, in April 2012, "Stone Soup" had a two-week plotline which featured support for universal health care, criticism of U.S. Policy in the Middle East, and made an unflattering remark about Dick Cheney. Eliot's goal was to encourage political participation and to spark discussion and debate, regardless of anyone's ideology. Some papers such as the Daily Herald received both complaints that the politicized or "biased" content should be on the Opinions or Editorial page, contrasted with compliments that Eliot had captured how the majority of women feel about America's politicians, politics and government.