''Between Friends'' is an internationally syndicated

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

written by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Sandra Bell-Lundy. The comic strips appear in more than 175 newspapers in ten countries around the world. Three

middle-aged Middle age (or middle adulthood) is the age range of the years halfway between childhood and old age. The exact range is subject to public debate, but the term is commonly used to denote the age range from 45 to 65 years. Overall This time span ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

women and the problems that they face in their lives are the main focus throughout the comic strip series. Initially, Maeve, Susan, and Kimberly were all childless, but Susan and Kimberly are now

mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

s. ''Between Friends'' initially appeared in the ''

St. Catharines Standard The ''St. Catharines Standard'' is a daily newspaper of the city of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. the publication was owned by Torstar but on May 26, 2020, the company agreed to be acquired by NordStar Capital, a private investment firm. The ...

'' in May 1990, and was syndicated by King Features in February 1994. Bell-Lundy's original artwork used for the strips was displayed at Artway Gallery in

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

, Ontario, in 2009.

Characters

All the minor characters are connected to Kim, Maeve, or Susan. Kimberly previously wrote a column on women's issues from home. She is currently a

homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...

and struggling to find a new source of intellectual fulfilment. *Derek, high school English teacher, was a

single father A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include death, divorce, break-up, abandonment, beco ...

before his new marriage to Kim. *Danny has adjusted from being Derek's son to Derek and Kim's son. He is always in the latest kids' fads such as

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' between September 1996 and March 2004, with its chapters collected in 38 volumes. The ...

, and

Duel Masters is a multimedia franchise consisting of multiple manga and anime series, a trading card game, and several video games. It began as a manga adaptation of '' Magic: The Gathering'' before branching off in 2002. Plot The sto ...

. He also loves food but hates making his own meals. Maeve is a spicy

divorcée Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

who always has a snappy comeback. She's the one that a person always remembers at

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

. She's a great

Sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred ...

Director at the office, less great with her personal life. *Helen is Maeve's co-worker, sounding board and voice of experience at the office. She's married with two kids in their pre-teens. *Simon is Maeve's ex-husband. He periodically drops in and spreads chaos. Susan like Maeve, works in a professional office. Previously she and her husband Harvey were

DINKY Dinky may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dinky Toys, a brand of die-cast toy vehicles * Dinky (film), a 1935 film starring Jackie Cooper * Dinky Bossetti, protagonist of the 1990 film ''Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael'', played by Winona Ryde ...

s. After struggling with

infertility In biology, infertility is the inability of a male and female organism to Sexual reproduction, reproduce. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy organism that has reached sexual maturity, so children who have not undergone puberty, whi ...

treatments, they

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

a daughter, Emma. *Harvey is a laid-back

funeral director A funeral director, also known as an undertaker or mortician (American English), is a professional who has licenses in funeral arranging and embalming (or preparation of the deceased) involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks o ...

and Susan's supportive husband. *Emma is Susan and Harvey's adopted daughter. *Tina is Susan's office buddy and frazzled mom with two kids in diapers.

Style

The strip is drawn in detail and appears in colour. It usually runs to four panels, the

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in some Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, t ...

is in a two tiered format with a large throw away logo panel appearing on the left of the strip. The characters are shown living in their homes, or offices, but they are shown at the mall or the coffee shop from time to time. Unlike usual

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

where the characters are frozen in time, here the characters are shown being aging. Emma and Danny, who were show as little tots, are now shown to be grown children. Sometimes the strip is serialised with the story running for a week or more on occasions. Susan's and Harvey's

fertility treatment Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility. This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and cryopreservation of gamet ...

series and subsequently their

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

series ran with breaks from 1997 to 1998. The fertility treatment series started 16 December 1996 until 11 February 1998 in a total of 35 daily strips. The adoptions series overlapped the fertility series and started on 16 December 1996 and ran till 16 May 1998 in a total of 32 daily strips. An extended series concerning

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

and abusive relationships ran between July 1 and November 22, 2008. Maeve offers advice and support to her friend, Tamara, who feels trapped in an abusive marriage. A series on the

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

site

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

ran for a week from May 11, 2009 to May 17, 2009 in which Susan is shown to be newly addicted to the site.

Books

# ''Hello, Daughter'', Plan Nine Publishing # ''Coffee, Tea, and Reality: A Between Friends Collection'', Andrews McMeel Publishing,

References

{{King Features Syndicate Comics Canadian comic strips 1990 comics debuts Comics about married people Satirical comics Slice of life comics Comics about women Comics set in the 1990s Comics set in the 2000s Comics set in the 2010s

Characters

Style

Books

See also

References