''Between Friends'' is an internationally syndicated comic strip written by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

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

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

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'' 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 ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it ...

, 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 and 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, day-to-day operations of a hous ...

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 divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

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,

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Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine between September 1996 and March 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, w ...

, and

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. He also loves food but hates making his own meals. Maeve is a spicy divorcée 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. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in ...

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 treatments, they adopted a daughter, Emma. *Harvey is a laid-back

funeral director A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as ...

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 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 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 series and subsequently their adoption 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 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 site

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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