Between Friends at 35: An Honest Laugh with Sandra Bell-Lundy

In this week’s episode of Inside the Kingdom, we sit down with Between Friends creator Sandra Bell-Lundy—whose strip has been capturing the humor, heartbreak, and grace of everyday friendship for 35 years.

Sandra’s story begins where all great comic stories do: with a love of the funnies, a sketchpad, and a lot of persistence. After self-syndicating for several years, she got the call every cartoonist dreams of—an offer from King Features’ late comics editor Jay Kennedy. As Sandra recalls in the episode, “I didn’t even know what to ask him—I just said, how soon can you send the contract?”

That leap of faith launched one of the most beloved modern strips in newspapers around the world. Between Friends follows three women—Kimberly, Maeve, and Susan—as they navigate careers, family, and the passage of time with humor and honesty. Over the years, Sandra’s storytelling has expanded beyond the daily laugh: from infertility and adoption to domestic violence and digital-age burnout, her characters have aged and evolved just as her readers have.

But even as the medium shifts from newsprint to screens, Sandra finds new ways to connect. “The feedback is instant now,” she says. “Readers write to tell me their own stories, and it feels like having coffee with a friend.”

In the episode, Sandra also opens up about the tactile joy of working traditionally—ink pens, Bristol board, and all—and the deep pride she takes in being one of the few women cartoonists to sustain a decades-long syndicated strip.

Listen now to Inside the Kingdom: Between Friends—35 Years of Laughter, Life, and Friendship wherever you get your podcasts, and catch new Between Friends strips daily at ComicsKingdom.com/between-friends

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