Sally Forth and the Mother’s Day Brunch Arms Race

Mother’s Day approaches. As a holiday, it’s sold as an uplifting affirmation of the sometimes-thankless work of caregivers, but it can also be a lot to live up to. There are as many ways to celebrate as there are ways to offer unconditional love.

In our comics and in our creators, we don’t have a shortage of iconic moms, so it was perhaps strange that my first thought when it came to this weekend’s holiday was for a long-running series of one-upmanship between Hilary and Ted Forth when it comes to celebrating their beloved mom and wife, Sally. So, I had a conversation with Sally Forth’s editor, Jennifer Beck, and the strip’s writer, Francesco Marciuliano (he goes by Ces), who has been telling the story of the Forth family since 1999.

ANDERSON: Jen, you’re the editor. You examine every strip day in and day out. Tell us about Sally Forth as a mom.

BECK: Sally Forth has always been my favorite comic (please don’t tell the other artists!). My love for it actually started with my mom, who adored it just as much. Her favorite storyline was the yearly Easter tradition—Sally sneaking around the house to find Hilary’s chocolate bunny so she could nibble off the ears first. And every year, without fail, Sally would succeed, much to Hilary’s complete and utter frustration.

That playful, perfectly observed mother-daughter dynamic is part of what makes Sally Forth so special. It feels real, familiar, and full of love—even in its most mischievous moments.

ANDERSON: My life probably would not have made a successful comic. I have two kids, and while they were young, I was a single mother. So, not the same experience as Sally has on Mother’s Day, but very much the same authentic, loving and playful parent-child relationship. How about you two?

MARCIULIANO: While I don’t have children of my own, I have a lot of friends who’ve raised incredible kids simply by respecting them as individuals who have their own goals, personalities, and true sense of self, and I hope to capture that in the comic. That way we get to avoid the parents placing their hands on their hips and letting out an exasperated “Kids!”, the kids dismissively saying “Parents!”, and the cat just throwing its front legs up in the air and exclaiming “People!” Actually, I want to do that last part. (Note: Even though Jim has yet to read this idea, he has already nixed it.)

BECK: You completely do capture that. That sense of mutual respect really comes through in the strip, and it’s part of what makes Sally and Hilary’s relationship feel so real. As a mom, that balance—letting your child be their own person while still guiding them—is something you’re always trying to get right. Seeing that reflected in Sally Forth is what makes it resonate so deeply, and Sally and Hilary really do have such a grounded, relatable mother-daughter dynamic. Where does that relationship come from for you as a writer, Ces?

MARCIULIANO: From my relationship with my mom, who is a remarkably kind, thoughtful, grounded, and exceeding sharp individual. Even at age 90 she reads BBC News and The Economist, as well as TMZ, every day, keeping me up to date on both geopolitics and her favorite, Cardi B.

ANDERSON: Your mom is an icon.

BECK: Do you have a favorite Sally and Hilary moment or strip that captures their relationship particularly well?

MARCIULIANO: It all comes down to mutual respect. Hilary knows she can speak openly with her mom about a problem, concern, or plan to attach two-story werewolf heads to the back of the house. Sally knows she can check in on Hil without being told “Get out of my room/line of vision!” That doesn’t mean there aren’t disagreements. But the two always talk to each other, not at one another.

BECK: When you return to themes like Mother’s Day over the years, how do you keep those moments feeling fresh and not repetitive?

MARCIULIANO: Whenever I’m writing, I find it best to take a long walk, a long shower, or be anywhere alone where I can simply break down and sob over how I’m creatively dead inside. But really, I’ve been writing “Sally Forth” for almost 30 years, and at this point I trust in my knowledge of the characters—and the characters themselves—to put them in a situation and hear them bounce off each other in my head. It also helps that when we were kids, my brother and I created our own TV shows and then once we had the premise, we’d make up the dialogue on the fly, so I guess I internalized that. (It should be noted that all the networks passed on our pilots, if for no other reason then it’s hard to go to series when your showrunners are 9 and 4 years old.) Plus, it cannot be stated enough what a remarkable illustrator Jim Keefe is and how he makes the family truly come alive on the page/screen, so it’s quite easy for me to see them as complete characters.

ANDERSON: I agree. Jim is amazing. Also, I hear Hollywood decision-makers are getting younger, so you were probably just ahead of your time. But, let’s get to the meat and potatoes here–or, maybe the waffles and omelet bar. Ted and Hil started out collaborating on the Mother’s Day surprise. Now it’s a 4 a.m. wake-up call where they have been trying to outdo one another since, like, 2012, with mini muffins on the banister and an Easy-Bake Oven under the bed. When did you get the idea to make it competitive? Any real-life similarities for you?

MARCIULIANO: There’s something about sheer competitiveness borne out of entirely good intentions. In this case, Sally’s happiness. It removes any sourness that can come from conflict and highlights how Ted and Hil are driven by love, creativity, and an inability to know when to stop nailing rose petals to the floor to prevent slipping. More importantly, the Mother’s Day strips give us a chance to see Ted and Hil as poorly programmed androids who make omelets out of cotton or caring individuals who just happen to cause civilization’s demise by way of crepes.

ANDERSON: Jen, you mentioned the Easter gag. Ces, you ended the Easter Bunny ear-biting (saga? siege? not sure what qualifies) in 2019 with a Peace Accord. Any plans for a similar understanding between Hilary and Ted over Mother’s Day?

MARCIULIANO: I’m completely in love with the idea of a chocolate Easter bunny ear-biting “siege” and now plan to do 12 weeks about it next spring (this is why I’m fortunate to have such great editors who prevent this from lasting any longer than a month). But the reason I stopped doing the bunny ear saga (epic? A Song of Ice and Fire and Cocoa Butter?) was that I felt Hilary had grown out of it, having aged from 6 to 14 in a mere quarter of a century. But thankfully we now have Jackie’s 6-year-old daughter Bettina, who has both Hilary’s can-do spirit and the pure id that comes with that age, so we get to revisit the holiday from her perspective. Chaos shall ensue. Chaos is also why the Ted-Hil competition can never achieve détente.

ANDERSON: What do you eat for breakfast? Could you, if necessary, handle a double brunch as Sally has had to do?

MARCIULIANO: My usual breakfast is Greek nonfat yogurt, so my stomach would seize up trying to have that much brunch. Ted is disappointed in my choice of morning meal because he believes all breakfasts should come with a toy surprise. Ted also knows that they stopped adding toy surprises in cereal years ago, so he bought a year’s worth of 1992 Fruity Pebbles off of eBay and has been dining on that ever since. Ted does not eat well before noon.

BECK: Honestly, I don’t think I could handle a double brunch—I’d be tapping out after the first one. I’m definitely more of a simple breakfast person … coffee is the real priority. But I do admire Sally’s ability to power through it all with grace (and humor). That feels very true to moms everywhere.