Rina Piccolo is a

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 ...

cartoonist, best known for her

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 ...

Tina's Groove ''Tina's Groove'' is a Canadian comic strip by Rina Piccolo with a restaurant setting. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it began in 2002. The comic strip ended its run on July 2, 2017. Characters and story "''Tina’s Groove'' chronicled ...

'', distributed by

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

since 2002. She has been a professional cartoonist for more than two decades and recently gained recognition as an author of short stories. Since 2016, she has assisted Hillary Price on the comic strip ''

Rhymes with Orange ''Rhymes with Orange'' is an American comic strip written and drawn by Hilary B. Price and distributed by King Features Syndicate. The title comes from the commonly held belief that no word in the English language rhymes with " orange". It was ...

'' (also distributed by King Features Syndicate).

Early life

Born and raised in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Piccolo began her career in 1989 when her first cartoon submission was accepted by ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

'' magazine. According to Piccolo, her "early acceptance gave me a false sense of how hard the next years were going to be. It was followed by trillions of rejections."''Washington Post'' Online Chat, June 2003.

Comic strips

The magazine ''Comic Relief'' published her cartoons during the early 1990s. From 2000 to October 2016, she has held the position as the "Wednesday chick" on King Features' daily '' Six Chix'' strip. In 2002, Piccolo launched ''Tina's Groove'', about Tina, a single, attractive and self-aware waitress who works at Pepper's Restaurant. Working six days a week, she draws the comics on alternate days. Published in newspapers throughout the United States and Canada, ''Tina's Groove'' is also available through King Features' DailyINK email service. She talked about gagwriting in a 2003 online chat: "I discover ''Six Chix'' gags when I'm fishing for ''Tina's Groove'' gags ... I do my writing for both strips at the same time, usually two to three days a week." In May 2010, Piccolo started an online comic strip, ''Velia, Dear''. Published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, ''Velia, Dear'' is about a young Toronto woman who lives with her conservatively Catholic mother and is dating a Jewish boyfriend. Since February 2012, the strip appears to be in hiatus. Piccolo has stepped in as a guest cartoonist on Hilary Price's ''

'' twice, as she discussed in 2010 with Michael Cavna of ''Comic Riffs'':

I don't know if I'm a better gag writer than I was eight years ago, but I've certainly written and drawn more gags since then, so I can say I've practiced my socks off, and know this stuff better than I ever have. And yes, I also know Hilary's slant on things, her voice as a gag writer, from reading her stuff all these years. She's grown as a cartoonist, too! So when I say that my first ''RWO'' stint wasn't "up to snuff", it's simply my neurotic self talking. You might say I had stagefright back then, and maybe now that I seem to be more aware of my work—and certainly more practiced—the stagefright is no longer an issue. I've gained some degree of confidence.

Cartoon collections

She has also created drawings for books, cartoon anthologies, greeting cards and magazines, including ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''. In 2006,

Andrews McMeel Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal, which comprises AM ...

published ''Tina's Groove: A Cartoon Collection''. Her other cartoon collections are ''Stand Back, I Think I'm Gonna Laugh'' (Laugh Lines, 1994), ''Kicking the Habit: Cartoons about the Catholic Church'' (Laugh Lines, 1996) and ''Rina's Big Book of Sex Cartoons'' (Laugh Lines, 1997). She lives in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York City, with her husband, Brendan Burford, and their canary, Olive.

Awards

Her story, "The Dinner Plan", was a finalist in ''Narrative'' magazine's Spring 2011 short story contest. The Fall 2011 issue of ''Narrative'' published her story, "Takeout".''Narrative'', Fall 2011.
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References

External links

Rinapiccolo.comRina Piccolo blog

Facebook: Cartoons by Rina Piccolo

Rina Piccolo on TwitterSixChix''Tina's Groove'' official site
Domain parked, there might be an archived copy worth using, but not found so far
Velia, DearTall Tale Radio: Tom Racine interviews Rina Piccolo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccolo, Rina Artists from Toronto Canadian comic strip cartoonists Canadian women editorial cartoonists Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian female comics artists Canadian female comics writers Artists from Queens, New York Living people Writers from Toronto Year of birth missing (living people)