August 30th, 2010

The Trip, The Strip, The Tip

by Hilary Price

The Trip

Over two weeks in August, my sweetie and I drove from California to Massachusetts, the long way. We visited the largest tree in the world, floated through the Grand Canyon, toured by the incredible Anasazi ruins, and took in the Badlands of South Dakota with more Harley riders than I knew existed.

Here are some pics:

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD– I loved this place!

The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Rains had stirred up the water so it looked like the Chocolate River in Willy Wonka.

The Hualapai Indian tribe leads the one-day rafting trip in The Grand Canyon.

The Badlands of South Dakota. We were joined by some of 700,000 Harley riders who attended the Harley rally in nearby Sturgis, SD.

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. This Cliff Palace housed 150 people from the year 1200 to 1300.

The General Sherman Giant Sequioa– the largest tree in the world.

The Strip

So while I was out exploring, I entrusted the very talented cartoonist Rina Piccolo to take over the reigns for the week. Rina is so prolific that she not only draws her own daily strip, Tina’s Groove, she is part of the sextet of cartoonists in Six Chix, has cartoons in The New Yorker and Parade magazine, and draws an online comic called Velia, Dear. She makes my head spin and I am so grateful to her for lending her talents. Her work appears all this week in Rhymes With Orange.

The Tip

AACK!! Cathy is retiring in October! Check out Shaenon Garrity’s thoughtful essay on Cathy Guisewite’s retirement from cartooning, and the pioneering role the strip played. Through the National Cartoonist Society, I’ve had the pleasure to meet Cathy Guisewite. She is a funny writer and a gracious, thoughtful, generous person. She is very classy. I am certain we will see more ink from her in a non-cartoon format.

A Call To Action

As for the comics page– who will fill Cathy-the-comic-strip character’s two-inch heels? While there are only a handful of female cartoonists, we would all like to see if that shoe fits. So a call to action– if Rhymes With Orange is not in your paper and Cathy is, please dash off an e-mail to your editor in support of the strip. I will start practicing walking in heels the second I’m done writing this.

Thanks for tuning in!