Tina's Groove: A Cartoon Collection by Rina Piccolo

The shrewdly self-aware and empowered Tina boldly shatters the stereotype of 30-something single women as neurotics obsessed with high-powered careers or with marriage.

Self-assured waitress Tina is the star of the strip Tina's Groove by cartoonist Rina Piccolo. Readers can follow the adventures-in her personal life and as she works at Pepper's restaurant-of this single, smart, attractive woman in her 30s.

Supporting players include Tina's best friend, Suzanne, a fellow waitress with a busily buzzing social calendar and a penchant for offering unsolicited advice; Carlos, a man's man who talks a good game; Monica, a spacey, distracted hostess at the restaurant; Rob, the straitlaced restaurant manager; and Claud, the outlandish, storytelling, truck-driving Pepper's regular.

Tina's Groove is sure to appeal to independent working women in their 30s who are hungry for a character to whom they can relate. In syndication for more than three years, the strip appears in such newspapers as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Arizona Republic, and the Toronto Star.

Rina Piccolo is a Toronto native now living in New York City. She has been drawing cartoons professionally since 1989, and her comic strip Tina's Groove appears in more than 100 newspapers. In addition to Tina's Groove, Rina's work appears weekly as part of the syndicated comic Six Chix.