Rina Piccolo is a veteran comic strip artist; she provides the Wednesday action for Six Chix and also draws Tina's Groove, which is syndicated by King Features. Now she's launching a new strip, Velia, Dear, about a thirtysomething Italian woman who moves back home to take care of her aging mother. In the blog that accompanies the strip, Piccolo explains:

While I continue to love the world of the newspaper comics page, I just feel I have so much more to give, and — I gotta tell you — the independence of an on-line strip, with its liberties and lack of censorship, sounds like a hat I want to try on right now, just for laughs.

So far sex lives, tampons, and birth control have been mentioned, but the strip isn't pushing any boundaries just yet. The comic is mostly three-panel gag strips, and Piccolo has a nice, flowing, comic-strip style with a bit of extra flair to it that is easy on the eyes. It's easy to see this working as a newspaper strip (minus the tampon jokes) but it will be interesting to see if Piccolo stretches the form a bit. Balancing the single life with taking care of one's aging parent could be comedy gold if it's handled right, and so far, Velia, Dear looks promising.