The Quest Begins: W&M Senior is Post's Next Great Cartoonist

By Desiree Parker Thursday, July 15, 2010

What do you get when you add a dash of funny and a gob of smarts to a 20-year-old with tons of artistic talent? According to the Washington Post you get America’s Next Great Cartoonist, Olivia Walch.

Walch, a William and Mary math and biophysics double major who only recently decided to try her hand at cartooning, beat out about 500 other budding cartoonists for the prestigious newspaper’s top prize Thursday. She was the only woman in the top 10 with her strip called "Imogen Quest."

Since she found out a few weeks ago that she’d made the top 10, Walch has been giddy with surprise and delight. “I’ve been totally overwhelmed,” she gushes, talking about her recent win. “I’ve just been running around back and forth like crazy.”

The Post called Walch while she was at a summer science camp in New York and told her she’d won. She had to slip outside the crowded cafeteria “so no one saw me spazzing out,” she says with a laugh.

Walch, who turns 21 in a few days, will get a one month daily comic strip in the Post and a check for $1,000. Before she entered the contest, Walch was determined to be a scientist – a plan she still has, though if the month-long strip is successful “It’ll play into my future plans,” she says.

Scientist by day, funny gal by night? Maybe.

She’s not heard yet when the strip will start, “but I hope I have time to come up with some good ideas!” she says. “Otherwise, it’ll be pretty unimpressive.”

That’s probably not the case, considering her first round of submissions got her in the top 10, and got the following comment from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and all-around funny man Gene Weingarten: "I respect this for its surrealist edge, and I like the drawing, which seems like 'Rhymes With Orange' on hallucinogens. I like the out-of-box thinking. But I am seriously worried by that dead-Fluffy-as-a-password gag. ... If the joke is original, then so is she, and I'm impressed."

For her second round entry, newspaper cartoonist Hilary Price (who draws and writes "Rhymes With Orange") said, "I am really excited by Olivia Walch's 'Imogen Quest.' I get that lovely surprise when the strip takes me off the beaten path of my usual thinking. I look forward to seeing her name in ink and encourage her to keep cartooning!"

Walch, who has already had a busy summer with a semester at Oxford University and now a science course, has been surprised (and delighted) by her recent celebrity. “I didn’t expect so much attention,” she says of calls from various media and a Washington Post photographer on hand snapping shots for a story. “I’m definitely enjoying it, though.”

Walch will be back in Williamsburg next week for a visit after her class is complete, and will be looking for inspiration wherever she can find it. After the strip is finished its run, she says, “I’ll be back to my regular, unfunny self.” Doubtful.

Read more about Walch and check out her submissions on the Washington Post’s contest site.