Victory At ‘See’ Part 3: Eye of the Tiger

Captain Cartoon’s first post-eye operation studio board drawing.

By Michael K. Todd

The looming eye operation promised to be tenuous, to say the least. Captain Cartoon’s severe cataract blocked the surgeons’ view of the detaching retina, so that had to be fixed as well. Therein lay the miracle, however. The uninsured caricaturist – having to work through that cataract for six long years – would soon be liberated from a fog-shrouded existence!

To be sure, there is considerable cost associated with a dual cataract/detached retina operation, and upon hearing the projected amount, he instinctively elected to return home and let that curtain fall. Nearing the parking lot, however, common sense prevailed . . . and Dick Kulpa trudged back up to the Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute’s sixth floor to face the music.

Here’s what the Captain always fears during any eye operation. Fortunately this did not happen here.

Not to understate the tremendous efforts, expertise and execution wielded by the two main surgeons involved, there is little that can be said here about the actual operation. Patients remain semi-conscious during these types of operations, posing no problem for the Captain who is semi-conscious by nature. And while Kulpa posted a gag cartoon about the operation on Facebook, fact was, both procedures went flawless. This, as opposed to previous eye surgeries by local eye surgeons which were everything but.

Upon next day’s bandage removal is when an eye-popping miracle occurred. Kulpa could see and recognize his driver from over three feet away – all the way across the street! This newly-discovered clarity was astounding. Signs could now be read and more importantly, faces could be seen in all their detail by this long-time caricature artist! Freckles…eye color…..even those much-dreaded wrinkles were now plain as day.

It was as if a six-year fog had been lifted, especially when Kulpa went back to his studio work. That’s because, while his caricature markers were all labeled making coloring pretty accurate, such was not the same on computer. Upon opening a file for his latest book “Lil’ Lilly” is when the Captain, with renewed vision as good as his cat’s,  discovered what heretofore was virtually impossible for him to see.

The illustrations below make the point:

LIL’ LILLY book: The left page is what Kulpa colorized prior to his operation, the right page is as he thought it appeared. Dick could not see yellow properly, nor could he see contrast. In the revised version he has recolored the black outline around Ollie, the little boy. That itself was not the problem: Kulpa saw no onscreen difference in the fleshtones.

A more dramatic look at what Captain Cartoon could not see in his computer colorization: This “Lil’ Lilly” book’s back cover, while shown in various stages, gives a dramatic insight into what Kulpa could not see properly onscreen: The color yellow.
That rainbow star at the left was supposed to be the same color as the rainbow star on the right. To the Captain, it looked as red on the left side as it now is on the right side.
The red you see on both sides occurred because Dick simply used the pallet box to set that color. But not for the rainbow.

Unfortunately, a down side emerged post-op. It seems a neighbor lady who’d been hitting on the Captain was inadvertently exposed when he got a second look – through his new eye – and drew an updated caricature of her.

That cataract-retina operation was a real eye-opener for the Captain, who finally saw his neighbor lady as she really looked.

So, Just how does Captain Cartoon feel after getting his sight back? Find out here!

Dick Kulpa published CRACKED Magazine and is former artist of the Star Trek, Bruce Lee and Ghost Story Club syndicated newspaper strips. He is also known as the creator of Bat Boy.

Victory At ‘See’ Part 2: Miracle in Miami

Two weeks after emergency retinal eye surgery, Captain Cartoon was back at it. Here he is shown giving life to Lil’ Lilly, a creation of author Kathy Johnson for her Starlette Universe book series. Lil’ Lilly’s book “What a Babe” is on sale now, in fact!

By Michael K. Todd

Using a scene from the Graceland TV show featuring Captain Cartoon, here is how a detaching retina looks:
1. Dark area appears, in this case, the upper left corner. It’s actually the lower right corner of your eye.
2. Within a day, the “curtain” progresses.
3. Within 3 days, it can move toward the center. Once that center area detaches, it’s…
4….all she wrote. Oddly enough, this is what I saw in 2008 with a complete detachment.

Down to one good eye, Dick Kulpa’s remaining retina was steadily detaching. He had 24-72 hours to get this fixed, with no jury-rigging, no options, no credit and unfortunately, no insurance.

“When somebody shorts you $50 grand in a tainted magazine sale that ultimately was never closed, that tends to limit one’s options,” he explained. “When they got an award from the President himself, that took the cake. Unfortunately I could not do a thing about it in my condition.”

“My forthcoming book will cover all that'” he added. “As one can see, I had mighty good reasons why I was hog-tied.”

He’s limped along on a heavily-cataracted left eye after losing his right eye to a detached retina in 2008. “I was grounded, but I could still see to draw,” he proudly proclaimed, “and I did just that. I knew the jig would be up at some point, however, because that cataract was getting worse.”

As the retinal curtain steadily fell, Kulpa communicated his crisis to Boca Raton attorney and fellow creative collaborator Kathy Johnson, who immediately researched Dick’s available options. “You need to get to Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Hospital,” she advised. “They will work with you.”

She was proven absolutely right, so Dick went to Miami. Albeit reluctantly.

Dick says he’ll dig up a Dolphins cartoon later. The Packers have replaced the ‘Fins as public enemy no. 1, he adds.

Why reluctantly? Kulpa, former cartoonist for the Chicago Bear Report newspaper, always “hated” Miami. While having many friends and events there, he never forgave that city’s Miami Dolphins for denying the 1985 Chicago Bears a perfect winning season.

Dick Kulpa cartoon about Communist Russia drawn in the 1980s.

Dick frequently drew Bears cartoons along with “anti-Red Russian Menace” cartoons back in the 1980s-90s, never expecting to need his life saved, as it would turn out…by representatives of both Miami and Russia. That’s because his surgeon-savior was a Russian-born doctor out of St. Petersburg, the former Leningrad of Russia. “And,” says Kulpa, “she, along with the cataract removal surgeon, were damned good at it.”

“Everything about that place was solid…staff, equipment, even the coffee. There’s a good reason why the Miami University Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute is number one in the world,” Kulpa said.

“I saw that with my own eye!”

Kulpa’s first post-operation cartoon posted on Facebook. The Captain communicated with cartoons because he could not see to type.

“I now love Miami and I am also very happy we never nuked Russia,” he added.

• Tomorrow: Eye of the Tiger! Dick Kulpa gets the shock of his life when he “really” sees everything he had missed, the color “yellow” being one of them.
• “My restoration appears to be geometric, going beyond vision issues,” says Kulpa. Find out why.
• “Before and after” cartoons will be posted.

Victory At ‘See!’

Popular South Florida party caricature artist Captain Cartoon has drawn nearly 40,000 faces since 2005.

By Michael K. Todd

South Florida caricature artist Captain Cartoon (aka Dick Kulpa) has suddenly been confronted with the single greatest threat any artist could ever face: total blindness within days.

Captain Cartoon created the famous Bat Boy in 1992. One might say he became a geezer bat boy “blind as a bat” through his decimated vision.

The Captain had already lost his right eye to a detached retina in 2008, partly because he failed to recognize it for what it was. (It did not help that the eye doctor initially misdiagnosed this.) By the time surgery occurred it was too late, as the retina detachment was total.

Concurrently, the Captain’s remaining “good” eye was crippled by a severe cataract back then,  creating a bit of a dilemma. With no Job, no Cash and no Hope, he had to come up with something to stay afloat, so he resorted to  jury-rigging, an art he became exceedingly efficient at maintaining his antique 1960 Chevy
“Double Eagle “ since 1969.

How the Captain saw people, so long as they were within three feet.

To continue functioning as a caricaturist, the Captain sandwiched two “Goodwill” eyeglass lenses together – giving him just enough vision to see facial features – until a powerful -13.50 lens arrived. Health insurance was useless (and still is, considering hefty co-pays.) After a 2004 cataract procedure, an insurance company backtracked until they found an optometrist who originally detected that cataract. Declaring it a “preexisting condition,” they refused to pay the assessed $20,000-plus costs.

Having already been taken down by the sabotaged sale of a magazine the Captain once published – it was never fully paid for or closed on due to a legal conundrum wrought by the buyer – the near-blind caricature artist had few choices, and even less money…he also had a daughter to support, so the show had to go on. Survival became THE main challenge.

Captain Cartoon just released this illustrated children’s book on Amazon.com: “What A Babe!”

Life became a series of blurs for the Captain. With nose to the table, he could still see detail, but various website projects wound up on back burners due to difficulty at reading, researching, etc. Driving was out of the question, and if the Captain dropped an eraser, it became almost impossible to find – often ending a studio session abruptly. He could not even see himself in his own mirror.

Ironically, his blurred vision helped break down faces into the most basic shapes, ideal for caricaturing, and because he was now forced to draw with his left eye only, “right brain” connectivity actually improved his work.

Glass patio doors became a major nemesis however…especially when they were closed.

Captain Cartoon’s blurred vision turned him into a fountain of youth of sorts.

Blind as a bat, the Captain nonetheless became an instant hit with women at caricature events. He could barely see wrinkles, thereby making everyone look 2o years younger in his drawings. As the cataract worsened, he conducted facial anatomical study, finally learning how to draw a skull – foundation for any face – not to mention muscles and other structural facets. As in sight reading vs phonics, the self-taught Captain learned to draw via sight and memorization, not anatomical structure. All that changed.

But it was not what the Captain saw; it was what he could not see that had dogged him for years. He had no clue.

The cataract was getting worse, however, and the Captain, fresh from a January 2014 Orange Bowl caricature event, predicted in a Facebook post he’d never draw at the Orange Bowl again with “these eyes.”

That post proved eerily prophetic as two days later, “the dark curtain” began to descend without warning over his remaining eye, like storm clouds on a horizon. His last retina was detaching, and detaching fast, and Dick Kulpa knew he had less than 72 hours of sight remaining. Captain Cartoon’s ship was sinking.

TOMORROW: A Miracle in Miami

Dick Kulpa published CRACKED Magazine and is former artist of the Star Trek, Bruce Lee and Ghost Story Club syndicated newspaper strips. He is also known as the creator of Bat Boy.