Former CRACKED Magazine Publisher Makes Media Comeback With the Starlette Universe

BOCA RATON, FL — When author and prominent attorney Kathy Johnson approached Dick Kulpa in 2009 to help develop her Starlette Universe, his initial inclination was to decline her offer, since this entailed drawing pretty teen girly-girls and not the macho super heroes he once aspired to.

The satirical aspect of the Starlette Universe  grabbed him, however, and the rest is history. “Especially the parts with the flying pig. And a talking cow.” he quipped.

Starlette girls stymie a charging boar (who is really a shape-shifted Eva the Evil)…with puns!

Plus, these “Barbies” had attitudes, he’d soon discover.

“Kathy’s penchant for puns and poetry intrigued me to no end,” admits Kulpa, and to have a pageant judge coaching me — sometimes vigorously — as to the fine points of drawing glamorous, pretty girls proved invaluable.” After all, back in 1984 Marvel production guru Sol Brodsky advised Kulpa to learn just that.

The evil Eva is peering out a window in this Dick Kulpa-illustrated cover of Kathy Johnson’s Starlette Universe Book 2: Eva From E-VILLE. Eva was drawn digitally onscreen with a Wacom tablet.

“The Starlette Universe features six distinctively different teen girls and their”miss”adventures rivaling anything superheroes offer,” says Kulpa. Their chief nemesis is a jealous, demonic teen queen named “Eva” (the evil) who possesses the bizarre ability to shape-shift into any scary creature she chooses. “What cracks me up,” Kulpa says, “is when the Starlette girls confront adversity with a barrage of puns — and GOOD puns at that!”

The Starlettes also offer solid life lessons mixed in with their entertaining tales, something Kulpa embraces. “I have a long term history producing cartoons and comics offering added social benefit, i.e. the anti-gang “Gangbuster” comic book, as well as political cartoons, so that part is right up my alley.”

“Add to the mix that the author successfully raised a daughter to become a successful national beauty pageant contestant and now a highly respected attorney. Kathy’s record speaks for itself,” says Kulpa, who himself has no plans on entering beauty pageants.

Kulpa says he has to be in the right moo-ood to draw the udderly incredible Blossom the cow, provider of sage advice to the Starlettes — and for the young girl readers who read it.

The former CRACKED Magazine publisher successfully resurrected his artistic career in CRACKED’s aftermath with “Captain Cartoon,” South Florida caricature artist who’s drawn over 35,000 people since 2005. “Those caricatures are hanging around the world, from Moscow (Russia) to Mukwonago, Wisconsin,” he added. Kulpa’s also produced a coloring book, illustrated slide shows and several cartoon billboards among a variety of caricature and cartoon-based projects. Kulpa reveals he’s also written a book about his CRACKED adventure encompassing all points start-to-finish, but he’s  declined to say anything further.

Kulpa has thrown his support to Kathy Johnson’s just-launched Starlette Kickstarter campaign, and produced a first ever semi-animated video on behalf of the Starlette Universe. “It highlights Kathy Johnson’s pun technique and even uses my own music as its soundtrack,” says Kulpa.

“This o-‘puns’ up more opportunities,” he quipped. Kulpa also hints that he may include a bonus autographed CRACKED Magazine along with the rewards posted on Kickstarter for Starlette Universe support.

See Dick Kulpa’s animated video on Kickstarter (and throw some support to the Starlettes 🙂

Dick Kulpa’s blog: Starlettes Humorist Wants More Women as Comedy Writers

Dick Kulpa’s Parody & Cartoon website

Dick Kulpa’s caricature website

Cartoon Billboard Worked!

The 37-foot-long cartoon billboard mounted in Port St. Lucie, Florida, helped the police union-backed candidate win the city’s November 2 Mayoral race.

The mammoth cartoon took city officials to task over frivolous spending in the wake of dozens of police layoffs, and generated a ton of controversy. While a vocal minority took the caricaturistic work to task as “frivolous” and “immature,” election results proved that a solid “comfortable” majority “got the message.”

While it may never be known as to the measure of impact this cartoon monstrosity had on voters, “it was very much out there,” says the artist, “and we now know it didn’t hurt;-)”

Drawn by veteran political and promotional cartoonist Dick Kulpa, noted for achieving favorable results from his cartoon work, it’s the third major cartoon billboard to appear in Florida during the past 5 months. “This serves as ongoing proof effective cartoon advertising works,” says Kulpa.

You can see this billboard here.

Captain Cartoon’s Latest Cartoon Billboard is Up as He Launches Online Drawing Lesson!

Right side of the mammoth cartoon billboard in Port Saint Lucie, Florida

PORT SAINT LUCIE, FL — When Captain Cartoon draws a political cartoon, people usually notice — and his latest cartoon opinion is no exception! Measuring 37 feet by 10 feet, this full-color monstrosity can be seen in all its glory on US 1 in Port St. Lucie!

The political cartoon billboard ranks as the Captain’s biggest ever (size-wise) — and was drawn in support of the local police department in its ongoing layoffs dispute with the city council. It caricaturistically lampoons local pols over perceived city misspending, and comes on the heels of two other “major” political cartoons produced by the Captain as billboards, all targeting “spend-crazy” politicians in West Palm Beach and Alachua County, Florida.

All his billboard cartoons were produced in support of police unions. (Note: The Alachua County cartoon was drawn “billboard-ready,” and though it was circulated on a flyer, there’s no evidence any billboard version was ever created.)

No stranger to cartoon controversy, Captain Cartoon’s political sketches were first published in his 1969 high

One of the Captain's first political cartoons published in 1969. He was 16 years old when this sketch was penned with a felt-tip. Uncle Sam looks more pregnant than fat here.

school paper, and on December 25, 1969, they began appearing in his hometown weekly. The Captain’s oft-favored subject: the local police. This would earn him his first parking ticket in 1971.

In 1977, One of the cartoonist’s most infamous sketches “inadvertantly” targeted the local police department, showing officers “on an emergency run to a local donut shop.”  Originally produced as part of a comic strip series in 1976, the strip was re-published in the Captain’s local newspaper following his election win as a city alderman.

Unaware “that” particular comic strip was published that week, the Captain became aware in a hurry after TV, radio, newspapers — and cops — began calling him.

“Everyone thought I was picking on police as an extension of my school newspaper days,” the Captain said. “And while this was accidental, the overwhelming notoriety opened my eyes as to the power of the political cartoon. I could have been elected Mayor that week, it was so popular,” he added. “People still talk about that today.”

Comic strip from the series "Double Eagle & Co." published originally in the Freeport, Illinois Journal Standard in 1976.

The Captain eventually re-drew the strip and published it in Petersen Publishing’s famed CAR-toons Magazine 1n 1987.

Within months of the “Donut Debacle,” the Captain produced a series of cartoons targeting his city’s then-newly appointed police chief, whose financial and procedural dealings ran afoul of several city council members. After causing the local newspaper to do an “about face” from its initial support for the chief, these led to the appointment of a new chief nearly a year later. “Essentially, these cartoons ran the guy out of town,” he quips.

A second cartoon series was produced in defense of a police department’s removal of catalytic converters from police cruisers, an issue raised by the Federal EPA. In 1978 the Feds attempted to fine the city (Loves Park, Illinois) $18,800 for the alleged infraction, and the Captain was drafted by the Mayor to target the agency with a cartoon campaign by inverting the acronym EPA to “APE.” Copies of the cartoons were sent to U.S. Congressmen and Senators, and Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, citing that the government was being made to “look foolish,” finally prevailed upon the EPA to reduce the fine down to a paltry $1,200, (covering attorney’s fees.)

Cities very rarely — if ever — beat an EPA fine. This was a first.

Captain Cartoon would go on to produce “cartoon campaigns” for a variety of causes, culminating in two separate cartoon booklets, both of which generated headlines around the country in 1985 and 1986. One effort gained the endorsement of the then-Chairman of General Motors as well as the Governor of Illinois.

But this is 2010, the 21st Century. Are “cartoon campaigns” still viable in an era of digital media? “You betcha” says the Captain, “and this latest billboard cartoon proves it!”

“It’s an art unto itself,” he says, “one needs to know just how to do it. I’ve had forty years experience! Unfortunately, it’s an era of canned artwork and digital clip art. Access to newspapers, usually running syndicated national cartoonists, has been budgetarily sparse. BUT — the Internet provides a whole new opportunity for this kind of expression.”

In an effort to spark a renewed interest in the field of cartooning and cartoon promotion, the Captain has revamped his website’s “Fun Zone” as the Captain’s “Cartoon Chest,” featuring coloring pages, learn-to-draw lessons and his own intellectual property features, past, present and future.

He’s also ramped up his “history” page, and lists his major cartoon accomplishments on a political billboard cartoon promotion page.

“Part of teaching people how to draw lies in creating ‘purpose,’ ” the Captain says. “When people see what can be accomplished via cartoons and cartoon campaigns, they might jump into the fray. It’s never really enough just to learn ‘how,’ one needs to know ‘why.'”

“Had it not been for my school newspaper, I may never have chosen this field,” he says.”There’s much more to cartooning than comic books and national syndication. I’ll never win a Pulitzer, and you’ll probably never see my political cartoons in syndication (though he was syndicated three times with comic strips). “Localized political cartoons just don’t work that way.”

“Regardless, I’ve moved mountains with my work,” he asserts. “When a labor union nearly lynched me over a cartoon in 1980, that made it all worthwhile, because I knew I had made my point.”

Captain Cartoon is a caricature artist in South Florida. You can see his work here.

New cartoon billboard unleashed in Port St. Lucie

Captain Cartoon’s third political cartoon billboard has just been unveiled in Port St. Lucie.
Illustrated on behalf of the Port St. Lucie PD, over their current wage/job negotiations, “the billboard says it all.”
You can see more on this at http://www.captcartoon.com/news.html