New illustrated series empowers tween, teen girls to make good choices

 Kathy Johnson’s “STARLETTE UNIVERSE Book 1: ‘CAT’ASTROPHE” introduces young readers to six glamorous girls who stand up for what is right

 BOCA RATON, Fla. – “STARLETTE UNIVERSE Book 1: ‘CAT’ASTROPHE” (ISBN 061561177X) by Kathy Johnson, a fashion-savvy pageant mom and part-time pageant judge, is the first installment of a new illustrated series depicting the adventures of a group of bright, beautiful girls and their irrepressible dog.

 Bursting with color, wordplay and catchy rhymes, the book introduces readers to Jinnie, Bekka, Skylar, Ashlee, Sallee, Lizzie and Punkin, Skylar’s German schnauzer. United by friendship, fashion, boys and more, the girls are against cliques, evil kids or anyone who doesn’t treat them nicely. In “‘CAT’ASTROPHE,” the gang encounters their nemesis, Eva the Evil, who uses an innocent kitty cat to lure Ashlee into danger. Racing to save the poor feline, Ashlee demonstrates her love of animals and hatred of cruelty. Cuddling the poor creature in her arms, it would be up to the rest of the Starlettes to save the day. 

 “Along with all the fun, young girls can learn serious messages and rules for living with good advice and character lessons,” says Johnson. “After entering Starlette Universe, all readers are faced with a decision: Team GOoD? Or Team D-evil?”

Aimed at young girls and designed to appeal to their fashion sense, language and adventurous spirit, the book shares profiles of each Starlette and explains their likes and dislikes. The narrative is delivered in rhyming verse that uses hyphens and mash-ups to add new meaning to common words and phrases. The book is fully illustrated by legendary cartoonist Dick Kulpa, with full-color depictions of the girls and their adventures.

Kathy Johnson’s “STARLETTE UNIVERSE Book 1: ‘CAT’ASTROPHE”  available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.

Colorful cover of STARLETTE UNIVERSE Book 1: 'CAT'astrophe

About the Author:

Kathy Johnson is a poet, pageant mom and attorney. A longtime beauty pageant judge, she is the mother of Miss Vermont 1999 and Miss Vermont USA 2001. Her illustrated creation, STARLETTE UNIVERSE, first appeared in the pages of Pageantry magazine.

About the Artist:

Dick Kulpa is former cartoonist and publisher of Cracked Magazine, Former Editor of Weekly World News, and former illustrator of the nationally-syndicated Star Trek, Bruce Lee and Ghost Story Club comic strips.

Web:    www.starletteuniverse.com

REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

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Real Life “Mandrake” Foils Purse Snatcher!

Real Life “Mandrake” Foils Purse Snatcher!

DELRAY BEACH, FL – Like the comic strip hero Mandrake the Magician, South Florida performing magician Thomas Morello pulled off the performance of his life when he suddenly found himself in a death-defying pursuit – of a purse snatcher!

The Amazing Tomaso poses in full magician regalia -- and the magic cane he used to foil the purse snatcher!

Thursday, March 22 at about 9 PM, Morello, aka “The Amazing Tomaso,” was street-performing on Delray’s tourist-packed Atlantic Avenue when suddenly, he heard a shout “STOP HIM!” The next thing he knew, a buzz-cut figure suddenly whisked by, with purse in hand.

The Amazing Tomaso sprang into action, chasing the perpetrator an astounding 4 minutes before eventually retrieving the purse – with all its contents intact.

How did he do it? With stage magic! Not only did he pull off a stunt worthy of the Mandrake comic strip magician, which has appeared in newspaper comic pages around the globe since 1934, Tomaso actually resembles Mandrake himself!

You can see The Amazing Tomaso, a sample Mandrake comic strip (posted with permission from King Features Syndicate) and read the full story on the South Florida Fun Times website!

World’s Biggest Virtual Caricature Wall of Fame Just Got Bigger — with 41 More Faces Added!

ATLANTIS, FL — Rosalita’s Tex-Mex Grill’s online caricature wall of fame now features nearly 600 faces, as drawn by South Florida caricaturist Captain Cartoon!

The caricature captain came aboard the highly popular and acclaimed Rosalita’s on Cinco De Mayo in 2010. Since then, he has drawn 100s of faces Tuesday evenings during “Kids Eat Free Night” at the highly acclaimed Mexican food restaurant

“Some places I’ve performed at actually post copies of these caricatures on their walls,” says the captain, “but this restaurant’s highly cultural decor was not conducive to it, so we posted everything on the Web.”

Not only are customers entertained and gifted with a free Captain Cartoon caricature, they get access to a ready-made digital version online. “I snap a pic of the drawing that night, usually with my Blackberry, then open it up via Photoshop and restore the photo to as near a look to the original as possible,” says the captain.

“I’ve also posted ‘how to make greeting cards from your caricatures‘ online,” he adds, “so folks get the most out of this.”

Captain Cartoon gets requests for all kinds of sketches, and savvy entrepreneurs even come in for caricatures they use for their business cards. “Why pay lots of bucks to get these done when you can come to Rosalita’s (Tuesday eves) or Duffy’s (Wednesday Eves) and get professional renditions for free?” he asks.

See the ever-expanding “World’s Biggest Online Caricature Wall of Fame.”

Anthony Weiner for President?

Unsubstantiated rumors circulating the web claim embattled Congressman Anthony Weiner might turn the tables on his detractors by running for the nation’s highest office.

Bill Clinton set the bar on sexual chicanery in the White House during his Lewinsky affair — but fostered a great economy at the same time. Perhaps there’s a connection of talent here, one beneficial to Rep. Weiner’s potential comeback.

Satire/news website IUDEXonline just uploaded former CRACKED Magazine Publisher Dick Kulpa’s “Top Ten List” of possible slogans Weiner may wish to use during any potential Presidential run.

These are based on famous slogans from past elections. “Weiner’s the One” was borrowed from Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign, and the obvious “A Weiner in every Bun” is derived from the famous Herbert Hoover “Chicken in every pot” slogan. There are eight more, one of them inspired by an Alice Cooper hit song!

In another breaking IUDEXonline story, the results are in on Sarah Palin’s emails, Be prepared for a shock!

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin

Hot Dog! Check Out the Captain’s Latest Weiner Cartoons

Click on cartoon to see Weiner in a bun

Captain Cartoon has thrown his two cents’ worth of cartoon commentary into the fray, posting brand new Anthony Weiner cartoon illustrations, including one featuring a naked Weiner wrapped in a hot dog bun, on his news-satire website.

Congressman Weiner recently shot himself in the (foot) with “tweets” of suggestive and outright lewd pix aimed at females following his Twitter account. While the Captain originally intended to let this issue pass without comment, the Congressman’s continued lies and bizarre revelations changed the cartoonist’s mind.But this hot dog is not the only cartoon subject on the Captain’s IUDEXonline website! Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is featured in a “visual”, chasing a maid down a hotel suite hallway. wearing his birthday suit. A full body shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger “as a baby” is posted, as well as a cartoon visual showing Osama bin Laden meeting Jesus in Heaven.

IUDEXonline (pronounced as “YOU-decks”) is the Captain’s satire website, a culmination of his previous 40 years experience as a political cartoonist (various newspapers), tabloid editor (Weekly World News), teen humor magazine publisher (Cracked Magazine) and lately, caricature artist. The Captain’s works have enjoyed syndication by newspaper comic strip syndicates.

Captain Cartoon currently appears throughout South Florida as a party and event caricature artist. He also produces cartoons, caricatures, illustrations and billboard cartoons for a variety of clients.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Baby? Meet “The Tot-inator”

Given the ongoing tempest over Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recently-revealed extra-curricular activities, Captain Cartoon has posted his second Schwarzenegger cartoon commentary. A devout fan of Arnie and his Terminator movies, the Captain is not taking these drawings, or the issues, lightly.

Drawing on his tabloid (Weekly World News) roots, Captain Cartoon (aka Dick Kulpa) immediately pondered as to what the “love child” looked like.  A quick sketch during a marina caricature stint brought howls of laughter from curious onlookers, but the Captain, after some considerable soul-searching, felt the newly-discovered son to be a total innocent in this case.

Likewise, Maria Shriver seems to have done nothing but right during her marriage to the Terminator.

As for Arnold Schwarzenegger himself? No problemo!

Rather than ponder as to what an Arnold Schwarzenegger “love child” might look like, the Captain instead chose to imagine Arnold himself as an infant.

In fact, the thought did occur: As a plot device for the next terminator spin-off, Arnold’s T-101 could get it on with the Terminatrix from movie 3 and create their very own “Tot-inator!”

Captain Cartoon conception of Arnie as a baby. The "Totinator" is shown with a "dumbbell-rattle" and a bottle of Muscle Milk in this cartoon. Click image for its home web site and larger view -- there are a number of celeb caricatures and political cartoons on this page!

Hasta la vista, baby!

Is Al Qaida Plot Causing Speaker Boehner to Cry?

House Speaker John Beohner's loose tearducts are beginning to irritate some people.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — They vowed to turn American cheers into tears, and it looks like Al Qaida is succeeding, say sources, who claim to have uncovered a bizarre terrorist plot designed to turn U.S. officials into crybabies. Oddly enough, it appears U.S. Speaker of the House John “Boo-Hoo” Boehner is their prime target.

Speaker Boehner allegedly broke down twice as he spoke during a recent commencement exercise in the nation’s capital, according to major news organizations. If true, this is the latest in a series of crying jags besetting the prominent U.S. official, stemming from victory speech wails to a breakdown on the TV show “60 Minutes.” Other weeping incidents have also occurred in his recent past, according to press reports.

But there may be cause for all this: The unnamed sources claim a mystery parcel — filled with onions — was found “in close proximity” to Boehner’s podium. Other evidence has also been found, they add.

But “terrorist plots” may not be the culprits. A psychic claims Boehner’s propensity for crying stems from an alleged rejection by girl playmates back when he was a boy.

In a recent alleged incident, several key congressmen supposedly chastised Boehner , comparing their pit bulls, German Shepherds and Dobermans to an alleged poodle in the Speaker’s possession, and at one point Boehner began to cry. Feeling sorry for their colleague, the offending representatives backed Boehner for Speaker of the House.

This satirist has not found any evidence of any poodle in Boehner’s possession, and attempts to reach key people went unanswered. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was said to be “snickering too much” to comment.

“Speaker (John) Boehner is part of the line of succession to the U.S. Presidency,” warns an outsider. “Whatever is ailing him, be it Al Qaida plots, onions, hemorrhoids or defacto emotional issues, he needs to “man up” and get this resolved before America starts to look like it’s run by a bunch of sissies. Perhaps an on-off spigot attached to each eye will do it.

See more at Iudexonline.

Caylee Anthony Memorial Portrait Posted on Web

Memorial portrait of young Caylee Anthony as we hope she now looks -- as an angel. Click on the image to see a larger view on the website page featuring it.

This memorial portrait of two-year-old Caylee Anthony has been posted on Caricature artist Captain Cartoon’s website.

The South Florida caricature captain has drawn nearly 20,000 caricatures of younger girls during the past seven years, and says he’s come to see all little girls as angels.

“Without passing judgement on guilt or innocence of Caylee’s mom, I felt people needed some sort of feelgood image associated with little Caylee” said the Captain, co-producer of the teen girl-oriented Starlette Universe. “I have two daughters and a granddaughter myself. I recall them at Caylee’s age — they were total angels.”

Mother Casey Anthony’s murder trial is expected to begin Monday, May 9.

Captain Cartoon has no intent on marketing the image, and if any proceeds were ever to arise from it, all would go to child abuse prevention charities.

So did Osama bin Laden get his 72 Virgins?

For those who clamored to see the actual death photo of Osama, I hope this cartoon version helps.

Terrorists talk each other into blowing themselves up with promises of 72-odd Virgins awaiting them in Paradise. So . . . did Osama bin Laden get his?

Former Cracked magazine publisher turned Internet satirist Dick Kulpa offers THIS rather interesting scenario, showing what he thinks is the kingpin terrorist’s final reward.

Alternative Osama bin Laden “Death” Pix for Folks Hot to See SOMETHING . . .

Captain Cartoon has posted his own interpretation of Osama Bin Laden’s face as it might have looked during the SEAL raid on his compound. One image reflects his looks when he first laid eyes on SEALS, and a second Osama image shows him after he was put out of his misery — at least as per the Captain’s interpretation.

President Obama’s decision to categorically NOT release the Osama death photos “is in all probability the right move,” says the Captain. “But I felt all those people waiting to see ‘something,’ needed something.”

Keeping in mind that Captain Cartoon’s caricature site is “family friendly,” the Captain did exercise some discretion in posting this imagery.”These are somewhat ‘sanitized,” he admits.

Along with these images is his latest royalty-free Obama-Osama cartoon, swiftly drawn and uploaded immediately after the death of Osama bin Laden was announced. Plus, royalty-free cartoons showing Donald Trump in superhero tights and Charlie Sheen in a “Whiners” T-shirt can also be seen.

All these images, and more, can be seen here.