Life On 66

You have no idea how long it took to draw this strip.  My hands were shaking and I could not stop smiling.  The mayor of Carbon Cliff will now be the great and unbelievably talented, Mr. Dick Kulpa.  Most people (lucky people) in Florida can get their caricatures drawn by Dick at the events he creates.  He is known as Captain Cartoon and that name is well earned.  Visit his website at www.captcartoon.com and you will see what I mean.  When Mr. Kulpa gave me his permission to use his name and likeness I came up with two professions.  Since he was in politics years back (not too far from me in Illinois) I came up with Mayor.  And since he does fantastic work for children (see the stamp in the lower right of this page) I thought the principal of the school might work.  I put both to him and he chose the mayor.  This is going to be fun.  Now, if this wasn’t enough in his life, Mr. Kulpa not only drew the Bruce Lee and Star Trek strips he is the cartoonist, editor and owner of CRACKED magazine.  If you bought one of my Life On 66: The Whole Shebang books you will see the forward written by him.  He just never stops giving.  I honestly hope I can do him justice.  Also, if you do not have a small smile on your face when you see the “janitor” that I spoofed in this strip…well…you read the wrong humor magazine growing up.  This will be the only appearance of this silent icon but his cousin is right around the corner.  Mr. Kulpa is a one of a kind … and I am glad.

Yes, there really was a Stoney in Carbon Cliff.  And yes, he was the roughest kid I knew.  He wasn’t afraid of anyone and would rather punch you in the nose as to talk to you.  I think the only reason he never picked on me was because I was friends with one of his younger brothers, Chuck.  Chuck and I were in the same class in grade school and high school.  I heard rumors that he went to jail for really hurting someone in high school.  I never saw him or heard about him from freshman year on.  He was great at basketball however.  :)