'Popeye,' 'Betty Boop' cartoonist Jean Karaty dies at 97 in Miami



ARTIST: Jean Karaty worked as an opaquer for Miami's Fleischer Studios from 1938 to 1943, the studio that produced Popeye, Betty Boop and Superman cartoons. She is seen at her home in the Roads in this July 2003 photo. PATRICK FARRELL MIAMI HERALD FILE


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Karaty, who died on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 27, at 97, started her career with the Fleischers as an opaquer, a labor-intensive position that required artists to produce 24 cels for every second of a moving picture. Opaquers filled in the character outlines left by the animators so that the cel's background would not appear when it was photographed and displayed on screens.

Karaty was one of the best. Walt Disney Studios, home of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, eyed Fleischer Studios with a wary eye. The work coming out of Miami was hot and the Miami High School graduate was understandably proud of her drawings of the spinach-guzzling sailor man and the bodacious Boop.

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