NAPERVILLE, Ill., Aug. 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- ChristianShirts.net, a faith-based retailer of pro-family and pro-life merchandise has signed a licensing agreement with cartoonist Gary Cangemi, creator of Umbert the Unborn, a pro-life comic strip about a child in the womb now in its ninth year of publication. ChristianShirts.net will feature Umbert, along with his most popular pro-life sayings on t-shirts, bumper stickers, envelope stickers, buttons, and more.
Included will be such Umbert-isms as: "I Support a Woman's Right to be Born," "Irish Eyes Start Smiling in the Womb," "Unborn Kids Are People Too," and "Life Begins at Conception...Viability Starts After College!"
ChristianShirts.net is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Jim and Rachelle Crile and is one of the world's leading sellers of on-line Christian and Pro-Life apparel. "We are proud to introduce Umbert the Unborn products on ChristianShirts.net," stated Rachelle Crile, "Mr. Cangemi's art is outstanding, and such a move is long overdue."
Gary Cangemi, a professional cartoonist and graphic artist for over thirty years, "conceived" Umbert in 2001, while rummaging through a scrapbook of his political cartoons. Seeing an editorial cartoon he drew years earlier of a baby about to be aborted, Cangemi thought about the impact that a regular pre-natal character would have on the imagination of the public at large and children in particular. He threw together a dozen strips and pitched the idea to faith-based publications. Almost immediately, the strip was picked up by the National Catholic Register and a dozen other papers. Since then, Umbert's readership has grown to over a hundred publications, including Faith & Family magazine, pro-life newsletters, church bulletins, and diocesan newspapers.
"I'm thrilled to be associated with Jim and Rachelle's company," Cangemi stated, "I'm a perfectionist when it comes to any representations of my work. Once I saw the quality of their products, I knew immediately that Umbert would be in expert hands."
Umbert the Unborn, in syndication through the Gary Cangemi Graphic Art Studio since 2001, is an upbeat, funny, and sometimes poignant cartoon about life in the womb, centering on the character of Umbert and seen through his perspective. Armed with a pre-natal computer and a stem-cell phone, Umbert communicates with other pre-born friends such as Vita the Viable and Elwood the Expected on the "interwomb" as he joyously anticipates his life on the "outside."
