“Cartoon fetus is 'a prenatal Bob Hope, entertaining the front-line troops of the pro-life cause,' says creator.” Die schepper is Gary Cangemi en zijn prenatale strip verschijnt wekelijks in een oplage van 400.000 stuks, verspreid over een groot aantal kranten. Cangemi’s verhaal is zo Amerikaans (in Max Westermanniaanse zin), dat we het integraal overnemen:
"Cangemi created the comic strip in spring 2001. He had been working as a freelance graphic artist for 20 years, but he was dissatisfied with his work. "I hadn't really produced anything that I could look back and be proud of," he said. Cangemi's mother had recently died from cancer, and he was seeking a new direction for his career. "I felt my mother urging me to pray for God's guidance," he recalled. "So I prayed, 'God, please give me a direction to go with my career.'"
While thumbing through an old scrapbook, Cangemi stumbled across a four-panel political editorial cartoon he had created 10 years earlier for his "Off the Board" feature in Scranton's newspaper, The Metro. In the cartoon, the baby overhears the voice of an abortionist describing the child as an "unviable, unwanted piece of protoplasm." At the end of the cartoon the baby cries out, "Speak for yourself!" As soon as I saw the baby's face, the light bulb went off," Cangemi said.
Cangemi proceeded to draw a dozen sample comic strips and soon realized his character needed a name. "I wanted a name that sounded heroic," he explained, "like Richard the Lionhearted, but I wanted it to be alliterative so I came up with ' _____ the Unborn.'" At first, he was unable to come up with a "U" name until he remembered the name of an author he had recently read - Umberto Eco. "Umberto sounded too ethnic," Cangemi said. "So I knocked off the 'o,' and Umbert was conceived."
Before sending the cartoon off to newspapers, Cangemi wanted the input of a colleague. He approached Father James Paisley, pastor of St. Maria Goretti Catholic Parish in Laflin, Pa. "Gary expected that I would think it was a cute idea and move on from there," Father Paisley said, "but I was overwhelmed with the potential the project had. The cartoon gives a name, face and personality to the unborn baby within. I started laughing because I was thrilled by it."
In september 2004 verscheen een verzamelbundel bij het Center for Integral Formation:
Umbert the Unborn: A Womb with a View
The unborn child finally has a voice of his own! Gary Cangemi is the creative genius who has given "unbirth" to the world's first syndicated pro-life, prenatal cartoon baby. This full size 80 page book is full of "Umbert" cartoons which proclaim the message of LIFE. Each page also contains an "Umbert's Facts of Life" message as well as cartoon pictures showing the growth development of a baby. These along with the cartoons present a moving pro-life message. Makes a great gift for an expectant mother or any of your pro-life or maybe even your anti-life friends. Softcover, 80 pp. Price: $11.95
Bron: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1221798/posts
