It allowed her to start a discussion with a mother who decided to keep her baby.
With such amazing results coming from a comic strip, Catholic.net has decided to break new ground in the world of Catholic internet publishing: cartoonist Gary Cangemi is now creating a daily Web version of Umbert the Unborn exclusively on Catholic.net.
Umbert has been one of the National Catholic Register's most popular features and we hope on the Web he will entertain and inspire an even larger audience. The political left and right have cartoonists who make their points. The pro-life movement has Umbert!
The cartoon is currently read by more than 400,000 readers nationwide. It has been picked up by approximately 20 publications as well as many parish bulletins.
Circle Media (the Register's parent company) has also published Umbert the Unborn: A Womb with a View. The book features a collection of 120 full-color cartoons as well as a series of page-by-page illustrations of Umbert developing from a single cell to a full-term baby and an array of Umbert's educational facts of life.
The Register has received many letters about Umbert. Typical of them is this one:
I am 9 years old. My favorite part of the Register is Umbert the Unborn. I think he is very funny. Every week I cut out the Umbert strip and glue it on construction paper. I have made my own Umbert comic book. I enjoy reading it over and over again.
But this one, from a high school teacher, shows that Umbert can win fans of all ages, including teenagers:
I began to leave the Umbert cartoons on my desk in plain view of my students, hoping to spur their concern for unborn babies. These are some guys whom you would not normally expect to care about these issues. After a while, they began taking the cutouts and showing them to other students. Now, every week they ask me where their Umbert is! So, keep up the good work; you impact many lives, even those you least suspect!
These letters show how badly needed Umbert is today. It is an upbeat, positive cartoon that carries an urgently needed message. Our culture can be deaf to the pro-life message because it has put up barriers to common sense on the topic of abortion. But by making readers laugh, Umbert bounces happily past those barriers and delivers his message directly to the heart.
Cangemi has other plans for spreading Umbert's message. In addition to his daily version of the cartoon for Catholic.net, he has unveiled an Umbert website, complete with an animated version of Umbert, and he also plans to offer the comic strip for syndication in the mainstream press.
(To order Umbert the Unborn: A Womb with a View by Gary Cangemi, you can call 1-800-356-9916 ext. 3809; or place your order online here.)