It Was in the Cards

“Your moon MUST be in ridiculous,” declares Angelique, her arms akimbo, jaw set and eyes narrowed accusingly. Wearing a micro-mini that makes no mystery of her dimensions, a pair of dangerously tall stilettos and hoop earrings that could accommodate a basketball, Angelique throws a look to kill.

To the relief of those who meet her, Angelique is merely a cartoon character for Shout-Outs, a line of interracial and religiously diverse greeting cards. Not aimed at the heart tug, Shout-Outs offers “. . . I’m Out!” breakup cards, a tough-talking “Tellin’ It Like It Is” series and a Mother’s Day greeting starring Wendle, Shout-Outs’ gay character, that reads, “Thanks, Mom, for always accepting me no matter what . . . shade of lipstick I’m in.” Angelique’s “moon” card? Think of it as an alternative way to defuse a tense situation.

“I got sick of seeing the same thing and nothing that represented my lifestyle,” says Penna Omega Dekelaita, who, along with illustrator Hassan Patterson and former record exec L.T. Blassingame, founded Shout-Outs. De-kelaita was a designer for the Zoo Records label, when she first imagined Shout-Outs last December, when shopping for a friend’s birthday card. “She’s African American, and I’m not. There was nothing cool that spoke to both of us without having to deal with the issue of race,” Dekelaita says. “Our friendship isn’t a black thing or a white thing. It’s a funny thing. Humor is the common denominator.”

Filling the void in a market long ruled by cliche, each of the 40 Shout-Outs greeting cards stars at least one of eight cartoon friends known as the “SpiceRax Crew.” The crew disses, laughs and trashes one another even though, Dekelaita says, “they all vibe on the same things.” Consider them an “Archies” for the new millennium, only Veronica is now the smart and slinky computer hacker Angelique, and Archie is Otis, a hip-hop head decked out in overalls and Timberlands. The cards debuted two weeks ago at the Los Angeles Gift Show and are currently available online at https://www.shout-outs.com.

“I don’t want to dog or diss Hallmark because they’re doing their thing for real,” Dekelaita 29, says sincerely, “but they don’t have their finger on the pulse, and the young audience has been neglected.” Hallmark cards, she says, “don’t talk like we do.”