Depression-era Valentine Cards a fun way to cope with the recession - Get one free!

Iowa artist Andrew Shaffer discovered that there's a silver lining to even the darkest cloud. Unable to land the $100,000 job in consulting he was looking for after completing graduate school last summer -- and knowing there would be no raise in pay where he was already working -- Shaffer started a greeting card company called Order of St. Nick's Alternative Greeting cards.

The cards feature Depression-era pictures with humorous captions and they proved to be a big hit during Christmas. Shaffer, 29, says that he started the card company as a joke, to make fun of people who were comparing the economic recession to the Great Depression but admits that the continuing economic crisis has taken the irony out of it.

The full card and caption are after the jump...