RIP Jack Chick, America's best worst evil batshit looney fundamentalist comic artist

Reticently · October 25, 2016, 6:27pm

Jack Chick, the prolific comics artist and publisher whose paranoid and hate-filled tracts were a subject of perverse fascination for generations of Americans, died this past Sunday, according to a Facebook post by his company. He was 92.

The reclusive king of the scaremongers, Chick railed against everything from gay rights and Dungeons & Dragons to Freemasonry and the Catholic church—which he believed instigated the Holocaust, the Russian Revolution, and the Civil War—in formulaic and often repetitive mini-comics peppered with apocalyptic predictions and ethnic stereotypes.

For a long time, very little was known about Chick’s life, to the point that his name was sometimes incorrectly assumed to be a pseudonym. Born and raised in California, Chick was a World War II veteran and aspiring actor when he reportedly underwent a religious conversion while listening to an episode of The Old Fashioned Revival Hour, a radio show hosted by the Baptist evangelist Charles E. Fuller. He began drawing comics in the 1950s, beginning with a single-panel comic called Times Have Changed?, which was syndicated in the Los Angeles area.

Chick self-published his first religious mini-comic, Why No Revival?, in 1960, while working for a tape recorder company. Initially working out of his kitchen, he became increasingly prolific throughout the decade, and officially incorporated Chick Publications in 1970. The anti-Catholic conspiracy theories that would become a prominent feature of his work were inspired by Alberto Rivera, a con man who claimed to be a former Jesuit priest with insight into the Vatican’s secret (and seemingly counter-intuitive) involvement in Islam, communism, abortion, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Jonestown Massacre. With the help of Fred Carter—with whom he split drawing duties starting in 1972—and at least one more unknown artist, Chick produced over 250 tracts, which were translated into over 100 languages.

It is believed that Chick Publications has printed as many as 800 million copies of its mini-comics, which continue to be produced in a wallet-sized format eerily reminiscent of Tijuana bibles, illicitly printed pornographic comics often featuring popular cartoon characters or celebrities of the day that enjoyed their greatest popularity during Chick’s Great Depression adolescence and his years in the U.S. Army. The difference here is that, instead of Clark Gable diddling Betty Boop, Chick’s tracts offered text-heavy fantasies of a world where everything was part of a secret conspiracy of Satanist indoctrination, and Bronze Age druids were always on the verge of making a comeback.

Chick himself claimed that his inspiration came from a news report about Communist propaganda comics in China. Over the years, his widely distributed mini-comics were the frequent subject of boycotts by Christian organizations. They also developed an ironic fanbase who appreciated Chick’s work for its unintentionally absurd plotting and dialogue and its frequent, tone-deaf attempts at appealing to specific audiences, making excerpts from and parodies of Chick tracts common in ‘zines and on punk flyers throughout the ’80s and ’90s.

Reticently · October 25, 2016, 6:33pm

Jimbo13 · October 25, 2016, 6:43pm

I used to think these people were crazy, but after witnessing the inter-sectional relationship of feminism, gays and Islam under the SJW umbrella I am really reconsidering my stance and taking another look at religion.

Seeing stuff like this… makes me have to consider maybe their right, these people act and look like demons from hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvejINw4wdE

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4AkSAj3Txs

Hecatom · October 25, 2016, 7:17pm

Rip to one of the greatest comedy gold mines

Bomberman3000 · October 25, 2016, 7:39pm

And here’s the best line of the bunch.

http://enterthejabberwock.com/pics/chick/goofed/0003_05.gif

HAW HAW

Geese_Pants · October 25, 2016, 7:43pm

I remember those pamphlets scaring the shit out of me when I was a kid…

NickRocks · October 25, 2016, 9:56pm

never read this guys stuff and after reading the first two posts im glad i didnt

rip tho, i guess

Reticently · October 25, 2016, 11:34pm

The guy was a total cook, and kind of a shitbag, but he was responsible for all those cartoon religious pamphlets left lying around in public spaces all across America to this day.

It is all frankly hilarious shit, if somewhat terrifying when you realize people around you literally believe it all.

odin · October 25, 2016, 11:40pm

It’s also terrifying how people like Jimbo13 want to believe it cause some dudes wear lipstick and have pink hair.

Reticently · October 25, 2016, 11:43pm

Bious · October 25, 2016, 11:54pm

RIP but fuck this guy.

J-ride · October 26, 2016, 12:58am

LOL I had no idea all of those were the same guy. RIP to a guy who provided me endless entertainment dealing with the religious right growing up in Texas.

The_Damned · October 26, 2016, 1:02am

(You should totally post the D&D one, Reticently. Personally I think that’s still the most hilarious one.)

I am tempted to say this is one of the few good things to happen this year, but at the same time, this guy has not been relevant in forever–not that he ever really was thankfully–and I thought he was already dead, so I am bit conflicted.

Oh well. Might as well spare a small refrain for a big joke:

Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.
Oh shit!
There’s a demon inside all of us!

Missing_Person · October 26, 2016, 1:03am

One less Trump voter.

Azure · October 26, 2016, 1:10am

Are you for Nuclear War then, Cor?

Or just hundreds of thousands of “Muslim refugees” flooding into the country, and ransacking the economy, liberty, and general safety, even further?

Trump is a slight lump in a tit.

But Hillary is full-blown body-wide spread metastasis.

Bomberman3000 · October 26, 2016, 1:15am

Fucking shit take the political talk elsewhere.

And let’s have some fun with some of the better Tracts.

http://i.imgur.com/dyZxFS6.png

WTF-AKUMA-HAX · October 26, 2016, 1:30am

R.I.P.
Shin Akuma

MechWarrior · October 26, 2016, 1:47am

And nothing of value was lost.

Missing_Person · October 26, 2016, 1:54am

I’m for cutting out both tumors.

Little_Goten · October 26, 2016, 3:44am

Rest in peace.

He did what he was supposed to do according to his faith.