RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Jack Chick died at 92

I was wondering recently if he was still alive, and obviously he's not.

I remember "Chick Tract" mini-brochure comic books back to the mid-1970's when I was growing up. And discovered his THE CRUSADERS comic book series in the back issue bins in 1996 and sought out all 16.

They had an EC brand of "shock", and were deliciously rich in anti-Commie, anti-Catholic conspiracy theory. There was one CRUSADERS comic (I think issue 10) published in the late 1970's that dealt with Satanic influences on rock music, and the cover showed a Stonehenge made of giant 8-track tapes! (an updated version 25 or so years later changed it to a music-CD Stonehenge cover.) There were 16 CRUSADERS comics in all, as well as a number of one-shots. But the bulk of Jack Chick's lines were the shorter tracts.


Amidst a lot of mockery, this article at least gives some analysis of Chick's work, as well as links to multiple other opinions, and to Chick's own website that continues marketing his tracts after his death.
I recall reading an interview of Jack Chick way back in the day, that his tracts evolved from prop illustrations he used at a podium while evangelizing to inmates in prisons, and the illustrations were well-received and engaged prisoners to listen to him. And at some point he evolved this into a tract that he could print and distribute.

The meanest part of the Vox article was conflating Chick with the alt-right. Granted he was anti-Catholic and anti-Communist, which has a surface similarity to the Alt-Right if you don't examine it any closer than that. But I think he was definitely not a racist, and Chick cared about people of all races, even Catholics and Communists, who he thought were just misled, and wanted to persuade them to salvation.

I think even if you're not a Christian (and in high school and most of college I rejected that as uncool, and was agnostic for a while if not atheist) but even in those years I enjoyed the occasional Chick Tract. The shock elements and conspiracy elements make them engaging, whether or not they make you walk up to the altar.

I kind of think of Chick as the R.Crumb of Christian evangelism.

Answering the Alt-Right smear of Chick, by a friend of his:

THIS WAS YOUR LIFE (1960) was the very first tract he did, that you can read at the link in its brief entirety. As I recall that was the only one he did for a while, and then at some point expanded the line to address the issues of various groups of people.

I wonder if he was a reader of the EC titles, or of MAD, CREEPY and EERIE, that were the continuation in the EC tradition, that spawned the Underground comics around 1965-1968 of the first underground comics artists. Because his work is arguably in that tradition. Despite his work being polar opposite the "pure Id" indulgence of underground artist like Jaxon, Crumb, Shelton, Sheridan, and the like.

The same guy, David Daniels, showing video of the artist Jack Chick at work:




After some lengthy context and introduction, Jack Chick finally appears about 6 minutes into the 10-minute video.

Jack Chick was about as reclusive as Steve Ditko!

Daniels did a longer video documentary on the artist [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totLO3sV6-Y]You Don't Know Jack..."[url] (linking the first of 8 parts).

Good.
Glad he's dead.
Always hated that guy.

It's just not an obituary till Lothar responds!

I was going to picket his funeral but I didn't know where it was.

Somewhere in Southern California.

Your soul's in danger, Lothar.
But don't worry, I'll save you with a chick tract!



The more cartoonish ones are by Jack Chick. From the 1970's forward another artist assisted him named, if I recall, Jim Carter. Who I think was the name and visual for one of the CRUSADERS characters in the comic book series. You can see the difference in this tract, that has much more decorative art.
A few times I've received Chick Tracts from people starting in the early/mid 1970's.


I first discovered the CRUSADERS comic book series in 1996 in the back issue bins at my local comic book store. The few issues not in the bins I was unable to get locally, I got by mail order at the time from what they do now with the Chick.com website.

My favorites remain the first issue, OPERATION:BUCHAREST, as well as SCARFACE, CHAOS, and THE ARK. Nice art and full color. The JONAH one has painted art.

Another site for the CRUSADERS books, where you can read the complete stories online (as opposed to sampling only the first 7 pages, on the Chick.com website) :

http://www.fmh-child.org/Chick_Christian_Comic_Books.html